Obscura Day 2012

Atlas Obscura Day is an annual event that happens around the globe as quirky, strange, and usual attractions open their doors and share their stories. While many of the activities are already sold out for the April 28th event, the celebration of exceptional and alluring spaces and places can provide ideas for future visits.

In Vancouver, our award-winning Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden is hosting Obscura Day this year with Caves as Portals: Exploring the Grotto Beneath Ting Mountain. For the first time ever, they’re leading visitors into the wondrous caves at the garden. This event is sold out but here’s hoping that the garden will offer this special tour again.

If you’ll be in and around Seattle, there are two Obscura Day events:
Tour of Inscape building and Northwest Museum of Legends and Lore: Peek into Seattle’s past with a tour of the city’s 77,000-square-foot former Immigration and Naturalization Services building, plus a visit to the Northwest Museum of Legends and Lore for rare D.B. Cooper, UFO, and Bigfoot-related artifacts.

Cocktails & Bad Art at Seattle’s Official Bad Art Museum of Art: Visit Seattle’s Official Bad Art Museum of Art (OBAMA), located at Café Racer in Seattle.

In previous years, Vancouver’s Police Museum took part as well but if you look hard enough, you can find a few different types of tours happening year-round. Things like the Mountain View Cemetery, the Deeley Motorcycle Exhibition , and local history walks, to exploring Vancouver’s own Jimi Hendrix Shrine (that’s located in his grandmother’s old fried chicken restaurant).