Being a Tourist

Scott got flack at work for this, but we spent all Friday being tourists in our own city. It was great fun!

First up, we headed to Pike's Place Market, where we oohed, aahed and ate our way through the various stalls. We sampled some "Oh My Gosh" peaches, Mayberry jam and Market Spice Tea and then stopped by Piroshky Piroshky to get a taste of their piroshkies. Then we assembled our dinner for the night: Beecher cheese curds for appetizers, fresh wild Alaskan salmon with Diana's famous lemon-tomato-basil butter and asparagus for our mains, and monster mangoes and peaches for dessert.

Even though we were tempted to stop and get more to eat, we had already made plans to head over to Salumi for lunch. Salumi is a cured meats deli that was started by Mario Batali's father. It gets tons of business becuase of this claim to fame, but it IS deserved becuase the food is so tasty. They are only open for lunch on weekdays so we scrambled over to get some eats. After waiting in line for almost 1.5 hours (!), we finally sat down at the communal dining table to our food. Vicky and I shared a sample Meat + Cheese Platter as well as a side of Green Beans with Pancetta while Diana ordered a Salami sandwich, and it was all taaasty.

With our bellies full, we mosied over to Seattle Center, home of the Space Needle, Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum. We zipped up 520 feet in the elevators to the top of the Space Needle, hoping to get some nice pictures, but alas, it was very windy and cloudy. Still, at least now I can say I've actually been to the top!

Last on our packed agenda was the famous Duck Tour. The "duck" is an amphibious truck that was first built in 1942 for use during WWII, and the tour takes you for a 90 minute ride through Seattle on land and water. This is the ultimate tourist trap - hokey, silly and embarassingly fun. Whenever you see these open-air trucks driving through the city, you can hear music blasting from the truck's radios and all the people sitting on the bus are either singing along at the top of their lungs or sliding down into their seats becuase they are embarassed to be seen. There is no middle ground - seems like people either love it or hate it!

And now, Scott and I can count ourselves as part of the pack that loved it! The tour itself isn't that great since the tour guide (ours was the crazy Helen Wheels. haha, get it?) didn't cover too much of the history or give us many fun facts about Seattle. It is a hoot though, that there is lots of laughing and singing involved AND you get to marvel at how the car drives straight into the lake and keeps on truckin'. And, lastly, the tour gets brownie points becuase I have been dying to figure out where the Sleepless in Seattle houseboat is and they floated us right by it! Can you figure out which one it is in the photo?