Just My Rambling

I promised to update more travel news. To start off, here are my 5 favorite places to visit in downtown Seattle.

1. Space Needle - The major landmark of the Pacific Northwest. Just make sure you try to visit it on a sunny day otherwise you will not be able to see the great view from the top of the needle. After visiting the Space Needle,  hop onto a monorail to Westlake Center. Then take a short walk to #2.
2. Pike Place Market – One of the oldest public farmer’s market. It’s a great place to shop for all sorts of knickknacks. But watch out for flying fishes when you are there. Don’t forget to visit the original Starbucks.  
3. Waterfront Park – This is another great place to shop, a great view of the Seattle skyline and also watch the ferries. You can also visit the Seattle Aquarium or take a cruise to Tillicum Village
4. Pioneer Square. – The historic district filled with antique shops and galleries. You can also take the Underground Tour beneath Seattle’s streets.
5. If you like arts, there’s the Seattle Art Museum and the Olympic Sculpture park.

This blog started out as a travel and photography blog but somehow, it’s lost its direction a little. Maybe it’s due to the fact that I have not been travelling much this year as compared to the previous years. However this year I hope to start travelling again. So far there are a few tentative plans being made. In fact, there’s a trip to Malaysia and Singapore that’s coming up soon. I will also try to highlight some local travel spots. Hopefully this blog will be back on track soon.

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When I lived in Arkansas many years ago, a group of us loved to drive to Branson Missouri for our weekend getaways. Our first destination was always Silver Dollar City for its fun rides and interesting crafts. Then it’s off to the White Water for water rides. Usually after all the rides, we would be so exhausted but we didn’t want to call it a night because we didn’t want to miss the shows.  So, after a quick dinner, we would catch a show. My favorite is the Shoji Tabuchi Show. It was always so much fun! I will definitely have to plan a trip back there again.

Leavenworth is also known as Washington’s Bavarian Village. It’s a cute little town nestled in a valley about 2 1/2 hours from Seattle.  It is basically a tourist town modeled after Bavaria, Germany.

Cute welcoming sign!

Horse carriage rides for the ever-willing-to-pay tourist

Some of their cute buildings!

Look, even McDonalds look different from the norm.

Being the foodie that we are, we had to have some German food there. We had bratswurst & rotisserie pork hock. Too bad we didn’t take a photo. They actually had a rotisserie stove with all the pork hocks rotating in it. Kinda cool.

This past weekend, we decided to make the 2 hour trip over the border to Vancouver, Canada. The weather was pretty gloomy on Saturday so it was a good decision to get out of town & away from the gloomy weather.  The drive up to the border was pretty smooth. At the border, thankfully there wasn’t a long queue. We only waited for about 20 minutes before getting across. While waiting in line, I managed to take a picture of the Peace Arch which is built on the exact US-Canada border. There’s an American flag on 1 side & Canadian flag on the other.

Headed straight to Richmond for FOOD!!! Richmond is on the outskirts of Vancouver. It has a huge Asian population and that means lots of authentic Asian food. We ended up having Dim Sum at Kirin. It was our first time there. At first we were almost turned away since we didn’t have a reservation! Wow, I didn’t know that we needed reservation for a Saturday lunch. But I guess they took pity on us (probably ‘cos of a whiny toddler!! ) and managed to get us a table. The food was really good. We’ll definitely return with a reservation next time!

After lunch, it was shopping time!! Headed over to the Golden Village where there were lots of Asian themed shopping malls. At Aberdeen Center, I was so excited to find Daiso, a Japanese Dollar store. Went on a shopping frenzy there for these cute stuff! I just realised that they have stores here too. Though not as big as the one in Richmond, I will definitely have to go check them out soon.

Then it was back to the US again. The trip back was a little more stressful since we were stuck at the border for 1.5 hours!! There was a long line at customs.

It was a fun trip and I think there’ll be more trips there in the near future. I think DH wants to go there just to eat!! Would love to go up to Whistler in the winter.

Went away for a few days to the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon. Columbia River Gorge  is actually at the border of Washington & Oregon.  It is very scenic & a favorite destination for nature lovers. The Gorge has the greatest number of waterfalls in the Pacific Northwest. According to wiki, there are 77 waterfalls on the Oregon side of the Gorge!! The most famous one is the Multnomah Falls which supposedly is the 2nd tallest waterfall in US.

Other attractions include the Bridge of the Gods , a cantilever bridge which was opened in 1926. It always amaze me how these huge structures were built in the olden ways without the advanced machineries we have nowadays.

Check out Mount Hood at the back of this building! It’s still snow-covered even in summer.  This was the only decent photo I managed to take of Mt. Hood before the sky got cloudy again & Mt. Hood went into hiding : (

There’s also lots of fruit farms in this area. We saw a lot of pear trees. Unfortunately, they are not ready to be picked. Probably in another 2-3 weeks. 

We saw this tree at the fruit farm & thought it look so cute. Very triangular & properly trimmed! I wonder if someone trimmed it this way : )

It was a fun trip. Will try to go again in autumn when the leaves start changing color. 

* A very backdated post *

Continuing from part 1,  where did we go when there’s a  bored toddler in the car? To the zoo, of course!! This zoo is a little different because it’s a drive-thru zoo.

Meet The Bison! I will never forget the bison because 7 yrs ago, he left a big scar on my then 2-mth old car! What a heartache! *sigh*  At this zoo, we get up close and personal with the animals. See how close the animals came to the car ahead of us?

That’s how close the bison came to our car. It was scary since the bison is so big. We have a Camry and the bison is definitely much taller than the car. Then it decided to give us a headbutt!! DH stepped on the gas and took off quickly before it decides to do another headbutt. When we got home, then only we discovered the first scar on our new car!!

More animals: 
Bears – When I first saw the bear, it look so cuddly like the stuffed animal. Then I saw the long claws! Yikes!! Kinda scary!

Clockwise:
Chicken – I’m not sure why there’s a chicken in the zoo but it looks so nice. I think it must have run away from the petting zoo nearby. Peahen, Elk & Prairie Dog.

Overall, it was pretty fun. Lil’ C loves going to the zoo. Looks like there’ll be a lot more zoo trips in the near future.

Last weekend, we went for another day trip to a nearby town. Here in the Pacific Northwest, ferries are a common way to travel. Lil’ C loves the ferry so off we go…..

The Washington State Ferry:

You drive your car onto the ferry …..

Then you can wait in your car, or go to the upper deck where they have plenty of seating or you can enjoy the view at the front. Even though the ride is only 30 min, the ferry is very well-equipped. It has a cafe and even free wi-fi.

A couple of views of the downtown Seattle from the ferry. See the Space Needle??

Where were we going?? To see this……………

Purple Lavenders

White Lavenders
Aren’t they beautiful??? They smell really good too. Unfortunately, we went too early in the season, so majority of the lavender plants were more like this ……….. : (

Will have to try to go back & visit in mid-July. Hopefully it will be in full bloom. So ended up nothing much to see. Decided to go to another place. Guess where we ended up? See part 2…
But before we left, I couldn’t resist taking this picture. The whole house setting looks so beautiful. Like a painting!! I think it must be the owner’s house. See his front yard? All surrounded by lavenders… how nice. No need to buy air freshener for the house!! hehe….

One of the reason that I love living in the Pacific Northwest is the abundance of interesting places to visit. So when weekends roll around, we try to make short daytrips to nearby places. Since we’ve just moved here this yr, there’s still a lot more places to visit. In the meantime, just sharing a couple photos from recent trips.

Snoqualmie Falls

Deception Pass

A lighthouse on a nearby island