Seattle: Day Two

This morning we woke up to the worst vacation weather imaginable... pouring rain and a whopping ten degree heat. In spite of all the obvious reasons not to, I got up early to blowdry my curly hair straight before testing Seattle Public Transit.

Suffice it to say that my hair, not surprisingly, is large and triangular, but we made it to Pike Place Market otherwise unscathed.

Pike Place Market was packed before 10am. The enclosed market attracted every tourist in the city, given the weather. The early morning fish toss drew a crowd of no less than forty people, and at least as many cameras. We navigated the crush of tourists to play with wind-up toys at The Great Wind-Up. (Pudgey the Piglet, a stuffed pig who oinks for food, was my personal favourite, although the historical action figures were entertaining, too.) For some more grown-up entertainment, we perused dusty record stores and smelled the plethora of seasonal flowers selling for bargain prices. Spring flowers in the Pacific Northwest are dark and vibrant; burgundy, purple and yellow. The cherries and berries, now in season, are coloured to match.

Food samples are widely available at the market. Although we definitely had to push our way in, we managed to try white chocolate raspberry truffles; strawberry jalapeno jam; white bread with truffle oil; curry-flavoured angel hair pasta and lemon-honey flavoured hazelnuts.

Just as we were leaving the market, the rain got worse instead of better... to escape the sudden downpour, we stopped in at Seattle Coffee Works to try the cold-pressed espresso they're known for. Not a coffee drinker, I can't recommend it- staff publicly embarrassed me, albeit jokingly, for not sampling what they had on offer. But beyond that, the coffee is served in a portion that is about three times larger than neccessary considering the caffeine content. Considering the attitude of the place, we left before disposing of the remains of Ian's drink... and stopped for lunch at Piroshky Piroshky which, mercifully, is about as unpretentious as a place can get. The entire shop can't mesure more than 6' by 8' square, but what they do within that tiny space is phenomenal. My potato, onion and cheese stuffed piroshky was a far cry from the Ukrainian perogies I grew up with... the breading was more floury and less potatoey than what I think of as perogy, but that improved, rather than detracted from, the taste. Even if you've never had a perogy before, this is a taste sensation you don't want to miss when you visit Seattle- as the line outside will more than prove.

We found some great shopping deals this afternoon- I scored a silk skirt from Ann Taylor, originally priced at 118$, for only 30$. It's going to go perfectly with my new nude platform heels... the perfect outfit for tonight's dinner date.

Check back later to find out what we ate for dinner... and whether or not I spilled on my new clothes!

Bisous,

Cee