Le Panier is a lovely spot for lunch.  A popular spot for lingering tourists stopping off for a french baked good and a quick pick me up.  Pre-made sandwiches displayed in the case are my draw.  Crudités, Jambon-Fromage, and Pâté de Campagne are provide the nourishment to finish the arduous day and recharge the batteries.  Times have progressed as this bit of nourishment has increase by a half dollar.  The chewy baguette makes you work for you lunch.

To obtain this prize, you must enter the confines of the Pike Place Market.  Entering the market on a summer day is not something that is undertaken by the meek or those short on time.  Wandering and gaping are popular pastimes around the noontime hour during summer’s call.  Flowers fishes, and vegetables are presented in their splendor with the gentle waves and breeze beckoning from nearby Elliot Bay.  Tables adjacent to this harvest are lined with belt buckles adorned with the Space Needle, waxy sticks of honey presented in an array of flavors, and t-shirts adorned with wolves howling at the distant moon.  Opportunities like this don’t present themselves as often as they should!

Headphones on, with eye on the prize mentality, I enter the gauntlet of the market on a summer afternoon.  I weave through the masses on the sidewalk.  As long as the caravan  keeps moving, the sidewalk will remain my domain.  Eventually, the eyes of the outsiders can not resist the allure of the tourist trappings.  The need to escape the confines of the sidewalk weighs heavily on my brow as the forward progress declines.  Luckily the roadway along the market stretch is full of slow moving traffic.  It provides a quick escape route if the mass influx of people refuses to move.  The cars are much easier to avoid than the stoppage of the human experience.  But alas, without the mobs from abroad descending upon the market, these options may not be available to me on a daily basis.  I may be salty but I am still practical.