The FIRST best thing about being in Seattle was that it was like Daylight Savings never happened. We woke up at about 8:30, without an alarm, and decided to set off toward the Space Needle. First order of business, though, was breakfast.
Just up the street from our hotel was a little cafe called Piroshki on 3rd, where a couple of Russian women served us some piroshkies with gruff affection. This was my first piroshki, so I have nothing to compare it to, but dang they were yummy! Andrew ordered a chocolate pastry, I ordered a sort of sweet cream pastry, and then we also had a spinach and cheese and a salmon piroshki.
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| Sweet cream |
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| Spinach and cheese |
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| Salmon... it looks like a little fish! |
Well fed, we headed on. Instead of going to the Space Needle, though, we were drawn in to Pike's Place, which we explored thoroughly (also discovered that most of the vendors don't seem to really get going until the afternoon, on weekdays).
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| Contributing coins to Rachel the Pig |
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| A whole shop of crazy hats that Will would have loved! |
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| What is this weird stack? We don't know! But the Sound was beautiful! |
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| We heard there was a Giant Shoe minimuseum at the Market and after some searching found it... and they WERE in fact quite huge! |
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| Soon, Andrew's will join them! |
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| Found a little shop filled wall to wall with model cars |
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| Beechers' Cheese, picking up some delicious cheese curds! |
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| Flagship Starbucks, which we in fact did NOT go into, but admired the stalwart dedication of those in line. |
After a short first run through the market we wound down toward the Aquarium, because we love Aquariums! And we weren't disappointed! This was a really great facility with terrific interpretation.
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| FABULOUS tank interpretation, with the interpreter talking to the diver inside. An adorable wolf eel came up and stole the show. |
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| Their touch tank was very well organized, with informative laminated guides and great staff around to answer questions. |
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| Circle of jellyfish! |
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| We caught an octopus feeding. This is the girl, adorable! |
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| We found a very chill oystercatcher! |
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| This sea otter was very cuddly and very itchy. |
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| A bit of emulation. |
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| The Aquarium was right on the Sound and had excellent views from their outside section! |
We worked up an appetite at the Aquarium, so we took an excellent recommendation from Amanda and decided to walk up to Serious Pie for lunch, and it was seriously good. Their Pike's Place location is a little hole in the wall with a beautiful wood interior.
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| Charcuterie plate |
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| Margherita pizza with buffalo mozerella |
This is some of the best pizza I've ever eaten. The crust has the perfect texture for a thin-crust pizza-- thick enough to hold the ingredients, but crispy and salty (they use import salt from Australia). The crusts are made fresh and cooked in a 600 degree oven to get the perfect consistency.
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| A blood orange semi-freddo, REALLY delicious |
We went back to the market to explore just a little more, found a cool letterpress print shop, along with a few other need holes in the walls, and also this disgusting tourist attraction:
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| Gum Wall in Post Alley |
We stumbled across this and it's cute, but also the first piece of city character that has ever actually made me feel physically nauseous. I don't have an easily unsettled stomach, but something about the smell when you got a little too close made my insides go a little bit wobbly. I feel like this idea would be more endearing if it wasn't in a super moist environment right by the ocean?
A long day of walking led to a quick nap, and then a SUPER fun evening. Andrew and I reserved a couple of seats at Egan's Ballard Jam House, a very small jazz venue that is way more local haunt than tourist attraction. We got to experience Lyft for the first time (thanks to our driver Jason for some great recommendations!) on our way out to it, and then listened to three local jazz singers with an amazing team of musicians.
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| Pianist on the left, and the back of the bassist |
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| Wine, beer, and jazz! |
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| After the three local singers they had an open hour where anybody could get up and sing-- this was one of the sign ups afterward, who is an aspiring singer hoping to make it big in Seattle. |
To conclude our late finish for our first day in the city, our Lyft driver back to the hotel offered to take us up to Kerry Park for a gorgeous view of Seattle at night. And beautiful it was!
Once again we passed out as soon as we hit the sheets back at the hotel. Great first day in Seattle!
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