Seattle, WA - View From the Top

Seattle Day. Our plan is to take the bus into town, visit Pike Place Market, walk through the Sculpture Garden, head up into the Space Needle and call it a day and take the bus back. We awoke at 6:30, had breakfast, packed and headed off to the Eastgate Park and Ride. Oh, no, we got there a bit late and saw our 8:20 bus just leaving the ramp. The next bus is the 8:52. Shucks. But, we got in line. The guy ahead of us gave us the good news that all buses were ‘express’ from here since they didn’t stop until they got into town to the transfer terminal. Great. And the next bus, the 512, took us right into town to the Pike Place Market. Perfect.

We headed down to the waterfront, passing Post Alley in the process, and getting to our first stairs. If you’ve read much of our blogs from our trip to San Francisco, you know how much we liked the stairs. Kathy, our friend from Whidbey Island, told us that there are lots of stairs in Seattle - we’re excited.

We headed down the stairs to the Waterfront, had some great views and watched the ferries but then noted that the Market is 3 blocks back up the hill. As we climbed (on the Pike Place Stairs - 1 down) we passed Post Alley on the way up. Hmmm - didn’t we just pass this on the way down? Ah, but on these stairs, we could see the bubble gum wall. We saw one in San Luis Obispo but the Seattle one is much larger.

Pike Place Market is a combination tourist trap, fish market, craft market, antique shop, restaurant, vegetable market and just an all round fun place to spend some time people watching, eating, touring, shopping, buying, etc. Founded in 1907, Pike Place Market is the oldest continually operating farmers' market in the United States and still going strong and drawing the crowds. But what’s not to like about browsing among aisles of glistening fruits and vegetables lovingly piled high,

tables overflowing with fresh floral bouquets,

every kind of fish stacked high on ice

and booth after booth selling all manner of locally made jewelry, clothing and gifts, souvenirs, trinkets and - what ever. You want it, you can probably find it here.

Originally without any public market farmers were forced to sell to wholesalers and the rumors were that they were cheating the farmers royally. Some farmers were barely breaking even. A public market was proposed but prior to its opening many wholesalers, seeing a threat, bought off many farmers and threatened others with violence. Thus on opening day, only eight farmers were there to sell their wares to more than 10,000 people who came out on a crazy first day. They were sold out by noon. The market is now home to more than 200 businesses, 190 crafts people and about 100 farmers. Now more than 10 million visitors come to it annually.

We entered the market from the front, where the pig is. You know: the pig, the one with the hole in the top for donations to fund social services in the market. Meet Rachel the Pig, a bronze piggy bank that weighs in at 550 pounds, the unofficial mascot.

We watched the vendors in the fish market sling the fish around. This tradition began when the fishmongers who prepare and wrap the fish inside the stand, grew tired of walking around the stand to get fish that customers ordered. They thought they could be more efficient if one stood out side the stand and, when a customer ordered a particular fish, they could throw it to the others inside for prep. Whoosh, there goes another fish. How they catch those slippery wet objects flying through the air is beyond me. Do they practice after hours? Has a fish ever slipped through their fingers and hit a customer? Do they ever drop one on the floor - and then what do they charge the customer for it?

Here’s the outside fish monger getting ready to sling the fish into the prep crew. Note the stance, the focused gaze. That fish is gonna fly.

As we were watching, we heard a voice in back of us call out: ‘Hey, Gary, what are you doing here?’ Holy schmoly, it was our neighbors from Des Moines, from a neighborhood we moved out of in 2005. Funny. They are in town to support their grandson who is in a triathlon this weekend. We had a great chat, exchanged cards and told them that our plans were to be in their area in Florida this winter. Maybe we’ll be able to catch up with them then, too.

We swung through the market pretty fast because our goal was to get a cup of coffee and a roll for a snack. Gotta have that coffee. We first tried the original Starbucks, in their original design but the line was out the door, around the sidewalk and past 2 or 3 other stores. The second place we found had delightful looking pastries but - no coffee. Huh? Finally, we found the Three Sisters, which has been around since the early days and had our coffee and some delicious treats. Back to the Pike Place Market for some more serious looking.

But we can only ‘shop’ for so long and we were soon out the back door and back on the waterfront enjoying the views and walking along it to the sculpture garden. As we were walking, I heard a trolley tour guide say ‘And today we can even see Mt. Rainier.’ We snapped our heads south and, sure enough, there it was, its white cap sticking out above the clouds. Forget the sculpture garden, we can see that later, we turned up the hill to the Space Needle for a view of Mt. Rainier.

We got there, stood in line and got our tickets. Here’s our tip. We found that the trip to the top is $22 for Seniors, which we did. But - and here’s the tip: the restaurant is $25 minimum and you get a free ride up. I wish we had eaten lunch in the restaurant and bought a $27 hamburger or chicken sandwich. We could have had a nice lunch, twirled at the top of the Space Needle for 360 degree views, gotten our meal for $5.00 and a tip and still have been able to walk up the stairs to the regular observation deck. Maybe next time. But, that’s my advice to you.

The woman in back of us in the line told us that she and her husband used to take the kids up there on their birthdays. They would put a piece of paper in the window at the table where they sat saying: ‘I’m from Bellevue, WA, where are you from?’ When the restaurant had twirled back to where they started, they would pull their note out of the window to see how many others signed it and where they were from. Cute tradition.

We wandered around waiting for our time to go up into the Needle and passed the Chihuly garden.

The line was long but we moved fast. I saw this sign as we were waiting. Not what I needed to see.

However, we were soon soaring up in the elevator at 10 mph. Whoosh. The view from the top is amazing. And, there was Mt. Rainier, a bit cloudier but still a sight to see. WOW. But the views in every direction were good. Not a bad view on the whole observation deck. That’s Rainier snowy crown peeking through the cloud layer in the top photo.

Around the interior of the observation deck we read some interesting facts about the Space Needle.

We next hit the sculpture garden. The designers cleverly used the hillside, arched a bridge over the railroad tracks and down to the waterfront where they had some more sculptures. Wonderful use of land and getting around the tracks.

Here are some of the sculptures. Note how the silver finish reflects the surroundings whereas the dark blue surfaces absorb them. 

Dinner at Spaghetti Works and home on the bus. 9:30 we arrived back at the RV, tired but we had had a great day.