Pikes Market

When we lived in Washington, we used to go to Pikes Market in Seattle 2-3 times a year.  We loved all the little shops, people watching, and different foods.  We haven't been there since 2004.

When we discovered it was half the cost to fly Mason into Seattle vs Portland, we decided to make a little mini vacay of it.  Mason flew in on Wednesday.  After picking him up at the airport (and being reminded how much I HATE SeaTac Airport!), we headed out to the Supermall for a little shopping.  Unfortunately, Mason wasn't feeling good as a result of the flight.  We stayed that night in a hotel near the airport, then got up early the next morning and headed to Pikes Market.

Mason couldn't get over how tall all the buildings were

We got there pretty early and it was nice to wander around while everyone was setting up (aka: before it got crazy nuts with people)

Typical rainy Seattle morning

We started out with mini doughnuts

In our wanderings, we stumbled upon the Gum Wall:

Disgustingly cool

Mason made a contribution

Pikes Market has three levels, plus there are shops outside and up and down the adjacent streets

Thankfully, they have done some upgrading since we were last there.  There are lots more shops, it is "cleaner" and they have added more restrooms.  I thought this one was funny

In the afternoon, the rain stopped and the sun came out.  It ended up being a gorgeous day!  We found a great little coffee shop off the beaten path a little.  We sat in their lounge area and talked to some locals.  One guy was a street performer there at the market.  He could fix a "messed up" Rubix cube in under a minute.  It was so fascinating to watch him.  The following pics make me laugh, I told Mason and Skott to pose with their hot beverages.  They both ended up burning their mouths! 

The fish markets there are crazy! 

We had to stop at our favorite place with hot roasted cashews

Mason bought a loaf of ciabatta bread and we got a cookie here:



A peanut butter cookie with a Reeses peanut butter cup smashed in

Ostrich, Emu, Goose, and "regular" eggs for sale

If Mason keeps growing, he might beat this guys record!

We walked a couple blocks to Goorin Brothers hat shop.  They have the neatest hats!  Skott was like a kid in a candy store!  Got some great hats.  Then, the day we got home he entered and won Goorin Brother's facebook contest with a paragraph he wrote about a guy we work with.  Skott won a bow tie and hankie to give to the very stylish security supervisor at the casino.  Too cool!

Heading in to Goorin

I finally found something to spend my graduation money on :)  One of my professors gave me a nice sum of cash for graduation.  I have been packing it around and saving it all this time.  I called it my "keen money" because I intended on spending it on some Keen brand shoes (my absolute favorite).  I never found any Keens I liked well enough to pay the price for.  The day before I found a pair at the SuperMall and with the remaining cash I bought this at Pikes Market.  It is made out of upcycled vinyl street banners.  The outside is a Pikes Market one and the inside has words and something about the new metro...

I saw this quilt and thought of you, Aunt Net.  Check out the crazy detail of this quilt "map":

And it was huge!  I'm talking like 6 ft tall huge.

With one final delicious blended espresso from our absolute favorite coffee shop, Bigfoot Java, we said "goodbye" to Seattle and headed home