Many of our place names come from Northwest Native-American languages and can be a mouthful for newbies. And there are a handful of other potential verbal snares that can expose your immigrant status. Don't open your trap until you've practiced these slippery terms alone at home.
Oh, and I'm sorry to reinforce a Seattle cliché, but people do drink a lot of coffee here and you will have to stand in line to get yours. You can save us all some time by memorizing the following formula before attempting to order an espresso drink (aka "a coffee"). Seattleites run their drink specifics together into one word, in this order: shot(s), size, milk, extras, drink (e.g., singleshortnonfatnowhiphazelnutmocha). And it's espresso, not expresso.
Alki AL-kye (like "sky")
Anacortes anna-COUR-tess
Barça BAR-sa
Bumbershoot that's a B, not a P
chinook (type of salmon) shin-NOOK
Coeur D'Alene core-da-LANE
Duwamish duh-WA-mish
geoduck gooey-duck
Hoh Rain Forest "the ho"
Interstate 5 eye-5 (never "the 5")
Leschi LESH-eye
Macy's the-BON
Medina ma-DINE-a
Mt. Rainier "ray-NEAR"
Nordstrom (not Nordstom's)
Oregon ORA-gun
Pike Place Market (never Pike's Place)
Puyallup PEW-alup
Quilcene qwill-seen
Safeway (not Safeway's)
salmon SA-men (silent l)
Sasquatch SA-squatch (not saw-squash)
Sequim skwim
Spokane spo-CAN
Uwajimaya oo-WAH-gee-MY-a
Wenatchee when-NAT-chee