Seattle: Piroshky, Plumbing Problems, and...Star Trek?

The flower market.

First thing in the morning I walked to Pike Place Market. I have a long history of eating my way through farmer's and public markets. I wasn't going to miss out on another opportunity. I arrived just as flower sellers, artisans, and other vendors were setting up for the day.








This is home to the famous Pike Place Fish Market where they throw fish. I saw fish being thrown. I saw ice being tossed. I saw something that looked like it crawled from the deepest depths of the ocean get wrapped up, sold, and taken away apparently to be eaten. To get over the sight of this I walked directly to the Daily Dozen Doughnuts Company and bought a half dozen maple bacon donuts. (Anyone who read about my adventures in South Dakota knows my history with maple donuts)

A half dozen at Daily Dozen equals eight by the way. That was a nice surprise. The doughnuts were divine and disappeared down my gullet in record time. They give them to you in a brown paper bag that just adds to the whole idea that you are indulging in something completely sinful. They are diabolically delicious!

The donuts!!!

Yes, bacon makes everything better. Maple bacon donuts.

These guys great you when you add milk or cream to your coffee.

I wandered some more. Photographed things and people. Sampled cheese curds and seasonal apples. And then I entered Piroshky Piroshky! I had a potato, mushroom, onion, and dill piroshky. This was a pillow of light, buttery, doughy heaven.

Piroshky being born.

I dream of eating more of these.

The sun came out again around noon.

Pioneer Square

I wandered my way down to Pioneer Square. This is the oldest section of Seattle. I got a ticket for Bill Speidel's Underground Tour. This tour takes you down below the streets to where the original Seattle was built in the late 1800's, when the city was the final stop for outfitting adventurers seeking gold in Alaska, as well as a huge center for logging operations. This tour was a lot of fun and provided a ton of information about the history of Seattle. Seattle was built in a tidal zone. This soon became a huge problem as the area flooded regularly... as in with every tide. And it especially caused issues with plumbing and the installation of the first sewer system. Let's just say exploding toilets are not a myth. Many of the original wooden buildings of Seattle burned in 1889. People began rebuilding in stone soon after but then city officials decided to raise the streets 15 feet above the tidal zone. So for a time buildings were built with entryways on their second floors in preparation for this. So, using land from the surrounding cliffs, the roads were raised but not the sidewalks. At least not at first. One would have to cross the street using ladders. Then finally the old sidewalks were covered over creating a whole underground system of passageways in Pioneer Square. Today you can get a glimpse of this hidden world.

Any tour that begins in an alley filled with garbage has to be good right?

Wandering the Underground

Possibly one of the problematic toilets.

As you wander Pioneer Square you will see these beautiful purple inlays in the sidewalk. What are they?

Those purple inlays are actually the light source for the original sidewalks that became underground passageways when the streets where raised 15 feet.

After emerging from the depths of 1880s Seattle I walked back up to Pike Place. I bought two flavors of yogurt at Ellono's Greek Yogurt. I got rhubarb and peach. This yogurt is dairy fat heaven. Then I picked up some barbecue to go from Pike's Pit Barb-B-Cue.

I walked/slogged up an incredibly steep hill in search of the monorail (also built for the 1962 World's Fair). I stumbled upon a Standing with Standing Rock/No DAPL rally. This was fantastic. I have been a supporter of this protest for months. Some of the speakers had just got back from canoeing to North Dakota.

Water Protectors.

 After showing my support for the water protectors fighting the pipeline that threatens their sacred land, I finally found the monorail and took it back to Seattle Center. It's kind of neat how the EMP museum was built around the tracks of the monorail.

The Monorail

I took a tea break and sat on the couch in my hotel room. I watched the long line of people snaking their way up to the elevators of the Space Needle. Watched the elevators go up and down for a while. Fully caffeinated I headed across the street to the EMP museum. The is the Experience Music Project museum, a museum fully devoted to pop culture. Its a fantastic museum full of some of my favorite things. There was huge Star Trek exhibition going on. That was my first stop. They had the original bridge of the Enterprise. It was fascinating to find out what George Takei (Sulu) and Walter Koenig (Chekov) were really staring at when they were sitting in their seats and punching buttons. There were some fun interactive things to do. I think I may still be a Borg from participating in one of them.

Overview of the exhibition. Can you name which Enterprise that is?

Details of the original bridge. Now you know what Chekov was looking at. Also TV history is being made in the background of the bottom left shot. Do you know that scene's significance?

I explored the Jimi Hendrix and Nirvana exhibitions. And then it was into the Sci-Fi and Fantasy exhibits. This was so much fun. I saw an original Dalek and Cyberman from Dr. Who. They had Number Six's red dress from Battlestar Galactica. And finally, they had the original Greedo mask from Star Wars!

A Dalek. I was surprised it was made of wood! And Number Six's dress.

My geek/nerd fangirl heart was beside itself with joy.

Greedo. With hands like that I think we can figure out who shot first.