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 ;).

West...

Out of the 50 states, we had visited 46...the final four being Washington, Oregon, Hawaii, and Alaska.  This road trip would take us to two of those...Washington and Oregon...bringing our total visited to 48!  Woohoo!  I love the traveling lifestyle :)...

I mentioned before that we were headed for the Pacific Coast...Brookings, Oregon, to be exact.  We had formed a rough plan to start at the bottom of the state and head north(ish) to the top then into Washington.  But first, we had to get there...from North Dakota, across Montana with a peek into Glacier NP, through Idaho...first north to within shouting distance of the Canadian border...then back south, cutting across the corner of Washington, following the Columbia River west through Oregon...then the Willamette Valley south...before finally turning west again, towards the ocean.  My favorite.

To get from Grants Pass, Oregon, to Brookings, Oregon, you have to dip down into California.  There is no straight west road.  We have visited California numerous times, but never have we seen a state welcome sign quite like this one...

HAHA!  I think it's my favorite of all :)!  Funny.  Anyway, we stopped to get a picture of the sign and while I was doing that, my husband heard some turkeys chattering in the trees.  He chattered back at them to see if they'd come out and THEY DID!...

I am SO glad that I wasn't standing outside the car when these things came up.  Turkeys can be mean! 

Well, they strutted right up to our car...then circled around and around.  Chattering and looking for their turkey friend that had called to them ;).  I have never seen anything like that! 

I took a few more pictures of the sign, the turkeys had walked away from the car, and it was time to go.  Uh oh...

super blurry, but that EXPRESSION!  HA!

Hahahahaaaaa!  A wild turkey chase ensued!  Welcome to California, ya'll ;)...

and yes, I am easily amused...just in case you hadn't already figured that out.

Ok, so crazy birds behind us (we hope!) we continued on our way towards the ocean.  We were following the Redwood Highway and it proved true to its name.  Redwoods, indeed...

There is something so completely magical about a Redwood forest...

the Smith River

It doesn't matter how many times I find myself among these giants, each and every time I am stopped in my tracks.  Head thrown back, mouth agape in awe...and I'm not the only one :)...

We slooooowly made our way through the beautiful woods and on towards our destination:  the ocean.