A byootaful Life

Phill and I caught the monorail from the Seattle Space Needle into the city which was a very quick trip (less than two minutes, from memory), but well worth it. I got a little freaked out when it started leaning a lot as we went round a corner – I felt almost compelled to run to the other side of the monorail to stabilise it, as if it was going to fall right off if I didn’t. Probably the best part of the trip was going through a gap in the Science Center’s fancy metal roof.

Doesn’t that look like fun? Or maybe I just get too excited about things…

Anyway, once in the city, we walked a few blocks to the Farmer’s Market on Pike Street, which we had heard a lot about. We had heard of a thing called a “gum wall”, a bronze pig which worked like a massive piggybank (apparently she receives thousands of dollars in donations every year!) and fish throwing, where the men working at the fish market would throw a fish at you and you had to catch it (eep!).

First off, we saw the bronze pig. Lots of people were having their photos taken with it – it’s a pretty famous pig apparently!

Right behind the pig is a very busy fish market, with signs everywhere depicting them tossing fish, so I figured this was it. We hung around for a while, hoping for a fish to be thrown around, but the most throwing we saw was when a customer bought a fish and the man working the front of the stall threw it back to the men behind the counter. After a while, it seemed it wasn’t going to happen, so we left in the hopes of finding the gum wall.

Down the stairs and around the corner, we found it in all it’s disgusting glory:

Behold the gum wall. It stretches a fair distance down the alleyway, a wall completely covered in chewing gum. It reaches about halfway up the wall (as high as most people could reach, I suppose!) and is absolutely disgusting… but sort of pretty at the same time. The first thing I noticed (other than the wall itself) was the faint peppermint smell that lingered in the alley.

I think the wall was started when people queueing down the alley to see a show began sticking their gum to the wall. I guess it’s just grown over time – there are literally thousands of bits of gum on that wall, plus other things that aren’t gum like playing cards, notes and money. I liked the way the gum dripped over the edge of the window sills, as it was icicles or something.

Oh and of course I had to take a close-up, just for the ick factor:

You’re welcome.

As strange as it sounds after seeing such a gross thing, we were both pretty hungry so we went off in search of food. Instead of getting lunch however, we saw something else that looked absolutely amazing – a Tiger Striped Caramel Toffee Apple from Rock Mountain Chocolate Factory – YUM!

*drooling*

They cut it for us and we sat down to try it… and it was AMAZING. The caramel was almost nutty – it had a really deep flavour that I loved and it wasn’t just the usual caramel flavour, it was something more. The apple was crisp and tart and offset the sweet caramel perfectly. While I loved it, Phill wasn’t too sure about the combination, which was fine by me since I’d get more! (hehe)

Can I admit that I knew this photo was a little blurry? I focused on Phill’s hand instead of the apple, dammit! But I was soooo hungry and it looked sooo good that I previewed the picture and decided it was good enough! You can see the apple, then the layer of nutty caramel, then the buttery tiger stripe, which is drizzled with more caramel chocolate. Perfect ratio of apple to sweetness!

After our feast (we managed every slice except one, which I wrapped up in paper and kept in my handbag for later) we were ready for some underground exploring! We headed to Pioneer Square to join an Underground Tour of Seattle. I didn’t know that the Seattle we see today is actually built above the original Seattle and that there are still underground tunnels and pathways today that we can walk through.

We got there just in time to join the 2pm tour (CA$15 each). The tour kicked off with a 20-minute sit-down history lesson delivered by perhaps the funniest woman in Seattle. It was really interesting and helped us to understand how Seattle came to be higher today, as well as Seattle’s history with sinking foundations, bad plumbing and one massive fire that cleaned out the whole town. Then we split into three tour groups of about 20 in each group and went with our own guides to begin the tour.

It was pretty surreal to walk along paths, past buildings that used to be at street level, now far below Seattle. Our tour guide told us that certain parts of the tour passed through places where supernatural activity had been reported (in fact, Ghost Hunters had actually filmed an episode in the underground tunnels of Seattle during their Season 3) so when I got this shot…

… I thought I might have captured something supernatural! But then I realised that the shadow was in front of the wood, which meant it wasn’t a shadowy figure in the back of the room, but rather my finger covering the flash.

Damn. It still made my heart lurch though!

I’d highly recommend the Underground Tour if you’re in Seattle. It’s so informative and so interesting, and the guides are hilarious! Oh, and we did the tour in our thongs (such bogans!) so it’s pretty easy to get around. After the tour (which ends up back at the starting spot in Pioneer Square) we got a pizza and headed back to the hotel for an early night, because the next morning we’d be up nice and early to catch our train to… Vancouver!