Seattle

Over Labor Day, Christina and I went to Seattle for a short four day vacation. I’ve always wanted to visit or live in Seattle - same California vibe without the high cost of living and one of the highest percentages of college grads in the country. As usual we ran ourselves ragged trying to see everything possible, we both came back home with colds. This time to convince Christina to go with me, I let her plan the trip, secretly having my own backup plan.

My favorite part of Seattle was Pike’s Place, which just celebrated its 100 anniversary as one of the oldest and largest farmer’s markets in the country. We took a food tour through Savor Seattle, a recent start up company by a former brand manager at Pepsi and Quaker Oats. Angela Shen, who founded the company less than a year ago, did a great job of finding iconic shops within Pike’s Place and telling the stories of the farmers and shopkeepers.

We sampled tea, tasted different types of honey, tried some Russian Paroshky pastries, learned why the Pike’s Place Fish Market is so successful, and sampled fruit from Frank’s fruit stand - where Frank and the three generations of Frank seniors before him have been running the fruit stand. We visited the first Starbucks which was in the middle of Pike’s Place, and saw the original logo (which has a bare breasted girl). We got to taste a small sample from each shop highlighting the best of Pike’s Place - but more importantly a five minute inside story about the history of the shop and the food.

What I really enjoyed about the experience was observing and thinking about the food tour as a business. For instance, how was Angela able to convince each shop keeper to give us great samples and the time to tell their stories - was there a commission or just the hope of future business? With each tour, there is a discount card that is given for a percentage off at all of the shops that we visited. Likely the secret is Angela’s ability to tell a compelling story and her ability to make relationships - every shopkeeper knew her like a best friend, even the security guards. Afterwards, we went on an Anthony Bourdain style tour of as many of the eateries as we could stand. Christina’s favorite was eating grilled cheese at Beecher’s Cheese Shop while watching the cheese being made.

The other really unique quirk about the market were the musicians. Usually when people play instruments, it might be a small guitar or keyboard. Well one guy was singing political satire songs defaming Bush with a large piano that he had rolled out from nowhere. Keep in mind this is a very hilly part of town, so getting the piano was no small feat. Christina was particularly disgusted by several barefooted guys who were playing guitars near the restrooms. Then of course, there was a slightly kooky “cat guy” - who attempted to do tricks with one cat, while talking to himself, and pretending to run a cat refuge for 12 cats (his apartment with a couple of tins of tuna). To get the full flavor, you have to see his “cat hat” and the t-shirt.

Christina’s favorite part of the trip was strangely my most unsatisfying part. We had at the last minute decided to go sea kayaking near San Juan Island, which is about a 3 hour car and ferry ride away from Seattle. San Juan has been named one of the best places to go diving and also is one of the top places in the world to see Orca whales (the type at Sea World). For Christina going sea kayaking was something that she never imagined herself doing, because she’s a non-swimmer and the waters near Seattle are extremely deep and extremely cold(but strangely calm). This was the real deal with two person sea kayaks, heavy life jackets, and spray skirts.

She held up like a trooper, where as I had made a couple of unwise decisions, such as wearing jeans and sneakers, and eventually got sea sick after four hours of paddling with a lunch break in between. Ultimately I ended up buying some cheap sweat pants and disposable sandals to tie me over for our ferry ride back home.

More Pictures From Seattle

• Christina’s Souvenir : A Savor Seattle T-shirt and a small Seattle magnet
• My Souvenir : Starbucks mug from with the original barechested maiden logo