It’s a Great Day for Chowder

Saturday was a long day with a whole lotta delicious food. I’m not sure where we put it all after Friday night’s delicious dinner but there was no stopping us.

Before heading off to be touristy for the day, John raided the hotel’s hot breakfast bar while I was still sleeping.  I woke up to a fresh Belgian waffle, strawberries, blueberries, potatoes and coffee.

Of course we still had a fridge full of the coveted Chobani so I thought it only right that I piled it on my waffle (you know, for the protein!)…

We then spent our afternoon at Pike Place Market.  It’s been a long time since I have been there and it was still just as cool as ever.

(Hey look…the mysterious John finally makes a photo appearance!)

After a bit of wandering in the super chilly air we decided to head straight for lunch. John had already told me about the great soup place and since my thumbs were numb I was all over a good bowl of soup (or four).

Pike Place Chowder in Post Alley…slightly hidden in the maze around the market, but obviously well known as we were not the only ones craving hot soup.  Since all of the soups on the menu sounded yummy we decided to share the sampler…but our big eyes thought that might not be enough and we upgraded the sizes to actual cups of each of four soups.

From the top clockwise:  Seafood Bisque, Smoked Salmon Chowder (with cream cheese & capers), Southwestern Chicken & Corn Chowder, and traditional New England Clam Chowder. 

All that with fresh bread and butter…and don’t forget the oyster crackers!

All four soups were excellent. Soooo incredibly rich, hearty and filling.  We really didn’t need to upsize but who knew?! :)  In the end we agreed that the New England Clam Chowder was the best soup of the bunch.  Obviously this is their flagship chowder for a reason.

John’s second fave was the bisque and mine was the salmon chowder because it was really interesting with the cream cheese and capers. 

After all of that it was a good thing we still had more walking around to do.  Chowder baby needed a stroll!!

Possibly my favourite photo of the whole day…

Bella who? hahahahahaha.

Of course, no trip to Pike Place is complete without a trip to the original Starbucks location…especially for an addict like me.  John had never had an egg nog latte (*gasp*) so we had to rectify that ASAP.

Of course I had to buy the souvenir mug!  There were actually three to choose from but I opted to get the one that matches most of my current collection…

The store had a pretty wicked International collection of their own!

Come on…who’s going to hook me up with a Thailand mug? hmmmmm? ;)

After loading up on all that chowder and egg noggy goodness we walked a bit more but couldn’t kick the chill of the cold sea air or the drowsiness of the food coma so we headed on back to the hotel to lay around and doze it off.  Not too shabby for a lazy foodie Saturday!