The first stop we made was to the famous Pike Place Market. Immediately, we were in awe of all the hustle and bustle of the place; the colors, smells, styles and textures of the two-level market were a complete sensory overload. Artists, chefs, farmers, florists, fisherman, butchers and bakers had all their goods displayed, happy to tell you about their colorful backgrounds and where they were from. Street performers and musicians were on every street corner, creating a friendly and inviting atmosphere. The thing we noticed the most were the smells – smells coming from every door. Fresh breads and pastries from the French bakery, seafood from the wharf area, Indian spices, Greek foods and olive oils galore, fresh fruit and vegetables grown locally, a cheese shop crafting vats of cheese in front of an audience and Asian cuisine cooked-to-go in giants woks in front of you were all enshrouded with the fresh scent of the ocean less than 100 feet away. The fish vendor portion of the market was very impressive in and of itself. Rows and rows of tables were packed with mounds of ice on which every shape and color fish imaginable lay, fresh and chilled, waiting for its chef to come hand-select it for his menu that night. Tanks of live lobsters and crabs lined the front of stalls; we almost stepped on a giant crab crawling across the pavement that a vendor had let lose in order to show a crowd of staring kids. The variety of fresh flowers available were also staggering; the colors were vivid and petals exotic. It was unreal that the huge bouquets were being sold for just $10 - $15. We soon realized that one day alone was nowhere close enough to the time needed to experience the complexity and diversity of this wonderful city.
We came to Seattle with the mission to find a good European bakery. Little did we know just what a treat we were in for when we stepped in the door of a French bakery called “La Panier, The Very French Bakery.” We were instantly transported to pastry heaven by the smells that wafted from the ovens. We stood in line for the longest 15 minutes of our lives before we were able to place our orders. By this time we had only added to the countless face and hand smudges left on the outside of the glass deli cases. We shared a chocolate-filled croissant, a kiwi-strawberry-blueberry fruit tartlet and the best slice of rhubarb tart we’d ever had.
As we were strolling down Pike Street, we came across one “performer” we wish we hadn’t. A grungy looking man had a small stand with a cat in a sweater perched on it. There was a small crowd, so we approached out of curiosity. He was speaking with a woman about diverse cat names, and as we reached out to stroke his cat, he quickly broke off his conversation with his cat comrade to bat Martina’s hand away. He explained that he was not a bum and that we needed to make a donation to his cat club if we would like to speak to him and his cat.
As some of you may know, Seattle is also home to the very first Starbucks which is located in the heart of Pike Street itself. It is also the only shop that has the original mermaid logo - she appears a tad bit more revealed than her present-day counterparts! The line for coffee was out the door all day long, but this didn’t stop Martina. According to her, the 15 minute wait for her skinny caramel latte was well worth the wait. Just a note: the number of Starbucks in Washington is staggering. In downtown Seattle, it wasn't unusual to see more than one shop on the same city block!!
We also came across a wonderful Italian wine and truffle shop called La Buona Tavola. Martina was overwhelmed by all the Italian wines; it immediately brought her back to her days studying abroad in Florence where she took a wine-tasting class. The highlight of her day was finding a wine that shared her name! It was a must-buy and we never hesitated making the purchase.
We had both been craving sushi for some time, so after being pointed in several different directions we came across a Japanese restaurant called the Umi Sake House. We felt a bit out of place as we trudged in with wet jackets and hair from the rain outside, but quickly fell to business ordering our fresh sushi and edamame. To say the fish was good would have been an extreme understatement; it was phenomenal! It's understandable that a sushi restaurant four blocks from such huge fish markets would have a remarkable quality of food.
With exhausted legs, we found or parking complex as the sun went down and battled the holiday traffic to make it to Lake Union for the 10:15 fireworks show. We watched as fireworks lit up the entire sky from the barge they were being shot off of. The bangs from each explosion were so violent, that several car alarms began screeching. We fell asleep two hours later, having fought our way back through outgoing traffic, images of our own fireworks bursting in our heads.
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