Starbucks

Daily Mileage=9;Total trip 6009. (We hoofed it today, being in a city!)

Well, today's blog title is for all you Starbucks fans and/or employees. Apparently there aren't too many song titles with "Seattle" in them, but a bunch with "Starbucks." I think that says it all. And, yes this is a real title to a song.

So, of course, you can't come to Seattle and not see a Starbucks or some other kind of coffee place here. We stopped at the first Starbucks ever (established in 1971) to take a photo, especially for Mike Matos who works at Starbucks in NC. Mike, we've been to the coffee mecca! (Sorry if we are about to offend anyone, but we're really not fans of Starbucks coffee and don't get me started on what "I Believe" about their stores and the customers in them! Just the same, we, even had to stop by.)

Today we were exploring Seattle. It's another great city surrounded by hills (like San Francisco) and water everywhere. This makes it different than Portland or Denver, two other cities that we liked very much. It has all the culture, diversity, restaurants and shopping etc., that make living in a cosmopolitan area ideal. The one thing that I think is different with these western cities (other than size, they are way smaller than NY) is that you can see nature and be in nature in a short amount of time. Again, Seattle has these great views of mountain ranges just about everywhere. Mt. Rainer is visible as are the other Cascade peaks.

We took a harbor cruise to see the city from a different perspective. We happen to be here when the sun is out and that may make a difference in our liking the city. Seattle has about 250 cloudy, sunless days, which is why people think it's a rainy city. It actually gets less rain than Miami, NY and Boston but the lack of sun does some damage on the moods of its residents (they have a high suicide rate). We don't see that because we've had great weather while we've been here.

We also went to Pike's Place which is a huge city market that was started so people could eliminate the "price gauging" middlemen back in the 1880's. It's still a wonderful place filled with stalls selling everything from apples to zucchini. It's the home of several fresh seafood vendors that not only sell you the fish but put on show while doing so. You have to watch along with all the others (mostly tourists) while the 10lb salmons "fly" through the air. There are some of the most beautiful flowers we have ever seen available in bouquets starting at $5.00 and not many over $10. They beat out the Korean markets I used to buy from in NYC. Of course, there are samples of food everywhere you go. So we ate our way through the "Farmer's Market." So much for losing weight!

Rich once again met a new friend as he does almost everyday. Her name is Rachel and she is an actual piggy bank (not named after Rachel Ray as you may think because of the food connection). The money collected in her is used to support children's charities in the area. There are even little "hoof" prints" around her with benefactors names on them. Very cute!

We then walked over to Pioneer Square which is an older part of the city. It has all the old building fronts and lampposts etc., with all the new art galleries and restaurants in them. We didn't take the "underground tour" which looked interesting (apparently Seattle just built over their burnt out city in the late 1800's and you can still see some of the old streets down below). We opted to just walk around above ground and ended up at the Klondike Gold Rush Museum. It told about the "gold fever" that started in Alaska back in the late 1880's into the early 1900's. Seattle became the departure point for the journey north into Alaska. I'll sum it by saying the people gave up a lot, underwent major hardships and for the most part didn't get any fortunes of gold. It's a lot easier to buy a lottery ticket today. Interestingly, John Nordstrom, ancestor of the current day Nordstrom's heirs, did some prospecting and in the end, did better selling shoes in Seattle which turned into the "gold mine" that Nordstrom's is today!

Of course we had a few drinks at happy hour overlooking the harbor and the sunset. Once again, we talked to the locals and learned about their city from their perspective (which is sometimes different than the Fodor's guide!!). All day long we had eaten steamed clams, mussels and some wonderful raw oysters (not cheap but really great) as we headed to one of the "local" sights. It's the troll under the Fremont bridge (An old hippy town that still is quite with it.) This was a community art project that was done as a city wide art competition. We figured, how can we miss seeing a troll? And where do they live but under a bridge. He even has a VWbug in one of his hands. So here's our "out of the way" place for Seattle.

As we say good night, we are dining in our room on some of the purchases from today's stroll through the market which include: locally made cheese, wonderful crostini, great salami, WA state wine and chocolate covered cherries. Life is indeed very good! We hope you do not run into any trolls but if you do, offer him some really good wine or maybe some chocolate...Love & Joy, Mare & Rich