Pike’s Place & A Secret Bar

For our second day in Seattle we had one main objective: Pike’s Place Market.

After a quick breakfast at Sweet Iron Waffles (we didn’t want to fill up and miss out on the delicacies at the market) we walked along the hilly streets until we saw it.

I was excited to see this market for a couple of reasons. The biggest being the seafood. I know I’ve already professed my undying love for all the fishes and creatures of the sea so I won’t revisit, but seriously this was the seafood mecca. 

Any and every type of seafood you could imagine waited, perfectly situated in a bed of ice, for market-goers to select for their deliciously fresh meal. 

It was beautiful.

If you can think of fish as beautiful that is.

    

Huge bunches of flowers could be yours for as little as $5. Compared to the pitiful bunches selling for $15 at Sam’s club back home, I was just amazed. 

Fresh, local fruit.

    

Fresh, local vegetables.

A food lovers paradise. 

We walked along taking notes of the smoked salmon prices so we could stop back later to stock up for our picnic, then made a beeline for a truffle store we had spotted. I am addicted to truffles, and I have dragged husband down with me. Since truffles aren’t readily available in South Dakota, nor our wallets overflowing, we go for what some might call truffle by-products. White truffle oil and truffle salt in hand we finally moved on. My mouth was already watering thinking of enjoying my breakfast of eggs and truffle oil. 

    

And of course we stopped by the first Starbucks. 

I still had a hankering for oysters and champagne, so for the next bit of our day we took a walk down by the waterfront and stopped by Elliott’s Oyster House for their happy hour. 

I was so excited to finally have fresh oysters I forgot to take a picture :-/.

Before dinner we stopped for drinks…

then grubbed at Wild Ginger. I don’t feel like we really explored the Asian food Seattle has to offer like we should have given our love for the cuisine. Our meal at Wild Ginger was incredible though. It was dark and not really conducive to pictures, but we split two starters and a main dish off the menu, and nearly couldn’t finish it all. It was one of the best meals we had the whole trip.

As we sat at the bar before dinner husband overhead someone mention a bar called the Bathtub Gin & Co., so after dinner we went on the search for it. We had the address, but even after plugging it into the GPS we found ourselves at the edge of a large parking lot between two big buildings at the spot where the bar was supposed to be. Husband acted on a hunch and set off through the parking lot to a sort of alley, and sure enough, a tiny little metal plaque was located beside a random door letting us know we had found it. 

We ended up staying till close to closing time. The bartender was absolutely incredible. I can’t say that I’ve ever seen someone work there magic behind the bar like that guy did. I told him my favorite cartoon character was Jessica Rabbit so he made me a drink in her honor. It was some sort of concoction of the below liquors and garnished with a candied hibiscus. It was perfect. 

McChord is a base we have on our “dream sheet” list, and I would say after this day it may have become our top choice. The thought of being able to access the market, the city, the…everything Seattle on a regular basis made my head spin with excitement. Even husband fell in love with it all (well probably more so the prospect of the fishing). Fingers crossed next month brings us good news 😉