To the southeast of Drumheller Fountain, cordoned off behind a wall of trees, lies the The Sylvan Grove Theater and Columns, a small grassy field that was initially used for plays. Along the far end, which served as the stage, are four hand-fluted cedar Ionic columns that were salvaged from a portico in the original downtown University of Washington campus that was demolished in 1908. This beautiful, peaceful space is usually empty during weekdays and is perfect for picnics.

Directly across the greenway from the Sylvan Grove Theater, in a woodsy spot between to Benson Hall and the Botany Greenhouse, the medieval-flavored Medicinal Herb Garden is home to about thousand different plants, from wolf’s bane to fairywand. Founded in 1911, the herb garden covers two and a half acres and is a marvelous place to just wander around aimlessly, studying all the little plaques with the herbs’ names and info. (Harvesting the plants is strictly prohibited, FYI.)

Caretaker Keith Possee maintains a charming little blog, with updates on what’s in bloom each season, at uwmedicinalherbgarden.org. Keep an eye out for the monkey statues that guard the Pacific Northwest section, called Cascara Circle, just beyond the main entrance—they represent the Hindu god Hanuman.

Every speck of the Henry is awesome and should be visited often, but it’s not very secret. That said, to the left of the building, on the east side of the footbridge that crosses 15th Avenue NW, is a permanent architectural installation by James Turrell on the upper level, titled “Light Reign.” (You have to leave the gallery in order to access it.) Built to commemorate the museum’s 75th anniversary in 2003, the circular glass-and-steel tower’s interior is lined with wooden paneling and a long curved bench, with an aperture in the ceiling that asks the viewer to concentrate on the oval of pure, unobstructed sky it displays. The light in the space changes throughout the day. On the exterior, facing the public walkway, the building’s frosted glass shell is lit from behind with LED lights that shift among pastel sunset tones, which are a spectacle to behold after dark. The Henry is free to UW students, members, and children, and it free to everyone on Sundays as well as every first Thursday of the month.

UW’s alumni magazine, Columns, calls this green space “the reverse of what folk singer Joni Mitchell once sang about—they ‘unpaved’ a parking lot and put up paradise”—a wink-and-nod referring to the fact that, until the HUB Yard was renovated in 1990, Grieg Garden was an actual parking lot. In the same vein as Sylvan Grove Theater (a pocket version of it, if you will), this cozy park’s entrance is just an unmarked split in the hedges outside of Allen Library, on the left. Instead of Greek columns, it has a bronze bust of composer Edvard Grieg, and includes soil from Bergen, Norway, Grieg’s hometown. The “door” is easy to miss, but musicians like to practice here when the weather’s nice, so you might be able to just follow your ears.

Near the Center for Urban Horticulture, UW environmental science students study and work in a cute little 1.5-acre farm operated by University of Washington Botanic Gardens. It’s open every day, from dawn until dusk, free of charge, and anyone can volunteer (or sign up their kids to volunteer) to harvest produce or flowers and learn a bit about urban horticulture. If you don’t feel like working on the farm but still want to contribute, you can order a CSA (community-supported agriculture) box full of the fruits (and veggies) of the students’ labor. It’s also cool to just stand there for a while and behold it all.

The second-oldest building on the UW campus—built in 1895, out of the Tenino sandstone bricks that were left after Denny Hall, the campus’s oldest building, was completed—Jacobsen Observatory sits just east of the Burke Museum, on 45th and Memorial Way, by the big W. In additional to being a cool old building, the observatory’s dome is equipped with a century-and-a-quarter–old refracting telescope with a 6-inch Brashearobjective lens on a Warner & Swasey equatorial mount.

Historical tours, including a telescope demo, are free, and UW’s Department of Astronomy opens the space to the public on first and third Wednesdays between March and November, if you want to get a better look at Orion’s belt. The department also hosts occasional lectures on, for example, black holes and things like black holes at the observatory. You can also go to Ballard’s Peddler Brewery for the lecture series “Astronomy on Tap,” when UW faculty discuss planetary matters.

Did you know there’s a real, full-size, technologically current, open-to-the-public 12-lane bowling alley lurking inside the HUB? It’s not free, but the whole alley is rentable, and a single lane costs between $21 and $28 per hour for non-UW-affiliated folks—and that counts for your whole team. Deep discounts are offered for UW students, faculty, and staff. HUB Games sells snacks, drinks, and light dinner items and hosts bowling leagues. “Cosmic bowling” (that means bowling with black lights) is offered from 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday. They sell socks, too. You don’t even have to bring socks.