Seattle Pick: Greenwood Space Supply

In Seattle, take your little space alien to Greenwood Space Travel Supply Company. Because there isn’t anywhere else to find a portable oxygen pocket or a black hole starter kit.

And where else can you hop into an atomic transporter? (And hopefully, you’ll hop back out again, bwa ha ha)

Located in Seattle’s bustling Greenwood neighborhood, this spaceship-sized store provides fun toys, gag gifts and t-shirts, including near-death ray guns, dried space foods and other quirky items.

The store’s a non-profit, so all profits fund on-site school programs, after-school tutoring and weekend workshops. You’ll also see cool, workshop-produced books penned by Seattle-area students on the shelves, alongside works by local writers.

Author Dave Eggers — who founded trend-setting magazines like The Believer and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency — first started a chain of themed stores/workshops across the U.S. The Seattle store focuses on space travel, while San Francisco puts out pirate supplies, Ann Arbor repairs your robot and Brooklyn offers superhero style.

In true McSweeney’s fashion, hilarious, ridiculous commentary cover the Space Supply’s walls. It’ll go over the heads of the little ones, but bigger kids and teens should get the wry style.

Where: Greenwood Space Travel Supply is located at 8414 Greenwood Ave. N., Seattle. Open Monday-Friday, noon to 6 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Closed Sunday.

Best for: elementary-age kids, tweens, teens and grownups.

Ask the kids: What would you take into space?