Portland Trip- Day 2 (Seattle!)

Day 2 of our Portland trip took place mainly in Seattle, but it started in Portland...

One of my favorite "food" shows to watch is "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives", so I searched the episodes for Portland. One place he went to was called "Pine State Biscuits". The food looked really good, so I put it on our list. Since biscuits is the main theme of the place, it was going to be our breakfast stop for morning number two. Of course I'm talking about second breakfast, because we ate a little bit of breakfast at the hotel. (I should say I ate a little, Anna had a medium breakfast at the hotel.) Here a youtube link to see what I'm talking about.

I had the Reggie, and Anna had the double down Moneyball. If I would have remembered about the stewed apples, I think I would have gotten that too. The Biscuits were awesome. We both agreed the Reggie was the better of the two. It's a tiny little place, but steadily busy.


After Pine State, we headed off to breakfast #3... more Voo Doo Doughnuts! This time we went to the second location, the pink building! This is where Anna went last year to have doughnuts. We like this location better. Shorter line, parking, and more room inside.

Unfortunately, we forgot to take pictures of the doughnuts we bought. We remembered to take one of the bacon maple bar though.

After doughnuts, (we only ate a couple, then saved the rest to eat throughout the day. Plus, we were stuffed!) we headed off to Seattle! About a 3 hour drive to the Space Needle. We would have gotten there sooner, except the speed limit for about 80% of the drive was only 60, and I didn't need to get a ticket, so I kept it pretty close to that the whole way. There were a couple of spots where it changed to 70, but only for a short time. Anyhow, we had the iPod going, and before we knew it, we were in Seattle!

Here we are at the top of the Space Needle. I think that's north east behind us.

We walked around the outside of the top a few times, looked though the telescopes and binoculars up there, and took pictures. There were also some interactive displays inside that explained the features of Seattle from the view of the Space Needle. On one such display we came across the Pike Place Market, and knew right away, that was the next place we would visit.

Just as we were about to leave, Anna heard a bartender pointing out the peak of Mt. Rainier. It was a bit hazy looking out that far, but we could just make it out. This is a picture of it, but it's tougher to pick it out in the photo.

When we were at the top of the Needle, we could see a kids play area below. When we came down, we went around to check it out. Here's Anna standing in the middle of one of the painted puzzle paths.

Before we drove off, we took a couple pictures of us in front of the Space Needle. There weren't a lot of people around to take our picture together, plus I'm just not big on disturbing people to ask them for a photo. But now I kind of wish we would have asked someone to take one of us together.

While interacting with the computer display at the Needle, not only did it mention the Pike Place Market, it pointed out a couple of points of interest at the market. One of them being this big brass pig bank named Rachel. It's the unofficial mascot of the market.

Another point of interest at the market is "gum alley". It's an area of the market where people have been sticking their gum on the wall for who knows how long. It's in an alley down from the main level. Anna was super jazzed to check it out. It's pretty gnarly. (btw- I'm touching the one I added.)

That's Anna's second gum to add. I think she left the bubble in it when she stuck it on.

Here's Anna standing by the Pike Place fish market stand. This is where they throw the fish people order to the guys who will ready it to take home. Right next to Anna is a huge Cod fish head. It's tied to a rope hidden in the ice. When people get close to it, and worker will pull the rope and freak out the near by person. It's pretty effective.

We got to the market in the later afternoon, and a lot of vendors pack up at about 5:30 and close at 6pm. That was our cue to start heading out. But before we left, we needed a couple more pictures. Here we are with the big sign at the corner of Pike Pl. and Pike St..

We needed to use the restroom before we drove off. I noticed that the entry ways had the male and female chromosome signs and pointed it out to Anna, who then needed a picture...

At one end of the market, there was this sign, so we asked some one to take our picture there. I think it's a pretty good shot.

On a side note, the weather in Seattle was great. The high was around 50 and there wasn't any rain. You can see in some of the Space Needle pictures that we had clear blue skies. The temperature dropped a little at night, but not too much.

We hadn't had any lunch really, because we were eating our doughnuts throughout the the day, but by the time we were leaving the market, we were a little hungry. But hungry or not, we were going to be eating at "Red Mill Burgers". They were featured in the Seattle Man vs. Food episode, and they've been voted best burger in Seattle for almost 10 years. There's only two locations. Here's the MvF clip. Red Mill part starts at 1:22. I'm sitting in the stall near the window.

Here's Anna out front after we finished eating.

Seriously, the food was awesome! We split a double bacon deluxe with cheese, and a chicken club burger, with a side of onion rings and fries. They were both excellent, but the chicken sandwich was particularly great. I could sure use a burger from there right now!


After eating, we had to go find the temple. It was tricky to find, but that was because our GPS kept wigging out on us. Eventually we made it. It was pretty big. A couple of missionaries were out front, and one took a picture for us. You can barely see us. After that we headed back to Portland.

Another fun filled day. The drive home wasn't too bad. It seemed shorter heading back. We had originally planned on eating again when we got back to the hotel because there was a Buffalo Wild Wings right next door. Literally. There was also a frozen yogurt place in the shopping area the the hotel was a part of, so we went by to check it out. We figured it would be closed since it was about 11:15 pm, but it was open! It didn't close till midnight. There were probably 10 other people in there. We decided to give it a try. They had about 8 flavors to choose from, but of those choices, one was a chocolate custard, and another was a sorbet. They also had shakes and blizzard type items to buy. It was pretty good, but there was definitely no room for wings.

We got to our room a little before midnight. We were tired and full. But is was a good tired and full.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that sometime during the morning, we headed back to Walmart to return the poncho, trail mix and rain suit.

Day 3 was only a morning away...