Seattle Food

Here are some of the foods we had in Seattle. I would say majority of the foods below are restaurants selected by H’s cousin. Shoutout to her for taking the week off to take us around town.

Seattle recap

Here I go: reflecting a January trip in February. We woke up very early to get to catch our 6 AM flight to Seattle. It was my first time flying with Lana. She did very well and slept the whole flight both ways.

Weather. Very grey. Not as wet as LA surprisingly. It is as though we left for Seattle to take a break from the rain. I heard the rain got really bad in LA that my administrator said it was optional to go into the office.

Starting the New Year off with a vacation!

If we were having coffee we’d probably be sharing — yes, sharing! — this cup of coffee. This is an $11 latte — the most expensive cup of coffee I’ve ever purchased. They recommended the mocha, but I’d imagine it would be even more expensive. The barista explained that they make their own chocolate or something like that. There were no prices posted on menu so I was price-shocked when I was about to pay at the counter. Was this latte worth the price tag? Unfortunately, no. But the coffee shop was beautiful.

Unleash the Flower Power!

This was in the Chihuly Garden and Glass in Seattle– it’s such a unique place!  I don’t even know what I was doing in this photo. It’s likely I was taking a photo from my smart phone. Thank you, husband, for taking this photo!

A year ago my husband, my brother-in-law, and I went to Seattle to visit family. My husband’s cousin got married on a Wednesday that week and we got invited but said, “nope, can’t make it to your Wednesday wedding, but we’ll come over on Friday night.”

This trip was less than 36-hours! What did we do in this ridiculously short period of time? Well…we arrived to Seattle from LA on Friday night at 11 PM and had a late night dinner and went to bed even later. Then we spent most of our Saturday exploring the touristy parts of Seattle and went to bed at 3 am. I thought to myself, “when I was the last I went to bed at 3 AM two night in a row?” Well, never. Then on Sunday morning we took a plane ride back home. Phew.

Say what? No Weekly Photo Challenge this week? Well the Photo Fridays must go on. It’s been another busy week of long work hours. Writing on ths blog has always been a joy and center no matter what time of day it is.

Coming this Monday, I got a new feature where I’ll be featuring bloggers who work full time jobs like me for Motivation Monday. If you’re interested in being featured in my blog interview, let me know!

 

Photo outakes and lessons learned from the Oregon and Washington trip

Warning this is a picture heavy post. These are photos I haven’t gotten a chance to post and some lessons I learned from my trip.

Saw Nick’s house from Grimm at Portland!

Seattle Underground Tour

The Seattle Underground is a network of underground passageways and basements in downtown Seattle. The Seattle Underground was the original ground level at the city’s origin in the mid-19th century. Our friend recommended as one of the things to do when in Seattle. In fact our friend recommended LOTS of things to do in Seattle. He stayed there for a summer in college and out of all the things he recommended, we pursued going to the Underground Tour because it was one of the more unique things to do.

The tour was funny and informational about Seattle’s history from a town being with sidewalks cover in…well…I don’t want to spoil anything for you. Overall, I highly recomend the tour. I spoke to my husband’s Seattle-native cousin about the tour and she had no idea about its history.

100+ year old saloon and bathroom.

There is a little bit of walking and climbing up the stairs to present Seattle and down the stairs seeing Seattle from the past.

Old Seattle street signs and sidewalks.

When walking around present-day Pioneer Square, you’ll notice the purple glass tiles on the sidewalk. From the underground, this is what it looks like.

Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour
614 1st Ave
Seattle, WA 98104
Website

Portland Japanese Garden

Address:
611 SW Kingston Ave
Portland, OR 9720

Website

Warning: This post is picture heavy but well worth it 🙂

The Japanese Garden at Portland may be small. It took us about an hour exploring the garden, but it was LUSH full of green plants and beauty. Seeing it in person was unreal and fairy-tale like.

Hike 22/52 Biking Portland

Date: May 30th
Neighborhood: All over Portland
Difficulty: 2 out of 5
Weather: Misty
Distance: About 12 miles

For a few dollars, you can rent a bike for a day to explore Portland. You can bike a few miles to get to the next neighborhood, drop it off at the nearest bike share pod, borrow again when you choose, and repeat.

I learned Portland is a fairly small city compared to Los Angeles — in fact smaller than San Fernando Valley. Portland has 145 square miles, Los Angeles has 503 square miles, and San Fernando Valley has 260 square miles — wow it takes up more than half of Los Angeles! Due to Portland’s fairly smaller size, its sights were more compact which makes it definitely more bikeable.

Also, it made me think I should bike a little bit more at home. If it’s within a 5 mile radius, I should bike there. I’ll let you know how that experiment goes.

Anyways on to biking…

Oregon Zoo

After the Memorial Day ceremony at Willamette National Cemetary, we went to the other side of Portland to the zoo. Veterans get free admission that day. It’s a fairly small zoo (compared to San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park) — but it’s beautiful and full of lovely greenery.

Below are some of my favorite snaps of the zoo:

Otter is on the left and the seal is on the right.

 

Address:
4001 Southwest Canyon Road
Portland, OR 97221

Special Announcement and off-topic: I finished my FAFSA for grad school. When I attended the open house for the Masters Program last month, they suggested to finish the FAFSA before applying to the program. The idea was a little weird because when I was doing undergrad, I filled out a FAFSA after I got accepted to a university reporting. Maybe the school process is a little difference since this is a program is geared towards working professionals(?) who will continue to work during the academic year. Anyways to me, this is a big step. Before vacation, I was on the edge of burning out. What prevented me from really burning out was putting certain things aside such as doing my grad school stuff or instead of cooking dinner, I order food

Blue Star Donuts in Portland

Address
3753 N Mississippi Ave
Portland, OR 97227

Brace yourself, I’ll be binge-posting a few more things from our vacation. I think Blue Star Donuts deserves a post of its own. They’re delicious not-too-sweet brioche donuts and I am glad they have a spot in Venice Beach so I don’t need a plane ticket to go to Blue Star Donuts. I still think it is quite a trek from house. It would be even nicer if Blue Star Donuts opened up in the Valley — maybe in Sherman Oaks? It would be within my cycling radius ;-).

Along the Waterfront

Yesterday, we went on an Underground tour of Seattle. I can’t wait to share those photos and share a little bit of history of Seattle without giving too many spoilers.

After the tour, we walked around the waterfront admiring the bay views. Maybe for the next trip to the Seattle, I’d like to take the ferry and go island hopping. Plus, I’d like bring our puppies and bring our passports to Vancouver.

Fish and Chips from Ivar’s

Ivar’s Acre of Clams
Pier 54, 1001 Alaskan Way, Seattle, WA 98104