Seattle, Washington

7 - 8 September 2014

Finally...a city to explore.  It has been a while since we have been in a significant city.  As you all know...I love the mountains and hiking, but I also love the culture and great food that you can only find in major cities.

We staying in a hotel by the airport and used the airport shuttle to take us to the train station for a train that takes you right downtown.  This way we could stop at as many breweries as we want and not have to worry about riding.  Plus, it saved us at least $100 for a hotel room that is not inside the city limits.  Anyway, we got on the shuttle and train and headed straight to the Pike Street Public Market...yeah...the one that they throw the fish.

Seattle Public Market

That whole fish throwing thing is definitely for the tourists, but eating fresh, raw Sea Urchin right out of its shell isn't.

Yummy Sea Urchin. Yes I ate it and LOVED it!

Walking around the market was a rush of smells and colors.  I love these kinds of places.

Fruit and vegetable stand at the Public Market.

Flower stand at the Public Market.

This is kind of cool....just across from the Public Market is the first ever Starbucks coffee shop.  Check out the old logo:

Since we don't drink coffee we continued down the street to the famous Pike Place Chowder restaurant where we each did a 4 chowder tasting platter and shared a crab roll.

Awesome chowder.

After a run in with a Sasquatch we found ourselves at the Pike Place Brewing Company: 

Squatch sighting

The Pike Brewing Company, Seattle, Washington

We left the brewery and unfortunately, not really fortunately, we came across the infamous gum wall.  Yes...that is chewed gum that people stick to the wall in an alley by the Public Market.  Notice the hanging gum from the windowsill...and no...we didn't add to the collection.

Next we are off to find some breweries:

Peddler Brewing Company, Seattle, Washington

New Peaks Brewery, Seattle, Washington

Hilliard's Brewery, Seattle, Washington

Stoup Brewing, Seattle, Washington

Maritime Pacific Brewing Company, Seattle, Washington

From the looks on our faces in that last picture it looks like be better head back to the hotel, which we did after a short stop in Chinatown (no pictures for some reason).

We slept in pretty late the next day but did manage to get out and headed back to the Pike Street Public Market for breakfast.  We then headed to the old downtown area and took and underground tour.  After the Seattle fire of 1889 the city rebuilt and raised the sidewalks one street level to allow for sewage to drain versus filling streets.  You can take a tour of the original ground floor which was really pretty cool.

After the tour we were ready to visit a couple of breweries.  First stop was Elysian Fields Brewery that had a black wheat called Death Star, a beer to blow Alderaan to kingdom come, which I had to order.  Next stop was where I was looking forward to all day, Pyramid Brewery that brews one of my favorite beers, Pyramid Apricot Ale.

Elysian Fields Brewery, Seattle, Washington

Pyramid Brewery, Seattle, Washington

After a day of a lot of walking around we stopped in Chinatown again for dinner and ordered quite the feast that included Schezuan Dungeness Crab, Clams with Black Bean Sauce, and Shrimp Chow Fun.  I was so happy!!  By the way...this picture was taken at almost 11 PM and the restaurant is full.

After the feast we headed back to the hotel for our last nights sleep in Seattle.

Numbers Games
Total States Visited: 15 (New one: NONE)
Total Breweries Visited: 44 (New ones: Pike, Peddler, Hiliard's, New Peaks, Stoup, Maritime Pacific, Elysian Fields, Pyramid)
Total Miles Ridden: 6,433