So much for writing more than travel reports. Here's a trip report from Seattle, over President's Day weekend. Trip was instigated because travelzoo.com advertised a very cheap fare from SF to Seattle, so I jumped on it. Then did Priceine for the hotel. Got the Sheraton, right in downtown, which turned out to be a great location, just a few minutes walk down to Pike Place Market, and also just across the street from the zipcar that we rented for a jaunt up to the Boeing factory.
We arrived in Seattle in late afternoon on Saturday. Weather was showery. We took the Grey Line bus from the airport, since it conveniently has a stop at the hotel. The driver was quite talkative, though we were sitting somewhat back, so didn't get involved. He mentioned the Purple Cafe as we passed it, and said it was very popular. So when dinnertime came around, we walked there, but they said 1.5 hrs wait.
The backup was Shucker's, in the Fairmont. Earlier, we had seen on opentable that there was a rez available at 8pm, though we didn't make it. After being informed of the wait at Purple Cafe, we went to Shucker's, only to be told that there would be no tables until 8:30pm. But when we went back onto opentable, it still showed the 8pm reservation, so we made it, and went back. They seemed surprised, and said that they could seat us right away. It was pretty full when we went in, but tables opened up, but we thought, well, they'll be filled by people with reservations soon. But no, the place actually got emptier. Not sure of the motivation of the front person, but anyway, the food turned out to be pretty good, if somewhat expensive, and we had a good time there.
The next day, we got up reasonably early to make good use of the day. First stop was a waffle place we found on Yelp, Sweet Iron Waffles. "Authentic Liege recipe" was their tagline, and they were pretty good. We then walked down to the shore, and then found Pike Place Market. What an interesting place! What a wonderful place! The Ferry Building in SF might have aspirations to be like Pike Place, but in fact, it is a pale imitation, and way too expensive, to boot. My hat is off to the groups who run Pike Place. It's atmospheric, has character galore, supports all sorts of interesting merchants, has things that you don't find anywhere else (like, the world famous fish throwing fishmonger, where we, along with many others, stood waiting for them to to throw fish!). It's also huge with such a variety, and no mass produced knick knacks.
There are also some good eating places at the market. We found the best clam chowder at the Market Grill, and on a later day, good breakfast at Lowell's (which has a great view too -- in fact, lots of view from many different places at the Market).
There are other buildings that comprise the market area, and we wandered around. We accidentally ran across the Starbucks original location, and the Piroshky-Piroshky place a few doors down (featured, apparantly, on one of Anthony Bourdain's shows, but in my opinion, over-rated). We tried another bowl of clam chowder at Pike Place Chowder, whose claim to fame includes many awards and 1st place finishes in competition. But not equal to the Market Grill chowder, for us. Tasted a bit too commercial, or out of the can. But one saving grace of eating at Pike Place Chowder was the street performer we saw out the window, doing juggling and balancing acts. It was funny watching him entertain the kids who stopped by. He was doing well in the earnings department.
One other place we stopped by was called Turkish Delight, which sold, yes, turkish delight candies (and other things too). They were pretty good (though not quite a good as the ones we had in Paris). And actually, that's what Pike Place reminded me of the most -- the street market in the Bastille, in Paris. The same assortment of people selling real market products, i.e. fruit, veges, meat, fish, etc, plus arts and crafts, and others selling honey, food, oil, and all kinds of other things. At least, this is what the upstairs main part of Pike Place reminded me of. A real market.
I was reading on wikipedia that the Pike Place organization makes a big effort to keep farmers in the mix, and to keep Pike Place as a real place to buy raw food, because they know farmers these days have many other outlets to sell, from other farmer's markets, to specialty stores, to supermarkets. Hopefully, they'll be able to keep the formula going, because despite the plethora of tourists, it still felt very authentic.
So after Pike Place, we made our way back to the hotel for a short rest, then headed out again to do the Underground Tour. Getting there, we got caught in a heavy downpour, but escaped most of it by riding the bus to Pioneer Square. This area is the old area of Seattle, that was rebuilt after the "Great Fire". The Underground Tour teaches a lot of Seattle history and folklore, and was quite interesting.
We finished the day by walking to the Crab Pot. This restaurant is famous for giving you a whole pile of shellfish and giving you a mallet to crack everything open. It was a good spectacle, but food quality was mediocre. Pretty fresh, but boiled in over-salted water that didn't help with the taste. And their desserts (which we skipped) were giant! In fact, I'd recommend just going there for dessert, if you want a really good value for money.
We arrived in Seattle in late afternoon on Saturday. Weather was showery. We took the Grey Line bus from the airport, since it conveniently has a stop at the hotel. The driver was quite talkative, though we were sitting somewhat back, so didn't get involved. He mentioned the Purple Cafe as we passed it, and said it was very popular. So when dinnertime came around, we walked there, but they said 1.5 hrs wait.
The backup was Shucker's, in the Fairmont. Earlier, we had seen on opentable that there was a rez available at 8pm, though we didn't make it. After being informed of the wait at Purple Cafe, we went to Shucker's, only to be told that there would be no tables until 8:30pm. But when we went back onto opentable, it still showed the 8pm reservation, so we made it, and went back. They seemed surprised, and said that they could seat us right away. It was pretty full when we went in, but tables opened up, but we thought, well, they'll be filled by people with reservations soon. But no, the place actually got emptier. Not sure of the motivation of the front person, but anyway, the food turned out to be pretty good, if somewhat expensive, and we had a good time there.
The next day, we got up reasonably early to make good use of the day. First stop was a waffle place we found on Yelp, Sweet Iron Waffles. "Authentic Liege recipe" was their tagline, and they were pretty good. We then walked down to the shore, and then found Pike Place Market. What an interesting place! What a wonderful place! The Ferry Building in SF might have aspirations to be like Pike Place, but in fact, it is a pale imitation, and way too expensive, to boot. My hat is off to the groups who run Pike Place. It's atmospheric, has character galore, supports all sorts of interesting merchants, has things that you don't find anywhere else (like, the world famous fish throwing fishmonger, where we, along with many others, stood waiting for them to to throw fish!). It's also huge with such a variety, and no mass produced knick knacks.
There are also some good eating places at the market. We found the best clam chowder at the Market Grill, and on a later day, good breakfast at Lowell's (which has a great view too -- in fact, lots of view from many different places at the Market).
There are other buildings that comprise the market area, and we wandered around. We accidentally ran across the Starbucks original location, and the Piroshky-Piroshky place a few doors down (featured, apparantly, on one of Anthony Bourdain's shows, but in my opinion, over-rated). We tried another bowl of clam chowder at Pike Place Chowder, whose claim to fame includes many awards and 1st place finishes in competition. But not equal to the Market Grill chowder, for us. Tasted a bit too commercial, or out of the can. But one saving grace of eating at Pike Place Chowder was the street performer we saw out the window, doing juggling and balancing acts. It was funny watching him entertain the kids who stopped by. He was doing well in the earnings department.
One other place we stopped by was called Turkish Delight, which sold, yes, turkish delight candies (and other things too). They were pretty good (though not quite a good as the ones we had in Paris). And actually, that's what Pike Place reminded me of the most -- the street market in the Bastille, in Paris. The same assortment of people selling real market products, i.e. fruit, veges, meat, fish, etc, plus arts and crafts, and others selling honey, food, oil, and all kinds of other things. At least, this is what the upstairs main part of Pike Place reminded me of. A real market.
I was reading on wikipedia that the Pike Place organization makes a big effort to keep farmers in the mix, and to keep Pike Place as a real place to buy raw food, because they know farmers these days have many other outlets to sell, from other farmer's markets, to specialty stores, to supermarkets. Hopefully, they'll be able to keep the formula going, because despite the plethora of tourists, it still felt very authentic.
So after Pike Place, we made our way back to the hotel for a short rest, then headed out again to do the Underground Tour. Getting there, we got caught in a heavy downpour, but escaped most of it by riding the bus to Pioneer Square. This area is the old area of Seattle, that was rebuilt after the "Great Fire". The Underground Tour teaches a lot of Seattle history and folklore, and was quite interesting.
We finished the day by walking to the Crab Pot. This restaurant is famous for giving you a whole pile of shellfish and giving you a mallet to crack everything open. It was a good spectacle, but food quality was mediocre. Pretty fresh, but boiled in over-salted water that didn't help with the taste. And their desserts (which we skipped) were giant! In fact, I'd recommend just going there for dessert, if you want a really good value for money.
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