Jaunted

Aside from a variety of seafood, the market's stalls are full of amazingly fresh fruits and vegetables, beautiful flowers and some specialty items (dark chocolate linguine anyone?) There's also a greasy spoon inside, Lowell's, which serves all your diner faves and has great views of Elliott Bay.

But after a while, all the stalls begin to get repetitive. When you see not one, but two stalls selling nearly identical honey products or figurines of wolves, it's time to head across the street for some better shops. Here's three that we liked:

· Beecher's: Beecher's is a well-known, handmade cheese shop where you can watch vast amounts of cheese being made as well as sample their newest batches of mac n' cheese and chow down on paninis made with their specialty cheese. Pick up some cheese curds (we bought the Market Herbs flavor) or Just Jack cheese for the trip home. Let's say cheese one more time: cheese.

· Le Panier: Walking into this shop is like stepping inside a buttery croissant. It not only smells heavenly but tastes heavenly too. You can choose from a variety of croissants, sweets, artisanal breads and féuilletes--puff pastries with savory fillings.

· The Original Starbucks: We were staunchly opposed to drinking Starbucks in Seattle but there is something to be said about visiting the original Starbucks location. It's a tiny narrow shop and tourists usually cluster outside to take pictures below the original sign, which is slightly different from the logo plastered across the world.

During our second trip to the Pike Place Market we came up with an itinerary that satisfied us the best. Start off with coffee at Starbucks and grab a chocolate croissant at Le Panier. Wander through the stalls of the market and saunter down to the pier for either a water taxi ride to West Seattle or a harbor cruise (more on those later.)

When you finish those, head back up to Pike Place (you will climb some major steps) and order some mac and cheese and a Flagship sandwich from Beecher's. Your stomach will love you.

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