Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Seattle - Pike Place Public Market

We worried all night last night early this morning about how we could get to downtown and find a parking place near Pike Place Market. We checked every website and all we got was more to worry about. Could we park outside of Seattle and ride a bus. Parking the Musemobile in a bust downtown with such a premium on parking they sold parking places on Craig's List. We even considered a two hour bus ride from Bothell where our RV park is located.


In the end, and without a GPS we managed to get to the market and find a parking place 1/2 block away with an elevator up to the market. The parking was right on the bay next to this tower.


We could see out past the Seattle Aquarium to the container loading cranes at the Port of Seattle.


Next to our parking spot, in the water, was a coiled up oil barrier (I think) used to control debris or oil in the water.


The Seattle Aquarium juts out into the bay and will be a great stop on another visit.


Today was a day for the market that's nestled downtown on Pike Place Street. This is the view from the market.


This is turning around and looking at the Market at 1:17pm.


Another quick spin and looking out again you can see the market crowd on a "light" day.


A little to my left there's a cute piggy on the overhang.


Just like our Eugene Saturday Market there was music in the streets and, of course the open guitar case.


We spotted the Market Grill because our appetites told us we were late for lunch.....






... but we were sidetracked at the Pure Food Fish Market.


You really can't blame us for stopping. Of course they put the lobster tails in front...


... and this prize winning "ugly" fish in back.


Well we bought some shrimp and scallops and proceeded on down the line past some great produce.


They had some elephant garlic larger than the large onions.


One interesting thing I noticed were the floor tiles all having names on them. I looked it up in the Seattle Times Web page and this is what I found:

"During the Christmas shopping season in 1985, TV commercials touted the purchase of "the ultimate Seattle gift" — a personalized floor tile to help replace the crumbling concrete floor of Pike Place Market's main arcade.

For a tax-deductible donation of $35, people could, according to the ads, "Make someone you love a legend in their own tile." Boy, did they — buying more than 45,000 tiles inscribed with names and messages — thus claiming a piece of Pike Place Market as their own.
I make $35 times 45,000 to be $1,575,000.

Well I think I'd like to start selling floor tiles at my house maybe $30 a tile.


There was also a pasta store with all sorts of exotic noodles and shapes.


They also had some great samples of all kinds of Balsamic Vinegar. We bought several types of pasta and I'm sure Sharyn was thinking of Isaac and his new vegetarian diet and love of pasta.


We then looked to the left .....


... and to the right...


We even looked outside through the side door and decided it was way past time to eat.


So we headed to the Market Grill. They has some colorful posters on the walls next to the counter where we finally sat.


The fish market was across the isle.


and there were more posters across the way.


That's my Cajun shrimp being grilled by a really cool grilling expert.


This is the rest of the staff. The gentleman in the black tee-shirt is the other cook and the young lady was our server. I really liked the people working there and our server made the visit and meal a very pleasant experience. I even gave her my card with the URL Address for this blog. I hope if you find the blog you like it young lady.


So in the end we achieved our goal of visiting the Pike Place Marked and Sharyn even escaped with a hand full of goodies (note I am holding another bag as I took this picture)

All in all we had a great time and the Musemobile was waiting patiently at the docks for our return.
PS. It was overcast with a little drizzle from time to time while we were there and just after we re-hooked up at our RV site the heavens let loose with a Texas sized rainstorm - we were very lucky today.

Scrabble Score ~ Scrabble Queen gave up due to tiredness and loosing by 87 points

Quote of the Day ~
"I'd probably be famous now if I wasn't such a good waitress." ~ Jane Siberry (Now know as Issa) born October 12, 1955), is a Canadian singer-songwriter known for such new wave hits as "Mimi on the Beach", "I Muse Aloud" and "One More Colour", as well as her adult contemporary hit "Calling All Angels" from her 1993 album When I Was a Boy. On August 30, 2005, Jane Siberry was awarded the 2005 Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award in music by the Canada Council for the Arts.

1 comment:

Diane Widler Wenzel said...

Very exciting visiting Seattle in the Musemobile. Did they have special parking for large vehicles?

Copyright

©Paul Viel