Pike Place, The Gum Wall, and the Fremont Troll

One of the quintessential Seattle landmarks is The PUBLIC MARKET CENTER sign and clock above Pike Place. Of course, I forgot to photograph it, but here's the Corner Market building in the vicinity:

We went last Saturday and it was busy! I was in homegrown/handmade heaven in all the shops lining the street. It's most famous attraction, though, is Pike Place Fish, where the fishmongers (no, really, they like that term) throw great big fish around and shout and filet and cheer each other on.


Unfortunately, no fish were flying when we walked by and we didn't want to buy a big dead fish to carry around with us for the rest of the day so we kept walking.

Inside Pike Place is a labyrinth of shops and restaurants. I'm sure we missed half of it, but we did enjoy the Market Magic Shop. Sage got a can of Fancy Mixed Nuts. I know, it's an odd thing to buy in a magic shop, but try one.. no, really, just open it...

(just beware of flying snakes).

Next, we went to The Pike.

(Note to self: Take better pictures.) It's a brewing company, and a great place to stop when you're halfway through a hectic day. After that, we walked down to the Post Alley just behind it, to see the famous Gum Wall. Sage couldn't get there fast enough.

Wikipedia says it's "one of the top 5 germiest tourist attractions." Ew.

Of course McKenna wanted to touch it.

Gross as it is, it's pretty cool.

Unfortunately, we had no gum, or quarters to buy gum, so we weren't able to leave our germs behind.

Next time we will though, I'm sure we'll be back. Here's some pasted poster street art on the wall across from all the gum, I thought it was interesting:

Next, we walked down to Pioneer Square. I snapped a few studies in architecture along the way:

Then we walked along the Puget Sound to head back to our car. Here are the kids outside the Seattle Ferry Terminal.

And here they are with the statue outside Ivar's Fish Market.

Some city shots:

and the waterfront:

Are you still with me? We're not done yet. There's still a Space Needle to see:

taken from the car, on our way to see a troll who lives under the Aurora Bridge.

No kidding, check it out:

He's known as the Fremont Troll, and you can climb him...

and pick his nose,

and pretend he's gonna getcha.

You gotta love public art.

What a day!

Hello Seattle!!

We made it! The movers loaded all our belongings onto a truck and sent it to storage. We loaded the kids and the cat and the dog into my station wagon and survived the 18 hour drive from L.A. to Seattle. And now we're here! Actually, we've been here for 3 weeks. I was hoping by now we'd be settled into our house, but sadly, we're still in a hotel... with 2 kids and a dog and a cat and all our stuff in storage. Ugh. We're making the most of it though. Armed with a GPS, I take the kids out every day to explore someplace new. Erik's been here since May, so on the weekends when he's off work we go on family excursions to the must-see Seattle spots he's been wanting to show us.

Aside from not having a home to live in, I love it here so far. It's green and clean and it's been nothing but blue skies and warm sunny days since we got here. People keep telling me, "You just wait for winter, then you'll see what Seattle is really like." I say, "Bring on the rain!" After 5 years of drought, I'm ready.

Before we even got here, I had in mind to start a new blog chronicling our adventures in Seattle. I did this for our L.A. adventures on my other blog, a patchwork world, but this time I want to keep it separate. I'll still maintain a patchwork world for all things crafty and kokoleo though, minus the rambling picture-laden posts of our family outings. As much as I'd like to explore the hip underground art/music/bar scene and upload fancy food pics from Seattle's finest restaurants, our forays will most likely be limited to kid-friendly attractions, parks, lakes, and hiking trails. So, if that kind of thing doesn't bore you, let's get out and about...