Flowers and Fish

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day in Seattle.

The sun is out!

I needed to buy some produce and the likes so i could make some meals at the hotel because everything in this town is so damn expensive, so i made me way over to the well know Pike Place Market. It's where they famously throw fish at their paying customers. Oh and the first Starbucks is there too but Starbucks sucks. Aside from fish and seafood, they also have a wide selection of flowers, weird things to eat, fresh produce, knives, jewelry, art, and many other things you could expect to find at a farmers market or street fair.

Pike Place Market in the early 1900's

Pike Place Market was created by the city of Seattle in 1907 as a place that farmers could sell their own produce directly to the consumers to remove wholesalers who usually took too large of a cut for the farmers to break even. It was such a success that within a week there were as many as 70 wagons selling their goods and produce daily. In the 1920's and 1930's permanent stands, or arcades, were built to house the Market, and in the 1970's it was deemed a historic district.

The market at sunset

The market is right next to the waterfront. You can see Puget Sound in the background.

I walked around the market for a while just taking in all the tourists. It is definitely prime people watching territory. There was a street performer balancing a guitar on his chin and another guy singing a cover of the Linkin Park song Numb which got me laughing a lot more than it probably should have. There was plenty of fresh seafood, but living in a hotel and only have a microwave i couldn't buy any of it.  

one of the many seafood vendors

Rows and rows of flowers

The view from the top floor of the market overlooks the aquarium 

Fresh Salmon. I just wanted to start eating it!

They're all sleeping -.-

There were probably 25 flower vendors. So many flowers!

Aren't they pretty?

I purchased my produce and headed back to the hotel. I had the doorman send up a vase for some flowers i picked out too! Then i headed out to the library thinking i could maybe get a library card and check out some books or cds or movies or whatever for easy entertainment. I hadn't been to or seen the Seattle Public Library before but it is so weird and so cool. I took the escalators up to the top floor, and looked at the view. The library was designed in such a way that you can walk up it as if it were a giant spiral staircase with bookshelves all along the way. The graded levels are known as the spiral floors (floors 5 through 9 i believe). I slowly made my way down them, looking at all the sections and picking out a Cousteau book that i wanted to check out and read out by the waterfront. Sadly, when i finally made it down to the bottom floor and asked about a library card, i was informed a visitor car would cost $25, something i was not willing to pay. After that i went back to the hotel and rested while i waited for Nick to get home. 

There is something so incredibly comforting, relaxing, and purely "vacation" about reading a book in a hotel with the windows open, the breeze blowing in, and the sounds of the city rustling below you. I definitely recommend everyone to try this at least once in their life.

The Library

The East entrance

On the third floor, but really it's the second floor.

At the 10th floor you get this beautiful view 

And you can look down on the 3rd floor. It's so0o far down!

The spiral floors, each black number section is slightly slanted down, so the whole room is slanted, and you can just walk around in circles and actually go somewhere. 

He took us out to a nice dinner at a Japanese restaurant called Dragonfish. We got hot sake, miso soup, and two rolls of sushi. It was pretty delicious. I wasn't a fan on their Poke roll. They had put cilantro on it, and having grown up in Southern California, i recognize cilantro as a staple in mexican cuisine: salsa, guacamole, burritos, street tacos, etc. Nick really enjoyed it though. We also go their Dragonfish roll which was delicious and served on top of a really tasty sauce; not to sweet not too sour. It had cooked eel on top and ahi tuna inside. 

After dinner we went out and bought some vodka. We watched another episode of Twin Peaks and got hungry again so we decided to try to the recommended idea of making grilled cheese sandwiches with an iron. we didn't have any foil but said fuck it. They actually turned out really good.  

Two thumbs up, i definitely recommend doing this: Grilled cheese with an iron