Pike's Market

The two stadia

Seattle waterfront

The space needle

Pike's Market

lots of mushrooms. The truffles come from around there

X-mas Pike Pigs

My BIL and a decorated bike

These scallops were huge

rotating ampersand

symbol of Seattle

Steve and eraser sculpture

This is the map of where my father-in-law's infantry unit fought during WW2. It is falling into dust.

Close-up of their unit's D-Day landing..not one of the first units. However their unit saw much more action  a few months later in the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium. Their unit was the first American unit to see action in Europe/Africa in the Battle of Algiers.

Today is our last day in Seattle. We take the red-eye tonight. I am debating myself whether I want to go for one more run in the relative warmth (relative to Michigan) or nurse my cold spending time with the family. It's my nephew's 15th birthday today.

Monday night we had a wonderful Italian dinner after having some trouble finding a place that would seat all 9 of us in one table. Suffice it to say, I am getting plenty of practice parallel parking in small spots amid honking traffic. Unlike the first day that I ran, yesterday was calm, dry and warm. Looking at the forecast before flying here, rain was predicted every single day. Today there was supposed to be torrential rains but I actually see the sun. Green Lake is a perfect place to run. My sister-in-law used to live closer (she is now a mile away with 2 impossible hills in the way) and some mornings I'd run 3 times around though that was in my marathoning days.There is a huge flock of these bizarre water birds that are called coots on the lake along with some wood ducks. When I get home, I'll load pictures.

I love Pike's Market, where we went to yesterday. Lots of exotic food and craft stalls.Again check for pictures in a few days. I didn't find any geoduck (pronounced gooey duck) which are huge disgusting pacific clams. Flesh oozes out of too small shells.

Geoduck from the web. In the past, there would be piles of these things are Pike's Market which I probably have photos of somewhere. These are small ones. Generally they weigh about 2 lbs but can weigh as much as 15 lbs. They are believed to have aphrodisiac properties

 One clam makes clam chowder for 50. The Chinese slice them up into noodle-like pieces and spice them. On our first trip here 24 years ago (which we came here in a train..note to self, cross country train trips and 4 year old antsy boys do not mix..by the end of the trip, all the passengers wished Josh's death), my then BIL bought some and I naively thought them to be particularly tough fishy noodles. Also on this same trip, I met up with my college boyfriend and walked around Green Lake together. When we were together, he was always criticizing everything I ate. You don't need that brownie! Oh But I do! And dear Reader, I was thin when we were together but he was skeleton-like. However in the 15 years that had passed and again I was in my marathon mode, I was devoid of fat and he had this little pot-belly on his otherwise thin body. I spent our walk thinking what could I have thinking..not because he had developed pudge but he really was not a nice person.
I lunched on Humbows..enormous baked Chinese buns and we hiked through now cold and windy weather to the sculpture gardens a mile away. When Steve leaned against one of them for a picture, a disemboweled voice appeared STAY ON THE PATH! STAY ON THE PATH!
Back at the house, my SIL took out a badly crumbling map of Europe detailing all the campaigns their father was in during WW2 during his 3 years of service. Much time was spent in Algeria and Tunisia before ousting Germans in Silicy. They were then transported to England for some time before D-day but his battalion didn't land on Utah Beach until 4 days after the first wave. However his battalion seemed to have the most losses during the Battle of the Bulge.We are trying to figure out how to preserve this map.
We had an adults only Happy Hour (kids are not allowed anywhere near a bar in Washington)in a downtown Argentine steakhouse. Yummy. I liked. my grapefruit martini.
My cold is making my sleep even more difficult. I do hate the middle of the night. My thoughts turn so negative and it's hard to block them out.
We are hoping things are not falling apart in Michigan in our absence. At least Michigan didn't have much snow but the predicted freezing rain might make our trip home difficult. The New Yorkers are still stuck in snow 3 days later.