A newcomer's impression of Seattle from a borrowed-from-hotel 3-speed hybrid bike...
 

3 speeds ain't nearly enough!! I stayed downtown, at a nice hotel (the Alexis, at first Ave and Madison) biz trip for 2 nights, and had yesterday morning free, before returning late to New Orleans.

Wow, are the streets (as opposed to the avenues) steep! I just saw this elsewhere on this thread, it confirms what my shin-splinty legs have learned:

SDOT - Steep Streets in Seattle

I could have used a great-great-granny gear at times, but I do not look a "gift bike" in the mouth..

Beautiful town, waterworld everywhere, nice mix of old-timey and modern.

The cyclists actually obey the stop signs and red lights!! So I did, too. Please don't ask me if I do this back home...

I "discovered" (ha ha) a bike trail along west Lake Union, then along the ship canal, after stopping early at the Center for Wooden Boats at the foot of the lake. So it turned into a nice, longer than I planned, ride.

Lots of bikes. Not as many bike lanes downtown as I might have expected in such a 'crunchy' town. But I suspect the really good biking is off on some of these trails.

I was born in Seattle but have lived outside of New Orleans most of my life. I plan on going to Seattle and was curious if I would be able to rent a bicycle to use. I never even considered the hills, a slanted piece of broken concrete is the biggest hill I ever ride on.

There are those of us who do not go into the city often, but we always defend the area for its' variety of riding options.
Glad you left with a favorable impression of the city.

Seattle, the city core, sucks for bicycling unless you enjoy combat with cars and exhaust fumes, and sweating up hills. Outside of that high-density mess it's great... Seattle Bicycle Club - Maps Library

That's a great route, really lovely, some great parks (I hope you went through Gas Works?) and the Ship Canal is surprisingly quiet. I do a loop that includes Lake Union and the Ship Canal Trail a few times a week. Glad you got to see it.

My wife works out of an office on Lake Union. She has a spot in a parking garage right on the water by the boats and is always complaining about what she presumes to be Amazon employees whizzing by on their bikes right in front of the garage exit. She thinks they should be exercising greater caution.

If you are going to be staying around the downtown core or up by UW you can use Pronto bike share.

https://www.prontocycleshare.com/

I think it's the person exiting the garage that needs to exercise greater caution as they are supposed to yield to all traffic and pedestrians (unless it's signal controlled or they've hired a rush hour traffic control). I know at rush hour getting around the lake is a pain with all of the development but it's a major thoroughfare for all.downtown bike traffic.