Arcade Lights 2017 at Pike Place Market

Seattle is for people who love culture, but refuse to sacrifice their wild nature to attain it
— Kimberly Kinrade

Pike Place Market Spring Event

Arcade Lights is a Pike Place Market Foundation Spring event for Foodies🥖 and Seattleites alike. Not my first rodeo with this event so I knew to go in make my food rounds trying all of the good stuff they had to offer before the crowds got Big! 'Cause they did!

 Bites from cheesecake, hot tomato soup🍅, bits of chocolate🍫 all the way to cocktails🍸, barrel aged gin🥃, and boozy shakes.  Yes this event had it all.

 The idea is to pop a bite, have a sip, and support the market along the way.  It's an age old market that makes Seattle and its peeps proud.  

New expansions (the good kind) are around the corner for the famous Pike Place Market so if you haven't been in a while or have never been it's time to plan a trip.

 Foodie events like Arcade lights is only one of the many year round events going on at the market.  Check here for the next upcoming event.

 You will always have access to your market spice tea☕️, chukar cherries🍒, beautiful flowers🌷 and let's not forget the flying fish🐟 but the people behind the scenes are what make all of this happen.  Pike Place Market Foundation keeps the history alive, telling the story, of the August 17, 1907 opening of an establishment that thrives because of the people who support it.

 Maybe that's you, the tourist visiting and buying and shipping fish to your home far far away or maybe you have a dedicated tile in your name on the market floor (don't forget to look down folks) either way, you give a little when you walk through and taste and see all of the goings on of over a hundred years of history.  

So next time you visit Seattle have a look at Rachel the pig and throw your extra change💰 into our "Piggy Bank" the Market thanks you, and Seattle thanks you too.  

Rachel the Pig Pike Place Market Pins

Rachel the Pig Pike Place Market Pins

Tips on Visiting Pike Place Market

  • Savor Seattle gives a great food tour if you want to taste your way around the Market
    (Let them know the White Radish Sent You)

  • You will not miss most likely: the flying fish, or first Starbucks, but don't forget to try the mini donuts, or the Simply the Best dried fruits and vegetables across from the flying fish,(love the okra!) and explore the market stairs or use the elevator for more below!

  • Fresh Pizza by the Slice at the Delaurenti's Italian Market (arrive before noon to beat the crowd)

  • Amazing Salmon or Halibut Sandwiches(I love it blackened) at Market Grill: Uses fresh baguettes from Le Panier (in the market) and fish that you will see at the Market! Gluten free? Have the fish and goodies over rice instead!

Want more spots to see on your next visit to Pike Place Market or Seattle? Send me an email or leave a comment below and let me know, happy to provide, maybe I will even join you!

Pike Place Market Event

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.
— Rabindranath Tagore

Seattle Sunset behind Pike Place Market

Delving Deep into Seattle via photography is becoming a passion and if there's food involved all the more reason to become a part of the event.  Last Friday's shooting 📷 as the "media" volunteer for the Behind the Table event at Pike Place Market Foundation was a real eye opener 👀 into the Behind the scenes activities that take place when the market goes to sleep 💤 for the evening.

Behind the Table event by Pike Place Market Foundation

Rachel and Billy Pigs from the Market

In reality the Market doesn't shut down but is just getting started when the atrium kitchen hidden underneath the Honest Biscuits starts cooking for an event hosting inside.

This time Behind the Table was the event of the night, with fundraising going to benefit the seniors and artists living above the market.  

Behind the Table Event by Pike Place Market Foundation

Art auctions both silent and live, and local art, musicians and Food and Drinks were just some of the festivities into the twilight hours.

Pike Place Market Foundation Event-Silent Auction

 That didn't include the Photo booth with your Yeti selfie or the, pass the hats on the table while trying to win a prize or two.  

Although reluctant as I am not usually a fan of people dressed up in wooly suits  and unknown eyes  I was tempted decided to give in.  I have to admit I did the Yeti photo, hope to see it! 👍 

Side story...I had a bit of a trauma as a child 😁 involving Gepetto  and me shoving my elbow into his stomach.  I guess you could say I was one of those kids who took "don't talk to strangers" to a whole new level. 😂 

Hoping Gepetto kept up his gig...😜

I digress from my photo op night.  I had difficulty deciding if I liked the blackened  spicy salmon or baklava more but either way savory or sweet it was a night out of excitement and yummy food.

Having never been to any kind of live auction it was the best people watching moments ever and even more so from my behind  the camera experience.  Did you say $100? No way that bid is not gonna end their.  

The expressions on peoples faces when they  bid made me wonder, is that what happens when people gamble all night long and give their money away?  😭 Can't say I get it 😏 but interesting to watch none-the -less.  Kind of thinking it would be cool to be a fly 🐝 or bee (only emoji I could find) on the wall at Christie's or Sotheby's  now.

Best part of the evening however for me hand's down was the Sunset.  Gorgeous. Breath taking and any other words that you can think of to describe a free painting in the sky.

  Tucked away in the upstairs room while heads were huddled over staking their claim number to silent auction paperwork I watched out the window as the sun set and the ferry docked in the Puget Sound. Golds, yellows, and blues passed the window and my camera clicked away as I watched each moment until it ended.  

We are heading into the end of our daylight hours this week and the start of our winter hours and it is beautiful moments like these where the rain has dripped all day and then the clouds lift away to reveal an arc of gold that keep me uplifted for the rainy months of darkness ahead.

 Thank you Seattle for giving me this moment and thank you to all of you for sharing it with me.

What is your favorite Seattle moments?  How did you react?  Hope to hear from you below in the comments or on Instagram and remember to send this to your friends so we can hear their stories as well. 

Pike Place Market Foundation Event: Behind the Table

Do you have an event in Seattle that needs a photographer?  Let me know- send an email!

 Long live Seattle Blogging and Photo Events and Long Live our Favorite Market: Pike Place Market!