avocado8

Leisurely

Greetings from SUNNY Seattle! We flew in yesterday to lovely cool spring weather, had a late lunch across the street and totally didn't care when the waitress forgot to put in part of our order and ended up serving us 20 minutes apart, went swimming and soaking in the hotel pool and jacuzzi, and toured the neighborhood a bit before putting the Beaner to bed early (we'd gotten him in his jammies before the walk so he could fall asleep in the stroller if he wanted, and he did). Travel was smooth and delay-free (in fact, we arrived early to both Chicago and Seattle), and we had the most relaxing and white knuckle-free cab ride the airport ever. The only bumps in the road were a bit of difficulty getting the carseat into our rental (a Toyota Highlander because they didn't have the Equinox we'd reserved), and the incredibly stupid move on our part of staying up to watch the LOST season finale after only getting 3 hours' sleep the night before. (Oh well, at least those two hours could also be used to upload the remaining 8 images from the Freeze bowling partly last weekend; while downloading via the "high-speed" internet in the hotel room is relatively quick, uploads happen in 30-40k bursts every 4-5 seconds.) Luckily we managed to convince the Beaner to go back to sleep for 3 more hours this morning after we woke up at 5:30am clawing and elbowing me until I shouted STOP IT! in sleep-deprived frustration.

My first instinct on getting out of bed at 8:30 this morning was, "oh, we'd better hurry and get to the market for breakfast!"... but then I thought "hey, this leisurely thing is working for us. Whatever is available when we get there will be the right thing." And it was: We stopped first at Three Girls bakery and ordered vast quantities of baked goods, continued on to the original Starbucks Coffee & Tea store for coffee, chai, and soymilk, and then crossed the street to the park to eat at a picnic table overlooking Puget Sound.

I took the photo of the sign last night; I took the rest this morning, when there were no clouds at all in the sky.

Being leisurely doesn't mean we weren't being calculating; the idea behind eating breakfast first, aside from satisfying hunger, was to keep us from shopping hungry and buying more than we could possibly eat later. Having been to Pike Place Market before, I had an idea that this strategy might not work, but it was worth trying. Looking at the array of brown bags that I helpfully labled DONUTS, PRETZELS & BROWNIE, CHERRIES, NUTS, PEACHES, CHOC. CROISS., and MAC & CHEESE on the desk here in front of me, I'd say that we were about as prone to buying things that looked yummy as ever. (I didn't even list the bags that *aren't* in front of me, which contain the leftover scones from breakfast, the most delicious red grapes I've had in a long time, blackberries, cheese curds, smoked salmon, and apple chips.) Most of these items we'll be saving to eat in the car on the way to Vancouver tomorrow, though I ate the Mac & Cheese from Beecher's cheese shop for lunch, and the Beaner has already had a bunch of grapes while watching Dora.

Anyway, as you can tell from our purchases we had a lovey morning at the market, poking around several t-shirt and craft booths as well as the food stalls. I got a cool t-shirt that was designed for a friend of the seller's 45th birthday (I'll upload a photo if it later, and the connection to 45 will be obvious to anyone old enough, like me, to remember 45rpm records). For the Beaner we got a Pike Place Market T and a kid-sized apron with a lobster on the front (his choice of design). After posing with the pig and watching the fishmongers throw and catch salmon (and learning from another fishmonger that the enormous halibut we were looking at was just a 20-lb. baby), we walked back up Pike Street toward our hotel. Al pushed the Beaner in the heavily-laden stroller (sadly, my ankle is VERY sore again today thanks to a couple tweaks yesterday) and continued on to what the Beaner calls the hotowel while I stopped at Rite Aid to buy some new toothbrushes (the Beaner used ours to clean a spot on the carpet when we weren't looking) and Borders to get some Dora and Diego books for the Beaner to read in the car tomorrow. I'm very much enjoying the mosey time with my family, but perhaps the best moment so far today I spent alone, on the corner across from our hotel, waiting for the walk sign and marvelling at the absolutely clear blue sky.