10/23 Saturday. Stuck in town due to wet weather. It turns out Saturday wasn't too bad. Went to Pike Place Market before noon to sign up for a guided tour for 50th Anniversary of Keeping the Market Celebration. I was surprised to see how busy the market was. Tours at noon and 1pm were full. So I had to come back for the 2pm tour.
Our guide is Nick, who's on the board of PPM Foundation. He's super enthusiastic. It was loud everywhere. The poor guy was losing his voice. He also knows all the stall owners, saying hi to everyone. We walked by some nice art installations. Apart from the history, old photos, the remodeling, the resurfacing of the brick of Pike Place, some future plans (a shark tank!), we learned many tidbits about the market:- the oldest continuous running comic store in the world;
- Jacob the ghost boy;
- award winny Philipino eatery Oriental Mart;
- when Pike Place was turned to pedestrian street once, the shops in the bowel of the market lost foot traffic;
- the senior low income housing and community center;
- only a couple of buildings are privately owned, most are owned by the foundation;
- every night, vendors clear their stall. At 7am the next day, they grab a stall, which could change.
Around 6pm, I went to Benaroya Hall (the ticket office only opens right before a performance, even though Seattle Symphony website and the door here advertise normal office hours), and bought some concert tickets using my credit (from last year's canceled performances). They were having a sale, and today is the last day.
Market Theatre was screening a documentary movie about Pike Place Market. They require vaccination proof for entry, so I didn't go. The next day, Sunday night, I went for Unexpected Production' 6pm student improv performance and 8pm improv comedy show. The students did well. The 8pm show was quite clever. 3 brief stories from the audience, re-acted by the improvisers, ends with a poem that mentioned all 3.
