The Seattle Times

On this summer morning, Seattle offered me the most wonderful awaking to a not-so-common Friday -- and a simple everyday truth.

My fiance and I decided to get an early start by jogging along the Puget Sound waterfront before breakfast. As we drove along 15th Avenue from our home in Ballard, a soft wall of fog lay just beyound the lock's bridge. The water was still, a brilliant blue against a sea of colorful red, yellow, blue and white boat hulls.

Downtown, ferries glided on a perfectly scenic Sound, moving in and out of the wall of white mist. Vapors crept up over the hilltops of West Seattle, just beyond Alki beach. The snow-covered Olymics peaks perched perfectly above the fog top. I was enchanted anew.

As we moved along the waterfront, past the piers and early tourists, past the trucks and mornig workers, we inhaled fresh sea air redolent of salt and fish and charred wood. I savored the aroma as appreciative as a wine lover taking a deep waft of a bouquet, detecting top notes and subtle scents. We headed north up First Avenue toward the Pike Street hill climb and took the market stairs two at a time.

I had never been in the market before nine. The street in front was crowded with trucks and cars being unloaded with food and wares. Tourists were already lined up, cameras ready, to capture the fish tossing. We admired the bountiful bundles of flowers, as fruit and vegetable vendors artfully arranged their produce for the day.

There was a small crowd near the center of the first level at Lowell's, and taking this as a good sign we decided to have breakfast. My fiance is a Seattle native but had never eaten here, so we shared another "first" together, enjoying a sparkling water view and rewarding our exertion with eggs and hash browns, oatmeal and plenty of coffee.

A cool breeze cooled us as we ate and felt happy to be at this place at this moment. This was such a glorious break from our routine, and an inspiring reminder of just how significant a change of attitude and perspective can result from a small resetting of one's daily course of action. It was a vacation morning in our own town.

We promised ourselves we'd find opportunities to experience this wide-awake living more often. On our way out of the market we selected a box of picture-perfect, locally grown strawberries to put in a fruit salad for later -- a touch of our morning gladness that would resonate throughout the day.

All text and photography copyright 2006 Melissa Wadsworth



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