Under the Pineapple Express

The atmospheric river was aimed at Seattle all weekend. The storm stretched up from Hawaii bringing torrents of warm rain instead of pineapples and sunshine. The freezing level climbed to 8,000 feet in the mountains, which melted the new snow pack and flooded most of the lowland rivers in western Washington. In our city, it was just sloppy, wet and muggy.

Never mind that, on Saturday morning we sloshed downtown for a few hours of shopping. First stop, Fran's Chocolates on First Avenue. President Obama put Fran's on the map when he mentioned he liked her salted caramels. John is checking out the "for adults only" top shelf. Fran gives you helpful suggestions for pairing different chocolates with Port wines. A super indulgent treat you can pay for at the gym next year.

With the bag of goodies in hand, it was only 10 am and the museum across the street was just opening. We walked over for a second look at the Picasso exhibit.
A big crowd was waiting at the front door. This is one of SAM's most popular exhibits ever, and people were advised to buy their tickets in advance. It's great to be SAM members because we just show our cards at the desk without waiting in a line.

Instead of fighting the bottleneck at the jam-packed start of the exhibit, we went to the end and looked at everything in reverse order. This is a good strategy at SAM, where they like to squeeze many people through small galleries. We had Picasso all to ourselves for a few minutes before the hoard caught up.
Lunch was vegetarian Pho soup and shrimp rolls at a Vietnamese restaurant. After that we killed time looking at Macy's and Nordstrom's for a type of scarf John had years ago, but doesn't exist anymore.
A classic winter afternoon with umbrellas and wet jackets. On the way back to the car we walked through the Pike Place Market.
Or I should say we elbowed through, because the market was jammed with tourists taking pictures of flying fish and waiting in line for hot donuts. If you've been to the market, you might remember the popular mini-donut machine that has been in operation there for decades, probably with the same cooking grease. Everyone who passes is mesmerized by the technology and only $2.10 for a bag of six.

Nope, we were saving ourselves for Fran's chocolate.