Pigs aPlenty!

I had to make a special blog entry to recognize the Pigs of Seattle. Like Chicago and their cows, San Francisco and their hearts, Seattle has offered pig sculptures for artists to customize and situated them throughout the city. These will be auctioned for charity at some point, but for now they are hanging around downtown for all to enjoy – especially me. Why pigs? Pike Place Market has a life sized bronze pig named Rachel ‘guarding’ the main entrance and collecting over $100k since it arrived in 1986. So the pigs are to celebrate with Rachel, Pike Place Market’s 100th anniversary.

So, here are some photos of Seattle pigs, and the pigs’ best friend!

Contest: Mark and I are tracking our mileage, from pulling out of the driveway in Redwood City to arrival at mom and dad’s house in Lakeland. We decided to hold a contest to guess our total trip mileage, without going over. Prize is a $25 gift certificate to Barnes and Noble. To help you, here is our general trip plan: Redwood City north to Seattle via Lassen Volcanic National Park and Crater Lake, Seattle east to Yellowstone and Grand Tetons, south to Ft. Collins, CO and Mesa Verde National Park, then southeast to Carlsbad Caverns in NM, east to Dallas, Ft. Worth and then Austin. East to Atlanta, South to Lakeland. Got it?!Guess it!

Food and Drink: We had a great hike in Belleview and found wild blackberries along the way. Since the forager Turk was there, picking was the only option. We put these plump, deep crimson berries over vanilla ice cream for dessert that night. The tangy, rich and juicy flavor of the berries with the cool, sweet vanilla ice cream was … happiness. Not even chocolate could surpass those full flavors.