Even though the weather has been less than cooperative the last couple of days, the sun did come out a bit in the late morning and early afternoon.

Taking pictures of Pike Place Market is a bit of tourist's safe gambit: everyone does it. Nevertheless, the red neon signs against a blue sky and white clouds is hard to pass up.

Totem poles in Seattle are an interesting thing. None of the native Americans actually built them in this area. The one in Pioneer Square was actually "stolen" by some Americans who mistakenly took it as abandoned when in fact the tribe was out on an extended hunt. And in good ol' American style decided not to return after learning of their error. It has been less than two-hundred years that totem pole construction was introduced to the Seattle region vis-a-vis the then proprietor of the Ye Olde Curiosity Shop. A European who made a proposition to the local native Americans that if they could reproduce the totem poles in pictures he gave them that he and they could profit from it. And they did just that. Nowadays people come to Seattle identifying these monoliths with the area when in fact they belong rightfully to native Americans much further north well into what is now known as Canada. But hey, like the politically correct of today when has the truth really ever mattered?