Pike's Place; Bainbridge; Belltown

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Even though we had gone to bed at what for our bodies was 3:00 a.m., we were up early and ready to do some serious vacationing. We headed down to Pike’s Place Market to get some breakfast, stopping in at the Athenian Inn. The food was ok, but the views of Puget Sound from our window table were enough to whet our appetites for a day of site-seeing. It also turns out that the Athenian Inn appeared in Sleepless In Seattle, and their walls were adorned with lots of Tom Hanks paraphernalia.

After breakfast the cashier informed us that Martha Stewart was in the market and had stopped by only minutes earlier. We didn’t see her, but we did see plenty of pigs. It turns out that this year is the 100th anniversary of the market and that 2007 is the year of the pig in the Chinese Zodiac. Apparently that’s important because one of the enduring symbols at Pike’s Place Market is Rachel the Pig, who sits at the entrance of the market. (Yes, that gave me plenty of opportunity to make jokes to Rachel, which I took advantage of.) So we happened on a big parade to celebrate those events, and the parade consisted of 100 painted porcelain pigs. It was quite the spectacle.

After watching the pigs parade, we bought some peaches for the road and decided we wanted to get out on the water. Rather than booking passage on a harbor cruise we decided to take the cheap route and take the ferry over to Bainbridge Island. Downtown Seattle looked great from the water, and the peaches were some of the best I’ve ever had.

On Bainbridge we walked around, bought some shades since we had both forgotten to pack ours, and had a nice lunch at a little diner. We didn’t dawdle there long and caught a ferry back to Seattle. After getting back we walked over to historic Pioneer Square to look around. We thought about taking the Underground Seattle tour, which is a tour of of the old Seattle that was largely destroyed in a fire and then Seattle as it now exists built over it, but decided it was too crowded. Instead we got some Cow Chip Cookies, some of the best chocolate chip cookies around, and a cold glass of milk.

I guess we must have been wiped out from the late night, because we decided to head back to the hotel and rest for a bit. A three hour nap later it was time to head for dinner. Several friends had recommended an asian fusion restaurant called Wild Ginger, and we walked right in and got a table. Rachel is eating seafood now, so with the help of the waiter in deciding the right way to order (they had two different sizes of main dishes, and we wanted to try several but not get too much) we got steamed clams, prawns (shrimp to us easterners, but when in Seattle . . .) and halibut. All were awesome, and it was probably the best meal we had the entire trip.

Bellies full we walked towards Belltown to see if we could find anything interesting to do. We love pool, so we couldn’t resist the Belltown Billiards. We got there fairly early in the evening, and the place was empty. Perfect for us, so we got a table and started playing. An hour and a half later we realized that we had happened on a popular Seattle hang-out. The place was packed and people were starting to edge towards the dance floor. A couple of pool games and some miscommunication later we left without dancing, even though both of us kind of wanted to boogie a bit. But it was probably better to head back to the hotel anyway because we wanted to get an early start the next day, when we would be heading out to Mt. Rainier.

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[Robin]

Peaches
Seattle Peaches ain't got nothin' on Parks Farms!!!!