We just don't spend nearly enough time at the Market. It's so close to home, so colorful and SO Seattle. Today it was overrun with holiday shoppers and holiday season tourists, but we managed to make our way around the place, dodging flying Sockeye salmon.
Today, especially as we wound around the produce booths, I thought of my paternal grandma. She'd bring us down to the market, and as a kid I remember thinking, 'What a pain in the a$$ this is. Why can't we just go to the grocery store?'
But wandering around there today, I completely appreciated the sights, sounds, smells and farm-freshness of the produce at the marketplace stands. It's just heads and shoulders above a stroll through the produce section at Fred Meyer. Meanwhile, CJ and Annabelle were probably thinking, "What a pain in the a$$ this is. Why can't we just go to the grocery store?" :)
We bought a couple of little Christmas gifts and then headed for the Space Needle, and a rendezvous with one Santa Claus.
RED HOT ROCKET: Since moving to Seattle some 5 years ago, our annual Christmas tradition has been visiting Santa at the Space Needle. While Santa can be seen countless other places 'round Seattle, nowhere else will you find him in a red hot rocket sleigh, surrounded by mid-century modern decorations.
Another bonus of the Space Needle, Santa style? The free rocket-shaped sugar cookies for the kids to decorate. They covered 'em with frosting, shook some sprinkles on and enjoyed a lovely view of Lake Union while devouring them.
We stayed up on the Observation Deck for about an hour. Just before we left we were checking out Magnolia and other points west.
At one point I looked outside the glass immediately in front of us and said, "Oh, look - there's Pat Monahan," lead singer of the band Train, singer of hits like "Drops of Jupiter" and "Hey Soul Sister." I've know for years he had ties to Seattle on his wife's side, so it wasn't a big surprise to see him there. Though we're fans and he was just *thisclose* we kept our cool and let him and his family (including a tiny new baby, just a couple of weeks old) enjoy their visit to the Space Needle without causing a scene. I did manage to snap a paparazzi shot, tho. :)
Shortly before we left, the Sound and sun were putting on a colorful show.
We stopped for a couple more photos as we left the Space Needle. In this one, Annabelle is trying to fix CJ's smile.
WEEKEND REWIND: A few weeks back I signed Annabelle up for a cooking class at a cool Fremont bookstore that sells nothing but cookbooks. The class was taught by a rather famous local confectionery blogger. I thought it would be neat-o for Bee to have a baking lesson outside of our kitchen taught by someone else other than me. She was SO excited to go!!! Yeah, well here's her face a few minutes into it ...
It wasn't the worst two hours of her young life, but let's just say that it was a tad disappointing. The projects presented (a cake pop, a cupcake in a cupcake, and S'moreos) were inherently cool, it's just that there was was a real lack of opportunity for hands on participation during the class. And I should say that for a kid who hadn't done much baking or decorating, the class might have seemed engaging enough. But I kid you not, Annabelle could have taught this class.
Here's a photo of her (mini) cupcake in a cupcake - "hers" in the sense that she got to shake sprinkles on top of it. Let's just say, Bee expects a bit more ownership of baking projects. ;)
I think her favorite part of the day was coloring these cupcake toppers.
Space Needle photos are beautiful. Cooking class was an opportunity to see how to get something worthwhile from anything. Must have been at least one useful bit.
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