Today, I’m continuing my series of travel reviews from our holiday to the USA last summer. After visiting the Space Needle at Seattle Center, dad, ‘future mom’ and I took the short monorail ride to Westlake Center in the downtown area. It’s fun to think that this was the world’s first monorail, built all the way back in 1962

As it was ‘future mom’s first visit to Seattle, we took her to one of Seattle’s other iconic tourist destinations, Pike Place Market. Perhaps a bit like Borough Market in London, locals may sneer at the touristy air about the place but there’s lots of great local produce available for both locals and visitors though I appreciate there may be a slight tourist mark up

The market is most well know for its varied food and flower stalls, all bursting with colours and flavours. Many offer samples and the bigger stalls will ship bigger sales home for you, including the famous Pike Place Fish, where they throw whole giant salmon to each other

There are a lot of food shops and stalls. We grazed and snacked our way through the market. Beechers is famous for cheese and if you’re lucky, you can actually watch them making the cheese at the their shop. We shared a cheese toastie

Then a cheesecake from The Confectional

Followed by ice cream at The Shy

Dad couldn’t resist some warm, fresh chicharones (pork crackling)

The market also has famous sites like The Athenian Restaurant where they filmed Sleepless in Seattle

You can see the original first branch of Starbucks, where they still use the original mermaid logo

If you like chewing, you have to view the chewing gum wall

We also found some great places to buy chocolates for gifts

All in all, a very enjoyable few hours meandering. Yes, it’s touristy but well worth the time