Seattle: Monday

Public-Market
Originally uploaded by kyducks.

We left the GT and mailed all of our postcards ( if you didn’t get one, blame the USPS, because we sent everyone one!). Then we headed down to the Pike Place Market (PPM) to grab some breakfast and poke around while the Market opened for the day. We wandered in and out of buildings, all the while smelling the morning baking and looking at the fresh produce until we came to a tiny shop called Piroshky, Piroshky.

This place was not big enough to turn around in, much less sit and eat breakfast, but there were some of the best smells coming out of that little bakery. They served an Americanized version of the traditional Russian piroshky, but it was heaven to Bug and me. We quickly selected the Spinach, Egg, and Cheese piroshky, but could have taken much longer because there were so many different kinds in the case. One bite and we were hooked on what would come to be one of our favorite meals of the day. I still have to figure out how they made these things so I can replicate it here at home.

After relishing our new treat. We wandered around some more, took a lot of photos, bought more postcards. We ended up down by the Pike Place Fish Market where we watched the guys selling fish and entertaining the crowd. That was a really cool experience, and I’ll always know what a monkfish looks like now. We sat down nearby with a gorgeous view of Elliott Bay and some fresh squeezed orange juice from the Sound View café. It was a great morning!

We headed down the Hillclimb, a cascade of steps that takes you down to the waterfront from PPM. On the way down we stopped in at Procopio, a cute little gelateria where we shared really good chocolate hazelnut gelato (italian ice cream) and enjoyed a game of backgammon on their complimentary boards. We loved this little place and wished we could stay longer, but there was so much more to do!

We finished descending the Hillclimb and explored the waterfront of Elliott Bay. There were so many shops down here, I didn’t think we’d get through them at all. About 1pm, we finally made it to the ferry terminal, and we rode the ferry Wenatchee over to Bainbridge Island.

We hiked up to the main street from the ferry terminal and visited lots of the little shops along the main street, Winslow Way. We finally found a restaurant that didn’t close down at 2, and we went in to get some lunch. Casa Rojas was a cozy little Mexican place, but the prices were a little steep. We can definitely tell you that the mango margaritas were excellent, and the portion sizes were huge.

After our late lunch, we waddled over to Churchmouse Yarns and Teas. It was such a cute little yarn store! I was really lucky that I had some restraint, or we would have had to rent a kid to help us carry it all back. J Not really, but I did get some cute yarn to make some holiday gifts. We stopped around the corner at the Blackbird Bakery on our way back to the ferry. They had some gorgeous astronaut cookies in the case, so I got one for Bug and I to share.

When we got back to the ferry terminal, we sat and waited for the next ferry. I sat and stroked my lovely new purchases, while Bug and I talked about our game plan for the evening. The ferry arrived, and people started unloading. We were amazed! We had never seen so many people unload off a ferry before. The pace at which the people were disembarking was relentless for almost 25 minutes! I would not have been shocked if the thing had deflated after letting all those people off. J

We rode back across the Puget Sound on the ferry and admired the beautiful views of Mt. Rainier and the skyline of Seattle. Then we faced the arduous journey back up the hilly streets to get back to the GT. We ended up coming back up the hill right beside the Seattle Art Museum. We slowly made it back to the GT, and were we ever glad to see it come into view. We were absolutely beat from all the walking and ready to get our showers and get ready for bed.

More to come!