Jamming in Seattle - Jam Tour Day #2 Recap

It's Day 2 of our fantastic Wild Maine Blueberry Tour, and Stacy and I can't wait to get started. Today is going to be a day of store visits plus a little bit of sightseeing. We'd better have an early start. Good things my sister called me at 8:00 am ET forgetting that I was in Seattle instead of Portland, Maine ... that makes it a 5:00am wake up call for us! Well, no time like the present, we might as well begin the day!

We begin the day with breakfast at Starbucks! A quasi-funny place for two tea drinkers ... but as the saying goes ... "When in Rome ..." The hot chocolate and Chai that we order are a great kickoff to the day.

A short walk from our hotel is the Pike Place Public Market.
We head down there and enjoy the sights.

First thing we see is Corner Produce. These guys are displaying a huge assortment of beautiful, colorful vegetables. It has the look of a summer harvest, yet it is January. We left several jars of our Wild Maine Blueberry Jam with these guys. They'll be enjoying the jam themselves and sharing with their customers as well. If you are in the area, stop in to see them and enjoy some of the best jam available.

Next stop, the World Famous Pike Place Fish Market. We just had to see it. They sing, they shout ... they throw fish. All in a good day's work. Have a look at what we found tangled up in their Dungeness Crabs.

And even the fish here are eating our jam.

Looks like our Jam Tour is having quite an effect!

Mid-day, we were at West Seattle Thriftway where we again were thrilled to meet so many new fans of our jams and specialty foods. The staff at this store is by far one of the nicest teams. They are 100% focused on making it a great experience for their customers. And I think they must hold the record for the quickest checkout line. If you don't want to linger in the checkout aisle reading the magazine covers, then this is a great store for you.

In the afternoon, we were at QFC near the University. Look at the flowers outside of their store. More evidence that we are not in Maine. We gave away hundreds of jars of jam.

My favorite takeaway from today is the sheer joy that people experience when it clicks in their mind that ... yes, we are simply giving them a free jar of jam. No catch, no gimmick. Just a great jar of jam to enjoy. You can see their posture change as the smile comes across their face.

Stacy and I closed the day with dessert. A friend from home suggested that we check out the ice cream sundaes at Icon Grill knowing how much we love dessert. I can't repeat her actual words, but the gist was that this dessert would be ridiculously great. So we had to try it. Cynthia wasn't exaggerating. An edible bowl filled with vanilla ice cream, topped with a cone filled with hot fudge ... and a sweet waiter ready to dress the sundae with M&Ms, cookies and of course whipped cream. A little of everything please. And with that, the day is done.

Thank you Seattle for a great launch to our tour. We have fallen in love with this city over the past three days and will now begin dreaming of a return visit. Tomorrow, we head to San Francisco.

Jamming in Seattle -- Jam Tour Day #1

What a great first day for the Jam Tour. Seattle is a beautiful city, the views are amazing. The tour is being kicked off by myself and Laura, both of us from the marketing team. We were lucky enough to need to criss-cross the city a few times as we headed back and forth to Bellevue. Amazing coastline spots (and we thought Maine had that nailed!) with the snowcapped mountains in the near distance ... it is truly spectacular.

We gave out free sample jars of Wild Maine Blueberry Jam, coupons and offered tastings of our jam on our Simple White crackers. We were very well received everywhere we went. The most common response we got when we asked people if they wanted a free jar of Blueberry Jam was "Who could pass that up?" Yes, a few skeptics asked "What's the catch?" ... nope, no catch! One gentleman was so happy he says he is going to include us in his will. Now that's showing some love for our Wild Maine Blueberry Jam!

Another lucky perk of being in Seattle for the tour is that my brother lives out here. He and his family treated us to an incredible dinner at Wild Ginger in Bellevue. Their menu offers that each diner "take a culinary tour of China and Southeast Asia". And they state that "Our staff is here to guide and inspire you." Well, inspired we were. The food is served family style (if you wish, and we did), so we quickly found our table overflowing with curried tofu, beef and prawn satay, mushroom and snowpeas, seafood Thai noodles and more. The food was amazing. And I have to say how impressed Laura and I were that my 4-13 year-old niece and nephews devoured the food right along with us. Wild Ginger boasts one of the best wine lists and they have received accolades from Wine Spectator. We enjoyed our dinner with a very nice, smooth Syrah. Finished it off with banana, coconut and ginger flavored desserts. Nothing could have improved the evening!

It is so great to be able to meet our fans face to face. Some of you arrived after recieving our twitter and facebook messages. We're glad the word is getting out. We are just getting ready to start day #2 on the tour. We hope to see more people out today. We will be heading to West Seattle Thriftway at noon and then QFC on 2746 NE 45th Street.

Join the tour, and if you can't, let someone near us know. We will keep you updated on our whereabouts. In the meantime you can check out our entire schedule to see if we will be visiting a city near you.

(Photo from luthor522)