Thompson Travelers

Traveling North, heading for a cruise to Alaska, we stop at the largest city in the Pacific Northwest, Seattle, Washington.

Hugging the edge of an meandering coastline, this active seaport city is the fourth largest in terms of handling containers, many coming in and out from Asia. It looks and feels a lot like San Francisco with lush greenery as a result of their heavy rainfall and cooler, misty weather.  In spite of forecasts to the contrast, we are thankful for a sunny, warm day without rain!

After checking into our hotel on the waterfront, it was only a three block walk to one of the most popular sites of the city…Pike’s Place Market, a several square block district of boutique shopping, beautiful flower markets, great eateries, farmer’s fruit and veggie stalls, fresh seafood vendors, many arts and crafts booths, and street musicians abounding around every corner.

We heard about throwing fish so we had to find out what that was all about.  To get the fish from the ice counters in the front to the fishmongers for cutting and scaling in the back, they take the whole fish and throw them over the counters…why?  It’s a lot more fun than walking the back and forth all day, so it has now become a thing they do and tourists love to come and watch the throwing of the fish. We watched a buyer come through and suddenly 8 – 20 lb salmon were flying across the ice to the back counters for sale, accompanied with lots of yelling and cheering.

It is a fun, lively, and colorful place with lots of great energy, people, music, food, and Seattle souvenirs.  Make sure to come and spend an afternoon here.  You’ll have a blast.