So I took a 10 day trip with my two friends to Seattle and Portland from March 19th to 28th. You might think gosh, ten days for Seattle? Yes, ten whole days because we wanted to reserve the last few days and live like we are Seattleites. We spent a couple of weeks planning this trip using Google doc. I think our research and planning definitely paid off. We had a structured schedule that allowed flexibility between activities. It's definitely wise to plan well and allow room for change when you are going somewhere for the first time. This saves precious sight seeing time and chances of disagreements. Perhaps I should get into the details of our trip now...
We began our day with our eight am flight on Friday. Guess who I saw at LAX ?
Snoop Dogg. I did not realize it was him until he walked past me...
No, he was not on our flight... but I'm sure he took Alaska Airlines too.
We arrived around 11am and rented our Corolla from Enterprise. I found a discount code that took away the underage charge! We saved like $100.
The first place we went to was the Museum of Flight by Boeing. We joined the tour ($15.50 ea) and got to visit the big giant factory that produced all the Boeing planes. It is humongous there, I think that guy said something like 500+ basketball courts ? or was it 500+ football fields... We also participated in a research study and got a pair of wings that retails at $3! Free souvenir!
We checked in at Courtyard Marriott and looked for dinner. The front desk suggested Grazie, and Italian restaurant. I think it's the best Italian food I've ever had so far. I ordered the Linguine Marco ($16) - chicken, garlic, lemon, white wine, pine nuts, and goat cheese. I loved the garlic they were so soft! The sauce was really good too, not too heavy. We shared a dessert and picked the Mixed Berry Torta ($5.25), this Italian imported dessert came on a plate of heavy cream and caramel sauce. I loved this too! Another thing to mention is the olive oil for the bread. They had spices in the oil and I think they put garlic, salt, pepper, rosemary, basil, and probably something else... and it is really good with the bread.
The next day we went to Snoqualmie Fall which was around an hour drive from our motel. It was really beautiful because of all the tall green trees (pine trees?) and the air was so fresh. We took a small hike to the bottome of the fall. It was pretty good, the weather was clear, a little windy, but not too cold. Afterwards, we drove to a nearby small town called Duvall. It is a really cute town. There was a small used bookstore and it had a bench made with books outside the store. We ate lunch at The Grill and they have really good breakfast dishes. We had the light lunch plate ($8). I really liked the sausage links.
We drove back to the city and visited Gas Work Park. This place is like an abandoned Gas work area with a lot of playing field. There are all kinds of people, painters, drummers, and families. People have picnics, walk their dogs, and play kites. I have to warn you though, there are a lot of dog poo on the grass. I don't know why people can't pick up after their dogs. Afterwards, we went to University of Washington which was just 10 minutes away. I love the campus! So beautiful and we were just in time for the Cherry blossom. I am also so jealous of the University Village. They have Coach, Tiffany's, Gap, etc, a lot of fancy restaurants, cupcake stores and more. We ate dinner there at Blue C Sushi - Train sushi. Train sushi is pretty much the same everywhere to me... So I don't really have a comment.
On Sunday, we went to Olympic National Park to venture a bit. It was really fun driving the car onto the ferry. We didn't really have a plan because none of us had proper clothes and shoes for hiking. So we drove around and hiked a little trail to Marymere Fall. It was really pretty and relaxing being surrounded by all the greenery and water but it was raining and cold! That night we got back to downtown and walked around looking for clam chowder. Hot soup was what we really needed. We found Steelhead Diner just by the Pike Market and ordered the chowder. Man! Best chowder ever! I think it might be the truffle oil on top or there's some special seasoning in that soup!
Day Four is Portland Trip. We drove about two hours (I think...) from Seattle to Portland. A really easy and nice drive I must say. Before this trip I had already researched Portland and it's fine tax free dining and shopping. I found that food trucks are really popular and they offer authentic ethnic food at great prices. So I definitely had to check that out. Ying really wanted to visit a Brewery so we also put that on the list. As for the shopping, we visited an outlet and a giant new mall (word of advice- skip the Lloyd Center). We were in Portland two days and the first thing we ate was the Food Carts. I had Ziba's Pita (really famous, look her up!) I can't remember what I ordered but it was meatballs in this yogurt sauce with these fried bready things ("better than bread" - quoting Ziba). All that for $6.75 and I coudn't finish it all. I also bought Mango Sticky Rice from one Thai cart and it was around $3.50 to feed three! There are a lot of carts to choose from - Thai, Japanese, Viet, Greek, Mexican, etc. I can not recall the street name but I'm sure if you search around you will find the place I'm talking about. It's very close to Powell's Bookstore which is the next thing I have to ram about. Powell's Bookstore ! Where do I start, in the heart of downtown/Pearl District, I think this place is like four stories high and a whole block wide. It's better than Elite in Taiwan... Sorry Elite but they offer way more English books ha! I feel like I can live in the bookstore. You can find everything and anything you want (books i mean). Must go if you are in Portland, even if you don't read, it'll be cool to check out...
After shopping for books, it was time to shop for moi. We went to Lloyd Center only because it was U.S's first largest mall... but man the outside really let us down. It was shabby and the area was scary... Inside was like any other mall but it had a small ice rink in the center... They didn't have Sephora so we were out of there. We drove to Woodburn Outlet and shopped a bit there. But Washington Square is the one to go to! We didn't have much time left at Washington Square but we ate at the food court before they closed. I really liked the Indian food there. I had Butter chicken bowl and naan bread~
The next day we went to St Honore Bakery, this is on the other side of town I think... It's a cute medium size french bakery. It was quite crowded when we got there around 10am. I got a Pain Au Chocolat and a Latte. I also got a St honore Puff thing... can't remember the name but I know it had a lot of cream and little puffs on it and it was de-li-cious ! For lunch we went to Bridgeport Brewery and got the beer sampler to share along with a pizza and a plate of mussels with fries.
The mussel dish was definitely the best thing on this trip. Steamed mussels in white wine lemon sauce topped with fat fries and a white creamy sauce. We all agreed that was the best. The pizza wasn't bad either, reminds me of Gina's Pizza in Irvine.
We also got on the Aerial Tram that takes you up to Oregon Health Sci Uni. Strange thing to visit you might think, but it's actually a very nice view up there!
We were back in Seattle on Wednesday and it was time to do some tourist stuff. First off to Pike Place - Market Spice - very cute store for tea, coffee, and spices. There was also the first starbucks to visit. From our hotel (Best Western) we walked to the Sci Fi Museum and Space Needle. At night we went to Cafe Presse, a french restaurant. I ordered fish but I didn't really like how my sole was sitting on a plate of oil... Then we went to Triple Door for late night happy hour !
In Seattle, we also visited the Art Museum. It's nice to walk around the museum and look at art and history. But I definitely think I caught my cold there, the AC was quite strong ><
So on Thursday, our life as Seattleites began and after SAM we went to get Starbucks and Daily Donuts by Pike Place. We went to the City Library and caught the bus (took some time figuring that out) back to the hotel. The next day we went to the International District and ate some chinese food! Then we went to Pioneer Square and Westlake Center. At night we went to Capitol Hill for some more coffee and Broadway Grill for Happy Hour.
Saturday was a park filled day. First to Green lake Park where you will see a lot of people exercising with a cup of coffee in their hand. Kerry Park is definitely a place to go for a good view of Seattle. In the afternoon it was time for more coffee. We had Thai food with a friend for dinner and got gelato for dessert. I have to mention my Rice flavor gelato - mmm Yummy...
Sunday was our last day! We went back to Pike Place for last minute souvenir shopping and ate lunch at Cafe Campagne - I had the Croque Monsieur =). It was a rainy day so we decided to chill in Starbucks (again) before heading to the Airport.
Overall, I had a really great time in Seattle and Portland. I think you are able to see that I am trying to wrap things up now, and I do thank you for reading, if you have read the whole thing. Thanks for bearing with me. There's one more thing I don't think I've mentioned yet and that is Specialty Bakery - great great great Cookies, they have stores in Irvine... funny thing is that I've lived there for three years and I did not know about this place. This post is definitely over due because I've been back for over a month now and I know this has taken a few weeks to write! I've finally found time to finish this up and post some photos beneath. So I hope you will enjoy the photos, just don't hate me for the text!
P.S - this trip has definitely inspired, well, more like turned me into a chocolate chip cookie fanatic, I have been buying, eating, baking chocolate chip cookies since my trip, so definitely keep an eye out on that post...
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