Pike Place Market at Dusk in Early December

In Seattle for early December, and by dusk we were at the corner of Pike and 1st, under the big neon of the Public Market Center sign. The market has run at 85 Pike Street since 1907 — nine acres of it downtown — and this week the whole place is dressed for the holidays. Trees strung with lights along the rooflines, garland over the information booth, a lit Christmas tree standing near the entrance to the main arcade. Magic in the Market had already done its work; every eave had a string of bulbs on it.

The crowd thinned out as the sky went dark blue, which made the neon louder. A Smart car took the corner over the cobblestones in front of us while we figured out which arcade to walk first. We went in past the Market Theater stairs and lost track of the order of things after that.