9:15 am overlook behind the fish throwing guys.
I have a day off to spend on my own while my wonderful bride is at the SMX conference. She works long hours for her company and then helps me. She allows me to be who I am and supports me. I do so love her.

Before the Market is awake.
First thing in the morning I let her off and I find parking as close and as inexpensive as I can find then make the. 25 mile trek to the market. First order of business, caffeine. Then I wander a bit and watch Pike Street come to life. I now sit at the public overlook thumb-typing on my phone, listening to the street artist do a reasonable rendition of the Beatles. Occasionally the fish guys yell “MONKEYFISH” or “10 POUND SALMON”. The chains begin rattling as vendor stalls open and the wares come out.
‘don’t you know you’re a shooting star” is echoing through the sitting area as the last of my vanilla latte goes down. Original Starbucks, good price, good latte.
I have a reoccurring memory from when I was young. My aunt Karen bought some Chinese candy for me. I couldn’t have been more than 5 or 6 at the time so we are talking 1971ish. Truthfully the sugar coated rice paper stuff was not all that good at the time so it does not draw me to want more. But the memory of Karen and I standing at the booth is vivid and warm. For some reason I have always thought it was one of a few memories I have from a California trip we made. For 40 years I have been wrong. Early 70’s renovations have changed things, but walking through the shops on the east side of the street I got a chill up my spine. Right here, probably off of this very table is where that almost inedible candy was purchased and somehow enjoyed on the trip back to Montana. One of my fondest and never before shared memories was found and relived on a misty day wandering by myself. Thank you Karen for the memory, and ultimately for being the best ‘big sister’ I could have ever dreamed of. (I tried to get a photo but it was always crowded, when I went back later the table was packed into the store and gone, perhaps in the next couple of days I will get a photo.)
11:30 Sitting in the mist on the north side of the market.

LEAVE ME ALONE!
A crow is being amazingly pesky to a seagull by dive bombing. No apparent reason but to be pesky.
People who know me understand my philosophy on life.
That being said I have a little red Traveling Buddha that travels with me. Normally he resides on my monitor keeping an eye on things. For years he has either been there or in my pack if I travel. Over the years I have lost track of where he came from, he just is.

Where my Buddha came from
Today I walked into a shop in the Down Under and remembered looking in the cases as a young boy and seeing these huge skull rings. They are still there, hopefully not the same ones I wondered at as a boy.Working my way through the store I eventually found myself looking at the middle island of racks and shelves. Right there is a a display of carved red wooden Buddhas.It came back to me, In 1996 I was in town for a software training session and David and his then girlfriend now wife Tera took me to the market on a cold February Sunday.

my protector
I now distinctly remember looking through all of them seeing subtle differences. I chose mine because he sat on a side sloped base making him just a bit more original than the others. Right now as I sit in the car letting my phone battery charge he is sitting on the dash once again vigilantly watching over my travels. Yet another connection to Seattle and the market.
Off to find a journal book so I don’t kill the battery in the phone again, and find lunch.
1:50 Zaina restaurant
I wandered all over the place looking for a blank journal to put these scratchings in. Finally I found one at a map store on 1st Ave. I found a little ace called Zaina to rest my tired dogs in and refuel. This afternoon is going to be spent on the piers. I’m not hitting the aquarium but the other shops should be fun. Maybe some more memories will be sparked from the recesses of my memory.
about 4:00 listening to a guitar and washboard duet.
Back again where my day started, only now I have a cream cheese Cinnamon roll instead of a latte.

Rain
True to its reputation Seattle is raining a nice steady flow, nothing serious just steady. The shops on the pier are almost exactly as I remember them, Memories but no epiphanies. Much has changed over the 40 odd years I can remember this place,but a lot is still the same. As always in a locale such as this the people are as interesting to watch as as the location itself. Relative isolation in Montana leads to forgetting the diversity we do have. I have heard several languages and seen a wide variety of faces mingling together quite well. It isn’t until you gat on the street and have to deal with the driver that conflict happens. In my walking up and down the hill and north and south well past the normal Marketplace area I realize the difference between local and the tourist. sometimes quite easily. I probably look somewhere in-between, not gawking, but still looking around at the sites most local people see as common everyday environment. There is no animosity for the tourist, but acceptance and some amusement.
I have been sitting here scribbling this while listening to an absolute idiot. He is rudely berating his wife and daughter and feeding them inaccurate information on the market. Evidently it started in the 20’s and only sold seafood in the beginning. I feel like turning him around so he can read the placard he is sitting 3 feet from that has the real history on it.
Life is too short to listen to this, I’m moving on.
4:40 I just sat down to write more and Dianna called to say she will be done, I will wander to the car and get her so that will be all for the day.
It’s been a good one.