Travel to Celebrate (part 1)

It's been a while since I've written anything or accessed this website, I had to think really hard before typing in "Blogspot" to access this website - and it's now called Blogger. hehe.

So this September, FINALLY, my friend and roommate, Jen, from university came to visit Vancouver, she's been saying she will come, and I'm glad she did - I've been waiting since I left Toronto for her to visit either Hong Kong or Vancouver. A good reason came up (to celebrate another friend's wedding), so we decided to make the most of this trip and see as much of BC and the West Coast as we could pack in.

We started off with celebrating our friend's wedding - a small and private wedding ceremony at Bloedel Conservatory and then a yummy dinner at Seasons in the Park. A lot of friends that were also in Toronto during our university years also flew into town to attend the event - and I got to meet them, hopefully we will have a get-together soon once the bride is back from her honeymoon.

SEATTLE Road Trip - Day 1

Originally, we had planned to leave for Banff the next morning after the wedding, but last minute changes due to the weather and forest fires, we decided to go to Seattle instead. When Jen arrived in Vancouver, it was pouring that day, the days before we had brown skies from the smoke from the forest fires. Thankfully, after 2 days of raining, we started our 2 days 1 night road trip to Seattle with clear, sunny skies.

I'm glad we had a last minute change to the schedule and did Seattle first, because we were able to sleep in and get a yummy breakfast from Steveston Bakery before hitting the road. The breakfast is not the usual large, heaping plates, but the amount is just enough - the scramble eggs (they only do scramble) was very yummy, we were trying to figure out how they make it that good while eating it.

Once we finally got on the road, the traffic wasn't that bad, we drove all the way down to Seattle, with a quick stop at Arby's - I've missed their roast beef burgers and curly fries!

We checked-in to our hotel - Silver Cloud Hotel - Stadium, located right next to the Safeco Stadium, and there were lots of games going on in our area that Sunday, so roads were blocked and lots of people were on the streets. We found out there's a shuttle from our hotel to different tourist spots in Downtown Seattle, which meant we could save time and money on parking (although we did pay a flat rate to park our car at the hotel). This is a great service, but unfortunately we didnt' have a local number (I didn't get one of those roaming SIM cards until after this trip) so we had to go ask people to call the hotel for us each time we wanted to be picked up.

After dropping off our bags in the hotel, we went to Chihuly Garden & Glass, which happens to be right next to the Space Needle! We got a package ticket for both.

Dale Chihuly is from Tacoma, just south of Seattle, but lots of people think he's from Seattle. His work is really beautiful and at the end of the museum there's a video room showing how he goes about creating his work. Not only are his glassworks beautiful, I also like how he squeezes paint right from the tube and make paintings/sketches of his work to transfer what's in his mind to canvas. All of it is so spontaneous and beautiful!

Then we walked around the parks behind the Chihuly Garden & Glass and found that there's a Hawaiian festival going on. We decided to have Hawaiian food for dinner!

Then it was just right for our reservation up the Space Needle, we went up and saw the ombre sky as the sun set.

We got back to the hotel around 10pm, and went for a swim in the outdoor pool before going to bed.


SEATTLE Road Trip - Day 2

On this trip and the rest of Jen's stay, we made use of everyday.

First thing in the morning, we took the shuttle to Pike Place to visit Public Market. This place has loads of fresh fruits and seafood - wanted to buy some and bring home, but I don't think it would have lasted the whole day in our car. We did have plenty of seafood for breakfast and lunch.

We got a good recommendation for breakfast at Lowell's from our Shuttle Driver - Denise. She said she's heard good things about it and they incorporate seafood into their breakfasts.

It was a little hard to find Lowell's at first, but in case you every want to go, it's on the street level floor where most people arrive. And it's in the middle of the building, so no matter if you enter from the north or south entry, just walk along the hallway between the stalls and the restaurant is somewhere in the middle of the two entries.

Ordering at Lowell's can be either "self-served" or "full-served". If you want self-service, you can order at the counter just instead the doorway, then wait for the dish and then you can get a seat on the first floor or third floor. If you want full-service, then go straight up to the second floor and wait to be seated.

There are lots of dishes to choose from. In the end we chose the San Juan Benedict (one with dungeness crab and one with smoked King Salmon) and the Hangtown Fry (oysters and scramble eggs, bacon and hash!) - Yummy! The dungeness crab is really good. Next time I would order just the dungeness crab.

After breakfast, we were ready to start shopping! We walked around and found some postcards, and also some interesting shops. There was one shop that sells quotes type-written on notecards and also calling cards - not very useful, but they're just so simple and elegant. That reminds me, I need to make some business cards - or calling cards for myself.

 below: we made a washroom stop and noticed the doors to the stalls where shorter than usual...

We also stopped by a shop named Piroshky Piroshky - they sell pastries, but everything looked too filling. A few shops down from Piroshky Piroshky is the first Starbucks - not much to do here and no seating. Everyone just goes in to get a coffee/drink and exit. It's way to crowded, but it's one of the must-dos for Jen's first trip to Seattle.

Then we went down Post Alley to Pike Place Chowder to wait in line for CLAM CHOWDER!!!! They make like 8 different chowders every day! We wanted to try everything, so they have these samplers - which are actually pretty decent size, and we tried 8 different ones.

My favourite is the traditional one. Also we kind of got all mixed up about the flavours as they can be quite similar. And mixing different chowders is probably not something I would do next time, my tummy didn't feel good for a few hours.

After lunch, we made our way out of Seattle and stopped by the post office to mail our postcards, and then went on to Seattle Premium Outlets, 45 mins north of downtown Seattle. We arrived around 3pm and then shopped until 9pm! Unfortunately we were so happy with our purchases, we forgot to take a photo of everything.