now, i couldn’t wrap up my first trip in seattle without talking about one of its lifelines. beginning in their first place in pike place market, seattle is the home of starbucks coffee.
while i knew the origin of the starbucks chain was in seattle, i didn’t think about visiting until someone mentioned that first store was in pike place market. obviously i wasn’t the only one with the same idea to visit the flagship store and they were prepared for it. articles and pictures of original store in frames and proudly on display. they also shake it up with barista flair, throwing around and catching cup orders and bags of beans to be grounded. the store was packed with visitors taking pictures, ordering a cup of coffee and picking up some memorabilia with “starbucks pike place. home of the first” on it. i admit bought into hype and picked up my own bearista and a pike place mug for myself. i also bought a bag of pike place beans and a cup/saucer set as a gift.
like most people, i need my regular dosage of coffee but my biggest weakness for coffee though is its smell – so fragrant and alluring. i only allow myself a maximum of 1 cup per day but this would be hard to follow if i lived in seattle. in some neighborhoods there is a starbucks or another coffee shop on every block so the fragrance is always calling out to you to have … just another cup.
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have a cup a joe at Starbucks in seattle, wa and … well, almost anywhere
so, i asked cola man what was the deal and where is the ice cream? and that’s how i learned about molly moon’s homemade ice cream, a cute parlor in freemont. now, the first day cola man drove by there, it was a weekend night and it was late but there was a line out the door. apparently it is a frequent occurrence – lines out the door for a scoop of ice cream. now that’s my kind of city! so we tried another day and we were successful! i had the ginger ice cream. it was creamy and gingery with little bits of crystalized ginger. yum!
cnc took us the kingfish café for dinner after work. i had been craving southern food and this place did the trick!
with several of its chowders listed as award winning, we decided to go for the chowder sampler where we got to try four 5-ounce cups of chowder. so we chose:
salty’s is in west seattle so the best way to get there from downtown seattle is by water taxi, a cute boat that comes once an hour and you can only pay with exact change. a 20-minute ride with a view of the seattle skyline. the night was starting off well! we had a very cheerful waiter who had great memory for someone taking orders for a table of 10 without writing anything down.
sadly i am allergic but i can still appreciate good looking food, especially when it comes to sweets! so here’s a triple threat: chocolate, candy and fruit on presentation as a piece of art: candied apples. yum!
i could have just ordered the appetizer and ended there because it was huge and it was awesome! the cajun prawns were nice flavored and the crazy crunchy garlic baguette was the perfect spoon to pick up every last drop of the sauce. it was divine! needless to say, i didn’t have much room for the linguini and clam sauce but i did have a bite. it was amazing! the noodles were so tender and the perfect consistency as well as flavoring. i was sad i didn’t have enough room in my tummy to eat it all!
not only does teavana sell and serve wonderful tea, they also give back to the community. working to improve the lives of those who live in tea producing areas of the world, 
