Seattle Pike Place Market

I traveled to Seattle yesterday on the bus ($3.00) and returned on the commuter train ($4.00). The trip on the train was new for me and is by far the preferred method. It travels down the Green River Valley through the countryside which is now bright green with new Spring leaves. I haven't been through some of these small towns in many years, and although I had heard of the train, I had never taken it. It was a delightful experience.

While in Seattle I walked down by the waterfront (windy and chilly and looking a bit run-down), and meandered my way through all the construction before climbing the hill to Pike Place mark. As usual the market is a place full of sights, sounds and smells that capture the senses. The tulips are reaching their height and the flower stalls were full of them.
I always like looking at the vegetable stands also. The vegetables and fruits are always carefully arranged so that they create a wonderful assemblage of color and texture. I am also always amazed at their price!

And of course I have to visit the fish stands with their incredible assortment of fish and other types of sea food. Sometimes the fishmongers put on a show by tossing the fish about for the benefit of the tourists, but today they were fairly quiet, not even shouting out their wares. In fact the place was relatively quiet and uncrowded. Relatively I say since it was still quite full of people and noise. It is a great place to browse and see the sights, and then to stop in some small eatery to eat lunch or breakfast. The entire area has been converted into a series of shops, stalls and restaurants of all types and descriptions. I was thinking how nice it would be, if money were no object, to live in a condo overlooking Puget Sound and the ferries, and then to come down to shop in the market and eat in the astounding number of restaurants. Maybe I should start buying lottery tickets? :)

It's a great place to walk also, going up and down the steep streets, wandering from one end of the downtown area to the other. The buses are free in the main city area, and you can get on and off whenever you wish. The driver always announces the last free stop, so you can leave before you have to pay!

It all sounds very wonderful, and it is--IF YOU LIKE DREARY, CHILLY, RAINY WEATHER! And that's the fly in the ointment of living in the Northwest. You can go for weeks without seeing the sun, and when you do it is a weak, watery thing, low on the horizon giving forth slanting rays that always makes me think that it is either early in the morning or late in the afternoon. The rain is legendary--not the hard pounding rain that one finds in the rest of the world, but drizzle, ranging from a fine mist to a steady rain that goes on and on and on... August and September are, however, wonderful with perfect warm, sunny weather and chilly nights. I suppose that it is a good thing for the area that it has such lousy weather, otherwise everybody and their dogs would flock here as they have to California. Actually the weather seems to have little impact on the burgeoning population which is rapidly filling the narrow corridor between the mountains and the sea, clear cutting the forests, polluting the water and the air, and in general befouling the pristine eden that once was here. But what else is new, huh?