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A Birthday of Favorites




Today is my birthday so I am spending it at all my favorite places and doing all my favorite things. 


Everyone has a local farmer's market they like going to on Saturdays but before the popular trend started popping up around the country, there was…



 the Public Market in Seattle


or the official name, The Pike Place Market.

This is my absolutely favorite place.


The Public Market was always a regular stop for me as a Seattleite.


Can you believe there was a time when they were going to tear it down?  But we got involved in the movement to preserve the Market and bought a tile to donate money towards it.


We also bought a tile for my parents, Dick and Anne Hernon, so our love for the Market will be preserved forever.  We have so many favorite places here. The fish, of course, is the best.  We are always amazed at how the prices keep going up.


We are lucky to be able to eat our fill of king salmon from Bruce's fishing trips to Canada.  There is a video that has been made about the Pike Place Fish Market called Fish emphasizing a positive attitude in the workplace and using these employees as an example.  I could have told you this before the video was made

because part of the wonderful thing about the Public Market is the wonderful people here.  There are lots of tourist, of course, but the whole atmosphere of the vendors and shops is the best.  One of my favorite places is the French bakery


where we noticed some French tourists and as they paid for their bakery items, the cashier started speaking French to them!  Love it!


Listening to this exchange between customer and merchant at the Public Market is just a typical reason why I love it here.  Especially as we're eating our French pastry….


The atmosphere of the Public Market is what draws us here over and over again.


Today was not a busy tourist day as you can see…I've been here when the line is out the door, like it always is at the "original" Starbucks.

Even street musicians gather here to cash in!  Some of the tourist things are a little silly to me.  I use to catch the bus in front of the second Starbucks on Broadway during my college days, before they served espresso drinks.  We didn't even know what espresso drinks were back then!  We just thought it was neat that Starbucks would serve a cup of "coffee of the day".  Another favorite is a bakery that serves a multitude of cinnamon rolls such as whole wheat, regular with icing, sticky bun, gluten free, etc...

This is right down from Beecher's Cheese 


one of the best of the Market.


and much, much, more.


But I'm not done telling you about my favorites, yet.  Like the wonderful Italian grocery shop, De Laurenti.


Do you need any olive oil


or wonderful pasta?


You can also pick up some pasta out with the vendors.  No shortage of pasta at the Market


or flowers that are always breathtaking


and not expensive at all.  A bouquet for $5.00 -$10.00


and plenty to choose from.  

You don't have to worry about anything running out whether it be a food 

or non-food item at the Market.


All this shopping and delicious food made us hungry so we stopped in at our favorite place to have lunch at the Market

 called the Sound View Cafe.
They have great soup, salad and espresso



and a killer view, thus the name.


But if you don't feel like coffee then you can go to Market Spice where we always get our free cup of Market Spice tea.


This day was a beautiful day at the Market


so we took in some gorgeous scenery



How can you beat this?  By taking a ferry 



across Puget Sound to Bremerton


 where we met Nick and Sachiyo for my birthday dinner at Anthony's Home Port.


This was, of course, after Bruce and I took in a Mariner game since I wanted to do all my favorite things on this day and the Mariners were having a day game today. We purposely did not sit is our season ticket seats because we wanted to sit in the sun in the outfield.  A beautiful view.


After the game we walked down to the ferry terminal where we met Lauren for our trip across Puget Sound.


Anthony's restaurant is right next to the ferry terminal, an easy walk since we walked to everything today.

They use a lot of fresh berries in many of their dishes.



 They are known for their seafood and have multiple locations in the area.


Dig in!


We had a delicious and very fun dinner.  


Happy Birthday to me!



But wait, it's still not over.  I'm not totally done doing my favorite things on my birthday so after another gorgeous ferry ride into town


we headed up to Dilettante on Broadway.


Dilettante is just a few blocks from where I use to live on Capitol Hill where they've now added a third Bellevue E. since I lived there 32 years ago...


Bruce and I had a few dates at Dilettante in our day.



It's always been one of our favorite places - with good reason.



A perfect way to end my day of favorite things.









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