May 1 - United States: Seattle, WA

Jon went for a late run this morning, despite setting the alarm for an earlier time.  When he got back, he showered and spent some time taking advantage of Mel and Ken's DSL connection.  We did some research into the Grand Canyon, campsite reservations, and backcountry hiking permits.  Unfortunately for us, the high demand for Grand Canyon campsites has actually forced us to plan dates for part of our trip.  What a drag that is! 

Anyway, all this web surfing and online research took a lot longer than we'd planned.  Next thing we knew, it was 2:00 and we were starving for lunch.  So we hopped on the bus outside Ken and Mel's and headed into downtown Seattle.

Pike Farmer's Market

Pike Market had all sorts of good stuff, from fish to meats to local craftsmen's goods.  And flowers - tons and tons of flowers.  Tulips were absolutely everywhere, which Mel and Ken told us are grown right outside of town in massive tulip fields.  

Tulips in Pike Market

We walked around the market for a while, and then decided it was long past time for lunch.  We walked across the street and into a little alleyway, where there was a small place with yellow counters called "Sisters".  I had a very yummy Spanish Split-Pea Soup and Jon had a chicken sandwich.  We treated ourselves to two HUGE cookies at a corner bakery, and went back to the market to walk around.

Flying Fish

We found found the famous Pike Market Fish place, home of the "low flying fish".  It was right on the corner of the market and had accumulated quite a crowd of onlookers.  In case you've never heard of this, the place has a counter in the middle and fish all around.  Whenever someone picks out a fish, one of the guys outside the counter will pick up the fish, yell something like "Fish Flying!", and toss the fish over.  The guys behind the counter will repeat "Fish Flying!" and catch the fish to be wrapped up and wrung up at the register.  They yell all sorts of other things too, usually dependent upon the type of fish and the packaging.  But it's always guaranteed that the guys on the outside will yell, the guys on the inside will repeat, and fish will go flying everywhere.  And never EVER is anything dropped.  They're quite talented, especially when you think of how slimy those fish are.

A TNT film crew was there, filming a plug for the Sonics game.  The reporter was standing in the middle of the whole mess, saying his piece for the upcoming game as the guys yelled and sent fish flying past his head.  Pretty funny!

At one point, the main fish-thrower (who I think was the manager) turned around and said to the crowd, "Are any of you people going to buy fish today?!?!".  Despite this outburst, I get the impression that there is always a crowd of sight-seers outside this place.  How could there not be?

Low Flying Fish (the guy in the tie is the reporter)

We walked around the market for a while longer before leaving to walk around the city.

In Front of the Market

I think that Seattle is much more like New York than I'd ever expected.  The architecture, the cars, and - surprisingly - the people.  Although this city is supposed to be the hip and cool center of the underground rock-n-roll scene, that doesn't mean that they're laid back.  People here drive angrily, walk quickly, and don't make eye contact.  Just like NYC!  Kind of makes me homesick, actually.

We walked around the city for a while before we hopped on the bus and headed back to Mel and Ken's place.  We got there around 7:00ish and woke Ken up from his late-evening nap.  Then we ordered Chinese Food from a very yummy restaurant and spent the rest of the night playing Mah Jong.  We also looked at their pictures from China and a very cool PowerPoint slide show that Mel had put together.  She gave us a copy of it including the accompanying music.  Then we all went to bed.