Burien Farmers' Market

Burien is a little city on the south side of Seattle.  It's the main shopping area around the area, hosting some staple stores as Safeway, RiteAid, Starbucks, Trader Joe's, BigLots!, Fred Meyers, etc.  You can also find the post office, public library, service stations, restaurants galore, sewing machine repair shops, thrift stores, car dealerships and everything else under the sun here.  

Today, we went into Burien to check out the farmers market that we saw advertised on the street.  The Burien farmers market is located on SW 152nd St. and 5th Place SW.  It is pretty near the Burien Public Library in the Burien Town Square.  It is open every Thursday from 11 am - 6 pm.

There are a load of booths here - from handmade jewelry, dolls, and paintings to honey, produce, and freshly baked bread.  There are also a good handful of food trucks off to the side where you can also find outdoor seating.

The Burien Farmers Market sits right next to the Burien Town Square Park, where you can find loads of grass to chill on, a lot of paved side walks to chalk draw on and a wonderful mini fountain for your kids to splash around in.

Visiting the farmers market to day was a really good half a day of fun.  We got to have lunch here, shop around, meet some new people, sun tan in the lovely Burien sun…and just enjoy life.  It truly felt like the perfect summer afternoon.

It's good being back in the Pacific North West!

Des Moines Waterfront

The summer is the best time to visit the farmers markets around the Seattle area.  We are staying down in Des Moines with family right now.  So, driving around, I couldn't help spotting signs for the Des Moines Waterfront Farmers Market down at the Marina.

Fun Fact:  The Des Moines Marina has a nice path nearby that is great for skating.  It's called the Des Moines Creek Trail.  It also has a bunch of magicarp (pokemon) in the stream that runs along the trail.

When we got to the farmers market, everyone was pretty much still setting up, so we decided to walk around the Marina.  

The Des Moines Marina is where you can find boat moorages, launches and refueling spots.  There is also a paddleboat/kayak rental place on one of the docks.  When my folks first moved up here, they used to take out-of-town guests down to the Marina to watch the boats launch.

My father, being someone who really likes to talk story with the locals, used to ask all kinds of questions of the people who were launching their boats.  There were people that he met from Australia who were docking their boats there for the week.  I used to think that it was such a great retirement plan to sail the world after hearing that.

The marina is a really nice place to hangout.  It's also the place where I first thought about creating a blog!  Every time I come back to Seattle, I take a trip down to my folks' home and walk along the Marina.  The crisp Pacific Northwest air feels so refreshing.  And the aroma of the Puget Sound is so lovely!  I feel so lucky to be able to live in a place so beautiful!

We ended up just skimming through the farmers market…but I might go back as the summer ends.  There may be more to see and do in a few weeks.

Homecoming Barbecue

We're back in Seattle for the summer!  Here begins another series on Things To Do in Seatown.  If you are in the city (or around the city) and are wondering what you can do here, please check out the link.  It's a small, but mighty list…that is growing and growing!

The summer time is the best time to visit Seattle, if you are into fine, sunny weather (on a rare occasion will it rain!).  It's the time of year when it is the most comfortable for me to go hiking, canoeing, rollerblading, island hopping, visiting the local farmer's markets…or anything outdoors.

As a Welcome-Back-For-The-Summer gathering, we hosted a barbecue at our house…

Who knew that a trip to Costco for some frozen burger patties, mayo and giant sesame buns could be deemed as an exciting excursion?  I haven't been home for a little over a year, but every time just seems like a half and half.  I'm feeling half comforted by all the familiar things around me.  But those familiar things are half exhilaratingly different to happen upon again.

I mean, I've been to Costco half a thousand times, but just walking around with a massive cart and checking out everything in bulk just seems so American to me.  Before…though I probably never thought about it…it was just how it was!

Even driving around the neighborhood just seems so American!  Hahah, with everyone brandishing their Mariners, Seahawks…Sounder flags on their porches.  Or sightseeing the neighborhood garage sales.  Things like this I've truly missed.

One thing I was looking forward to was digging into one of the pies that my mother had baked.

My parents had told me about these pre-made pies that they had discovered over the past year.  They'd gone to a friend's house and had tried a pie that was pretty nice.  These friends got to talking about how they'd had a friend who had discovered this pie place down in Kent through another friend.

The power of word-of-mouth advertising!

This friend was skeptical of telling my folks about the location of this pie place.  My parents thought it was because these pies were probably top secret, due to the price their friend claimed of the 8 inch pie was $1 USD.

Eventually, a little band of them (other friends at that dinner party included!) went down to the Kent pie place together (will blog about soon!), picked up a bunch of pies for $1 USD and continued being loyal customers til this day.

So, you can see how this backstory really intrigued my interest for indulging in these pies!

Ah, there's something so wonderful about being back home! 

Truly, the Seattle Summer is my favorite time of year! 

Looking forward to seeing what we can get up to this summer!

Stay posted!

Dragons and Bites

Today was a busy day in the city of Seattle as thousands of people were bustling around the city taking in the sights of Dragon Fest, enjoying the fried confections at the bite of Seattle and of course, most importantly, trying to catch Pikachu. 

We started our day walking to Dragon Fest which was being celebrated in the International District. 

My girlfriend had her phone out at the beginning of the walk flicking pokeballs at the animal-esque creatures suddenly showing up on her screen. She wasn’t alone, the first pedestrian we came across was catching them too, as well as a family who was walking across the Jose Rizal bridge.

Once we made our way to the festival, it was time to celebrate a different fantastic and majestic creature, the dragon. 

We made it to the main stage just in time to see the opening act, dragons dancing to the drum. The performance was truly only a warmup for the main act later in the day, but it fulfilled our desire to see the dance. 

We arrived at Dragon Fest around 11:45am, and the festival was not fully set up yet. We walked around the booths and found a really cute, steam punk hat for a young child and were tempted to buy one, but the price drove us away. The booths were “the same that they ever was.” 

The only booth most people seemed to care about was the McDonald’s booth as the line stretched an entire city block. Why do people wait so long for some free soggy French fries? A question only answerable by a wiser man than me.

After Dragon Fest, we walked to the Bite of Seattle on the other side of downtown. The walk was enjoyable, but fairly absent of pokemon. After a quick sidebar to the spice shop, we made it to the incredibly crowded festival. Our throats were parched by this point and we refreshed with strawberry lemonade. We walked around the booths, but were disappointed with the lethargic offerings. The highlight was seeing the chef in the hat, Thierry Rautereau, introduce a young Japanese chef who owned and ran his own restaurant on Capitol Hill.

After leaving the bite, we took the bus back to the International District to pick up some spinach to complete our dinner. We caught another bus home after catching some more pokemon. All in all, a successful, mostly sunny, if not all that warm day in Seattle full of mystical creatures, festivals and food.

Blog Post written by Ryan G.  Photos by Sarah C.  Thanks guys!