First Saturday in Seattle

We had to run downtown today to pick up some coffee beans for Julian. We figured that it would be a quiet Saturday without too much in the way of crowds. Wrongo bongo! The crowds resembled the height of tourist season, except there were more down jackets and fewer sandals being worn. Our first sign that something was a bit uncharacteristic of January was a line snaking around the flagship REI store. Everyone must have decided to redeem their gift cards today. Pike Place Market was slammed. Luckily, our friends at Long Provincial had plenty of room to accommodate us for lunch. A pork noodle bowl or duck soup is a great cure for chaos.