Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jog

The famous Pike Place Fish Market - home of the "flying" fish.

Janet and I returned home from Seattle late Saturday afternoon. We were both quite exhausted and had had our fill of the noise & people watching that visiting a big city offers ! The APNQ (Association of Pacific Northwest Quilters) show was the best yet! Their new venue in the Seattle Convention Center is wonderful! Room enough to see the quilts without getting claustrophobic (and I do get that way!) & room enough to be able to get to the vendors (they were all much happier!). There were more quilts this year & they were all very high quality. Some were utterly mind blowing - I hope that some of the quilts will be entered into Houston so that more people will get to see them! Although this show is probably 1/5 the size of Houston Festival, it is growing every year. The Convention Center offers APNQ the ability to grow comfortably. WoW ! It was a really awesome show and I was tickled to have one of my pieces in it this year especially. I don't feel comfortable posting any of the photos I took because of copyright & other issues - but APNQ made a CD of the show which I hope they will soon add to their website. At $15.00 it's a bargain! A brilliant idea ---and something that I really wish IQA would consider doing in Houston!

A "Duck" mobile - scenic tours of Seattle - fun huh?

We did an awful lot of walking - especially since we don't get the opportunity to come to the "big" city too often! I wore a comfortable pair of shoes but was still hobbled by Friday evening with really painful blisters. A good reminder to bring TWO pairs of very comfortable shoes and to wear socks in Houston this year! Poor Janet was tasked with "hunter gatherer" duties on Friday evening - she went to a grocery store to get some dinner whilst I lay with my feet up!
Downtown offers the 'normal' bevy of shopping opportunities, but as always my biggest thrill was being able to go to a BIG bookstore. Heaven! I had also hoped to go to a pen shop or two - but that didn't happen this trip, which was just as well since I needed no further temptations!

World famous Pike Place Public Market

Janet had not been to the Pike Place Market for more than three years. For me it had been considerably longer. It really is an amazing place - celebrating it's 101st year. The freshest produce, flowers, bread, cakes, cookies, honey and superb crafts of all kinds. The flowers this time of year are spell binding - the lilies scented the air like heaven - and the colors were inspirational. I found a place that carved chops - on stones that were carved according to the Chinese "animal years" and I had my initials carved on a Rabbit chop - something I had wanted to have done for some time...only $25. I have only been to the Market several times & I had NEVER seen it as crowded as it was this day......it was almost unbearable for me ...one of those take a step, wait, take another step - all the while people crushing and pushing and rushing past. The strollers made it especially interesting as the aisles are probably only perhaps 5 feet wide!

One of the delightful small parks right near the Market

Street musicians were plentiful - and that's one part of city life that I do like. This young man danced within the boundaries of one hula hoop while he "hula-ed" with another as he played and sang. Quite well too. There was another group of fine singers who were singing Gospel music - they were really,really good. As we walked back towards them after another walk around the area I noticed that they were getting into a huge new Chrysler! As Janet remarked - it's all about our preconceptions!

I just could not resist taking a picture of this young ladies ensemble. Love those orange cheetah spotted tights!

One of the awesome bouquets that greet you at almost every step in the Market....nature's splendor at it's freshest & finest! We had a wonderful time & were so glad that we had gone. This quilt show is fabulous & well worth the effort to get to. It's only an every other year show & allows you to see the best of the best that our region has to offer. Janet and I were also happy to see the ferry pulling into the dock & being home again. Being home, after all, really is the the best part of any good trip!