In Search of the Ultimate Fish

At left, we have a not very good picture of the Pike market, which is right next to downtown Seattle. If I were to turn around and take a picture (I didn't), you'd see rows of skyscrapers filled with offices and pricey shops. Pike market is very old, and is a large open-air fish market. It's about 6:45 in this picture, and the market closed at 6:00, so I wasn't able to actually purchase any fish, but I did walk over and take a look.

You can't see it too well, but directly behind the building is Puget sound. Seattle isn't really on the ocean, but there is a huge inland lake of sorts that eventually connects to the ocean, with the freshwater flowing from the mountains and gradually getting saltier as it gets further along. Much of the lake was artificially built; a local tells me that this was so the U.S. Navy could harbor battleships in the Seattle area, and there is a massive system of locks that raises the ships the requisite twelve feet to go between the bodies of water.

The market (and the whole downtown area) is nearly two miles from my hotel. There's a two-mile-long monorail line that was built for the world fair back in 1962, and it runs from the fairgrounds surrounding the space needle to the big downtown shopping center. So you can take the monorail from the needle all the way into downtown, rain pattering off the windows, gazing down at the miserable looking pedestrians shuffling through the gray streets below. Or at least that's what I would have done if the monorail weren't down for repairs -- instead, I did the shuffling thing and walked along underneath the tracks so that I wouldn't get lost. I picked up a few things at the shopping center, mostly gifts for people before I go. I might give away some of the stuff when I get back; it depends on who is nicest to me ;-).

Although I wasn't able to get any from the market, I did finally pick up a bit of seafood. I dropped by our hotel restaurant and got the salmon plate. The waitress pointed out that they do their salmon "medium rare," and if I want it a different way I should ask. I took it their way, and they served it up on a fancy square dish with a vinegary yellow sauce drizzled artistically over the top. The salmon was seared crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, and was really, really good. Being close to the ocean really does make a difference, it seems.

It's still raining. The sky is still gray. Hooray for Seattle!