We flew to Seattle sitting on the south side of the plane as we headed west, and we came into the area with Mt. Ranier to the north of us, so we did not see it. But, when we got to Pike Market, at least we saw more Ranier cherries for sale than anywhere else on earth. Good Ranier cherries are one of the best tasting foods in the world, as everyone knows.

We didn’t buy anything at Pike Market, although we spent time walking around and looking at much of it. The top level is basically the level with foods, flowers and crowds, while the lower levels have fewer people and fascinating specialty shops.

Not to knock the top floor. The foods all look delicious and the flowers are beautiful.

Speaking of flowers, we just had supper at an outdoor beer garden, Citizen Collective, very comfortable in good weather, and with surprisingly good food (not fancy, but good). On one side, the garden is bordered by a block long passion fruit vine, whose flowers are unique and (to use that word again) very beautiful. Why don’t we cultivate passion fruit in D.C.?

As trips to the West Coast tend to be, the first day of this one was very difficult on food normalcy. I started off the day with an inedible apple danish at Dulles, which I trashed after 2 bites, and a cup of coffee, which for some reason I didn’t finish. To eat on the 5 hour plane ride, I bought a Greek salad with chicken from Cava. I ate about half of it (if that) at about 12:30 EDT, and threw the rest out. We stopped at Mr. D’s at Pike Market at about 2 p.m. PDT  and I got a piece of spanokopita and a strawberry lemonade, which I pretty much ate and drank, and I bought a red bean cookie at a Chinese bakery, but could only manage one bite. At the end of the afternoon, we stopped at The Crumpet House and I bought a lemon curd crumpet, which I didn’t like or eat and a cup of High Mountain Green Tea, which not surprisingly was delicious. Why was I not surprised? This was hanging on the wall:

So…a strange food day. One where I never had a full meal and never really liked what I had, until I got to Citizen for a light dinner. Boy, do they know how to make a BLT.

Seattle looks like an important place

and is a very busy place, filled with tourists from Toronto here for a Blue Jay – Mariners series, and from all over for the 4th of July and the USA-Belgium World Cup game Monday.

But for us, it’s a stopover. Tomorrow, at 11:30 a.m., we leave for Pier 91 and Alaska.

And oh, yes, basically a full day in Seattle and no coffee.