Sightseeing In Seattle

Pike Place Market

"Well, it was a million tiny little things that, when you added them all up, they meant we were supposed to be together.  And I knew it."  Tom Hanks as Sam Baldwin, Sleepless in Seattle, 1993

Tom Hanks was describing his character's feelings about his deceased wife in the 1993 movie Sleepless in Seattle, but I could also use these words to chronicle the five days Tim and I spent sightseeing in Seattle and how we fell in love with the city.  "It was a million tiny little things!"

We began, of course, with coffee at Pike Place Market in the early morning as the vendors were setting up their stalls.  One of the very first Starbucks (you could say the original cafe, except that was a block north before it was moved to this location) was open for business.

Jake, our tour guide from Seattle Free Walking Tours, pointed out its original logo.  The Medusa-looking lady whose boobs have since been less-erotically restyled is not a mermaid but a siren sent to lure the caffeine-deprived into the shop.  The ubiquitous coffee cafes were started in 1971 by English teacher Jerry Baldwin, history teacher Zev Siegl and writer Gordon Bowker who named them for the First Mate Starbucks, a character in the classic novel Moby Dick.  This very small shop sans seating at Pike Place Market offers a blend of beans one can only buy here, the Pike Place Special Reserve.  Ahhhh!  Good morning, Seattle!

Now wide awake, we listened as Jake recounted the history of this oldest, continually-operated farmers' market in the country.  Since its start a century ago in 1907, farmers and fishermen have brought their 

fresh vegetables, 

fruit, 

flowers, 

dairy, 

eggs, 

seafood and meat from nearby islands to this renown waterfront location of stalls and structures.  But in the 1960s, this mecca was almost demolished to make way redevelopment and would have been, but for the efforts of Victor Steinbrueck, the architect of Seattle's Space Needle, who successfully sought 53,000 signatures from citizens to save the market from the wrecking ball.

A permanent resident of the marketplace is Rachel the Pig, a bronze sculpture of a piggy bank, whose belly of donated money is routinely emptied into the coffers of the Pike Place Market Foundation to support the city's food bank.

We tasted our way through the market, nibbling the samples of the fare that vendors offered us, until we came to the live--or should I say, dead--entertainment at Pike Place Fish Market.  There what started as a prank more than 30 years ago has now become a tradition of fishmongers shouting orders and throwing fish to each other or even to paying customers.  Tourists, including me, stand ready to film the flying fish with their cellphones.

One not so edible sight, the Market Theatre Gum Wall, is underneath the emporium.

Here along the Post Alley, moviegoers began the unsanitary practice of sticking their already-been-chewed gum to the passage walls as they left the theater.  Ewwww!  Now, everyone wants to contribute their wad to this colorful work of chomped art.  Wondering just how much gum is there?  The Seattle Times in an article dated November 16, 2015, noted that 2,350 pounds of gum was steam-cleaned from the walls for the first time in twenty years.  Of course, the clean walls did not last long.  Immediately, the next day, a flash mob laid down a new layer to which other gum chewers have since contributed.

The Pike Place Market was not the only food purveyor we enjoyed while we were in Seattle.  We met Joe and Cindy, Tim's cousins (Cindy is pictured above), for dinner at a former junior high school that McMemamens, a Pacific Northwest chain of restaurants, has renovated into a tiki bar, complete with a swimming pool.  McMemanins takes historic hotels, movie theaters, concert venues, schools and even a former Elks Lodge, and turns them into multi-purpose places for dining, movie watching, gaming and even swimming in a pool.  Our dinner was memorable for more than just the food, though.  Catching up with extended family is a rare opportunity.

So, there were a million tiny things made us love this city.  Tomorrow I'll mention more.