27, 2012 Pike Street Market – Seattle, Washington

May 27,

2012 Pike Street

Market – Seattle, Washington

            After a bagel and cream cheese we left UBC around 7:30 a.m. to make sure we cleared U.S. customs and immigration, returned our rental car and picked up our wine we had cached in Snohomish.  We hit the border around 8:30 and there was only a five minute wait.  The Border Guard had been stationed in Fort Worth, so we had a pleasant conversation about Fort Worth instead of the usual twenty questions to satisfy him we were U.S. citizens. We drove the 120 miles to Snohomish and picked up our wine and repacked our suitcases in Snohomish and at around 10:30 around decided we could go to the Pike Street Market for about 45 minutes and still make it to the airport by 12.00 noon.

We found a public parking lot about one block from the market and went along only about one block of the market, but in that one block were a large assortment of permanent stands.  I bought a steamed bun filled with BBQ pork for Suzette and me (2 buns for $5.00) at a Zagat rated Chinese Pastry shop.  We then stopped at a fish monger shop and examined and purchased two pieces of smoked salmon ($19.95/lb.) and next door was a cheese shop where we purchased about 4 ounces of Leyden ($13.50/lb) and a small package of locally produced lavender flavored goat cheese ($7.00).

We then turned around and started back to our car when we passed a terrific fruit and vegetable stand with beautiful fresh berries.  We bought a quart box of blueberries ($3.99) and a pound of red Brooks cherries ($6.99) that were plump and delicious.  As we were paying I saw a quart carton of fiddlehead ferns ($5.00) next to some of the loveliest morels ($40.00/lb.) I have ever seen.   We bought the fiddlehead ferns and threw them in our bag with the salmon and cheese and baguette from the Mix Bakery in Vancouver and headed back to the car and to the airport.  We checked our boxes of wine and suitcases and took our food to a restaurant/beer pub in the airport and, with the assistance of the restaurant’s plastic forks and knives and plates and napkins, feasted on the blueberries, cherries, turkey sausage, smoked salmon, chesses, bread and beer.  After I fetched my sweater and hat that I had left at security check in, I met Billy, Elaine and Suzette at the gate.  We took the 1:30 p.m. Southwest flight back to Albuquerque and said goodbye to Billy and Elaine, who stayed on the plane for its continuation to Dallas.

A wonderful ending to a wonderful trip.