Location & Map provided by the Market's original website.
Cost: free Activities: sight seeing & shopping
Pike Place Market is second only to the Space Needle as the city's most renowned tourist attraction. An average of 10 million guests visit the site on a yearly basis. The market tries to promote the sale of hand-made crafts, local farm produce, and live performances by residents of Seattle. Pike Place Market is the only "farmer's market" in the region that is open seven days a week - closing only on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas, and New Years Day. Operation hours are 10:00am to 5:00pm except on Sunday.
As you can imagine, the market is constantly crawling with people like an ant hill. It is another one of Tim's most loathed locations only because of the unavoidable people-mass. Tim's hate for crowds stems from the fear that, in the event of a stampede, he wouldn't be able to protect me. Its a noble fear so I try to limit our visits to once or twice a year. The poor guy gets dragged into these situations all the time because, contrary to his feelings, I like people. I like people because people are colorful and you all know how much I love color.
When planning a visit to this historical site, be sure to account for the time you'll spend talking to artists and farmers at the booths which span over nine acres. An entire day could easily disappear while exposing your senses to the sights, sounds, and smells that make up the soul of Seattle.
The city of Seattle was Incorporated December 2nd of 1869. Thirty-eight years later - in response to a certain public injustice (read about it here) - the Pike Place Market was founded on August 17th, 1907. Ever since then the market's been known for its "meet the producer" policy. Today the market is one-hundred-and-two years old. Holy cow!
Informative tours of the market are offered every weekday to educate guests on the history and importance of the market today for $10 a person and $7 for seniors. You must make reservations with the Markets Information Booth. Contact details are here.
Please don't forget that the original Starbucks opened at Pike Place Market in 1971 - the year my parents were married, and the year of our Chevy's build. :-) If you live in the State of Washington it would behoove you to make a special visit to this remarkable site.
In closing, remember that your comments and any additional information you can provide are always welcome on this blog. Whenever you need a little local input make I'm Just Visiting a resource!
~Lacey (GirlWithCurls)