A Day Off

We have been working hard at home this week, so today we decided to run away and play.  We hopped on the light rail to go downtown. There was a new team store opening up that we wanted to check out.

And we wanted to spend more time looking at some places in the Market and the waterfront that we had hurried by when we had the kids with us earlier.

Beechers Cheese was very busy, but we went in and bought a wedge of their Flagship Cheddar.

The city was teeming with tourists, which is a good thing for our economy, but made the Market very crowded.

 I love the flowers they have planted this year.

 We headed to an antique store we had spotted earlier.  It was good browsing but nothing compelled us to buy.

On the waterfront we had a salad lunch at Red Robin and enjoyed watching the boat traffic on the bay.

 I love the skyline from the waterfront.

We stopped to check on the memorial totem pole being carved in honor of  a Native American carver who was killed in a tragic mishap with a police officer last year.

The pole is now painted.  The photos below were taken several weeks ago when we were here with the kids,

 and then last Sunday.

 Today it looks like this - finished.

 We almost never go to the lower level Market shops, so we decided to avoid the crowds on the street level and check them out.

I loved the Polish pottery, and we had a lovely conversation with the shop owner.

 I couldn't resist.  I bought this small oval dish in the Forget Me Not pattern.

Then we ventured up to the high stalls for a bit.  I breathed deeply of the fragrance of the sweet peas

 and admired the peonies

 in this flower stall.

 The produce is always so beautiful.

Back up at Westlake Center we stopped at Starbucks and had a latte with this view before heading back to the transit station.

This evening we enjoyed fresh fruit we purchased yesterday and cheese, including that Bechers cheddar.