Seattle, Washington: Pike Place Market

I love farmers' markets. 

It's one of the first things I look up when we are moving to a new place.  Little ones, big ones, fancy ones, simple ones...I like them all. 

The main reason I like them is for the chance to purchase the freshest of veggies and fruits, but also simply for the atmosphere.  There's just no comparison.  Folks gathered together selling, sharing, smiling, chatting, and just having a good time.  For sure the best grocery shopping ever :).

Pike Place Market is huge.  The fruit and veggie selection was out of this world...

...and the flowers.  Oh, the flowers!  GORGEOUS arrangements of the freshest flowers for only $10 per bouquet!  Say whaaat???  If I lived near this market, I'd always have bundles of these flowers around me.  Hotel room, RV, or even a tent...as long as I had a flat place to sit them, these flowers would be going home with me on the regular :).

Most markets have a vendor or two selling some kind of meat or eggs.  This market on the edge of the bay sold seafood and fish...and lots of it!  Some of it looked really good...

...some not so much!

We got to see the famous fish toss...

flying fish: right under the black seahawks sign

...he caught it, too!  Color me impressed, fish are so slimy...I'd have dropped it FOR SURE, hahaha!

Besides the usual market fare, Pike Place has so much more to experience.  We wandered down Post Alley...

...found the Gum Wall.  Um...

...ew?  But cool at the same time, haha!  So gross that you can't help but check it out and want to run away at the same time :).

We debated on going into the "Original Starbucks" for some coffee.  I say " " because I've read that it actually isn't the original one.  Some say it is, some say it isn't...I dunno.  We probably would have went in anyway if not for the ridiculously long line that snaked down the street...not my idea of a good time, so we passed on that one.

It was getting late and we were getting hungry, so we asked around about a sit down restaurant that would welcome the kids.  We were pointed to the Athenian Seafood Restaurant, which was right there in the market (and seafood, yay!)...

While waiting to be shown to our table, we saw this poster on the wall: 

hello

This is the restaurant from the movie!  Pretty neat :).  We were seated at a table upstairs with a view of the water.  Great view, great food, we were happy.

blurry picture, but that view...

By the time we finished dinner, pretty much everything in the market had closed.  We did manage to snag some donuts as big as our face to take back to the hotel for dessert...

these were the neatest lights...

We big fat puffy heart loved our little visit to the king of all markets and can't wait to go back (those flowers are calling my name....)!

We went to Seattle!...

Oh yes, we did :)!  FINALLY!  Seattle, Washington, has been on our must visit list probably forever.  I mean, duh...

have you ever seen a prettier view from a parking garage?  yeah, me neither ;)

Pretty much everything about it is awesome...as far as cities go.

The mountains...

The water...

The king of all markets!...
 (this place is getting it's own post because again, duh)

The really tall buildings (space needle, anyone?)...

...Seattle does them all so very well.

We only had one night and parts of two days, no where NEAR long enough, to spend in this beautiful corner of the country...*sigh*.  A little is better than none I suppose, it just makes me all the more ready to come back and stay a month or four ;).

Oregon: Haystack Rock>>Seaside>>Astoria

Our next destination was a place that had been on my mind for a long time and on my heart most recently...

...Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach, Oregon. 

My mom had been out to the west coast years ago, an epic road trip across the country with so many beautiful sights along the way...and Haystack Rock was her favorite.  She told me all about the beach, the giant stones, and the thousands of starfish that covered it in a colorful mosaic of sorts.  I dreamed of one day seeing it with her...

...I miss her so much...

I still can't believe she's really gone. 

Anyway, enough of that or I won't be able to finish this...and I've drug my feet about it long enough.  It's hard ya'll.  Really really hard.  I still can't talk about it, I can barely allow myself to even think about it.  ANYway...

Haystack Rock.  An island, or sea stack, that sits just off the coast of Oregon's Cannon Beach.  At low tide you can walk out to it...at a full moon low tide I wonder if you could maybe even walk all the way around it?  Hmm...maybe.

The day we visited was perfect.  Cool but not cold, low tide, and sunset was only minutes away...

We checked it all out, the tide pools, the rocks, the ocean and sky...

Sea glass was found...now that we know what to look for, we (meaning my kids) find it at pretty much every beach we visit.  Little treasure hunters ;)...

We searched for the Puffins that sometimes nest there on the rocks, but didn't spot any.  They're such pretty birds, we'd love to see some in the wild some day.  We did spot what looked to us like a cave in the side of the Haystack.  Pretty cool...

I don't think any of us was ready to leave, but it was getting dark and we didn't have any flashlights with us...

...so back to the car and back on the road we went.  A quick stop in Seaside for a twirl along the Promenade with Lewis & Clark...

...then we continued on to Astoria, where we would spend the night snuggled up next to the Columbia River...

...the view from our rooms...I see Washington :)!