Flying Fish

Our flight from Fairbanks was overnight meaning we arrived in Seattle at 4am. Thinking ahead we had arranged a driver to get us into the city. This was a very interesting introduction to Seattle. Our driver might have been out of central casting from The Godfather. Think Marlin Brando on a bad mumbling day. Not sure I understood any of the four words he used in the whole trip.

We are in Seattle to tick off a couple of bucket list items. After a few hours sleep we set out on the first of these. For many years I have used the “Fish” management concepts to assist in transforming teams of people in organisations. This philosophy is based around a fish market in Pike Place Market, Seattle. People have been studying this place for 20 years looking at what makes it a great place to work. The basic concepts are built around four things, choose your attitude, play, make somebody’s day and be there. The team there are nuts. They play with customers, throw fish around, chant etc.

It was fantastic to see it all in

action and from a personal perspective good to briefly meet some of the people and talk with them. Another tick for the bucket list.

Pike Place Market is a great place. We took a food walking tour where we spent a couple of hours guided around the market tasting a wide range of produce and learning the background stories. This included bubble gum wall, the world champion chowder shop and a Hugh range of fresh food places. It is a real community and not hard to see why it is regarded as a key heart of the city.

After the tour we reverted to a ginger beer bar where I tried caramelised pineapple and blood orange while Janet had a ginger beer and gin mix. Really good.

A bit of fast shopping and then dinner at Hard Rock to finish off a US experience day.