Seattle, Day 5

Monday morning Karla took me a Park and Ride where I caught a bus to downtown. I remember feeling very small, with an almost "lost" feeling. I was supposed to meet my high school friend Sonny and his wife today. I'd heard from them last night, but not the details for this morning. So, it was 10:30am, and I found myself sitting at a Starbucks (natch) waiting. Waiting to either hear from Sonny, or to get up the courage to go out and explore. At this point I was cursing my last minute decision to leave the AAA tourbook at the house. I had maps, and knew where I was, and where the Pike Place Market was. That was about it.


Pike Place Market is a famous tourist destination in Seattle. For one thing, you can see grown men lobbing fish at one another. Also, it was where a scene in Sleepless in Seattle was filmed.


I heard from Sonny's wife, and walked to the market to meet them across the street from it. Ironically, I passed 4 Starbucks in the 4 blocks I walked, and settled to wait in a "Seattle's Best Coffee" place. They do love their coffee here.

When we met up, we walked over to the market. Immediately we found the flying fish place, and a crowd of people. How funny was it though, that everyone was waiting to see them throw fish, and no one was buying fish so that they could throw?
Most of the market was similar to farmer's markets back home. Large variety of seafood (fresh of course), flowers, produce. Tons of people. At one point there wasn't even room to walk. It was just enough space to stay standing upright and inch your way forward while people did the same thing in the other direction. And then people in front of you would stop, and look at what was for sale in a stand. I found some smoked salmon for B as a thank you gift.

There's also a lower level that wasn't as crowded. Here was more arts and crafts, gifts and souvenirs, as well as curiosities. I bought my cousins some soapstone hearts that would go well in their living room, and later picked up a Barnes and Noble gift card since they enjoyed reading.

At one end of the lower level, we came out to a cobbled street area. Sonny evidently, knew of a "underground" tourist attraction.

The WALL of GUM


Yes, disgusting and fascinating, it was a huge wall where people for decades have been pressing their used chewing gum on top of other people's used chewing gum. It made my skin crawl, but I couldn't *not* take a photo of it. I didn't, however, have any gum to contribute. Such is life.

We walked around downtown as Sonny and his wife got some errands done. I think I've walked more in the past few days than I had all summer! We stopped for lunch at a restaurant in the basement of Nordstrom's. They used to work there, and everyone remembered them and greeted them as old friends. The food was fantastic, and it was the best salmon I've ever tasted.

Finally we went back to their apartment and collapsed. Their place was gorgeous. Better than that though, was the view. At sunset you could see Mt. Rainier.


Ryan, another friend from high school, came over that evening and we ate cheese and crackers and drank wine on the patio. Within 10 minutes though, I was fetching my jacket from inside. It was cool and windy. The wine flowed as the night wore on, the wind taking with it the sounds of our laughter and jokes.

As Ryan went home, I made myself comfy on the couch, looking forward to tomorrow, an adventure on Vashon Island.