Trip to Seattle Again
April 21, 2008 - 1.32This time to pick up my uncle and aunt as well as do some shopping. We headed out earlier today, leaving the house around 8am.
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Since it was the sun run today, police were already blocking the streets and redirecting traffic.
The sun rise – something I don’t see often.
Border crossing was a lot fast this time and the 2hr drive to Seattle has some pretty interesting sceneries. Weird April weather had hit Washington State as well. A few snowy shots.
And it has melted further south.
I used to be able to tell the type of cloud this is. Back in high school… When I was taking geography… Cumulus, cirrus, nimbus – a combination of those words.
An interesting beetle on the I-5.
Midway it started raining.. or possible hailing. Couldn’t really tell since it was very intermittent.
Clouds were probably the most interesting thing on the ride there. These two photos are of opposite sides of the freeway. But what a difference.
Right
Left
I dozed off a bit towards the end. We got to my relatives’ hotel around 11am. Since my uncle was busy with the conference until 12pm, we went to nearby supermarket to stock up on some Vitamin Water. To my surprise, I found Miss Vickies there to be in a slightly smaller package and all in unfamiliar flavours except Jalapeno. I tried the Country Onion with 3 Cheese since the other flavours weren’t really appealing. In fact, this one wasn’t either since it’s 3 cheese but it was least unappealing to me. It wasn’t bad. The onion flavour dominated over the cheese. I kind of liked it.
After my uncle was done with the conference stuff, we headed to lunch. Of course, I forgot to take the before picture so here’s an after one of my salmon bento.
It was time to check-out of the hotel. I went upstairs to help take the luggages down and snapped a few shots from the room window.
Being a bit fan of Starbucks, I wanted to check out the first Starbucks store at the Pike Place Market. Since it was Sunday and a rather nice day out, there were a ton of people at the market which only means it’s impossible to find parking.
Luckily, we manage to catch one guy leaving and snatched his spot. Just across the street, there was a man playing the guitar and hula hoop together.
And here is the first ever Starbucks store!!
The outside.
It’s rather crowded as expected.
There’re a few displays inside marking its history.
And of course, side shelves full of merchandise. There is also a special Starbucks card that can be bought at the counter.
The original logo above the pick-up counter.
Last but not least, a Caffe Vanilla Frappuccino after a lengthy wait.
The next stop was Premium Outlets.
We left around 7pm when the outlet closes. On the way back, we encounter another interesting looking car.
As the ride goes, the sun was setting, creating some rather pretty scenery. First attempt at taking a photo, I capture a truck.
Then I manage to take one with the light post right in the middle. Note that the car was going around 110km/h and light posts aren’t exact that close together. It’s probably harder to take a picture of the light post than just the setting sun. What luck I have.
Finally, a successful shot… or at least I think it looks fine.
And a few more as the ride goes.
It was already dark by the time we got to the border crossing. And since it’s the end of the weekend, the line was pretty long.
A polar bear figure in the duty free shops area. These figures are sold by some charity organization. I think people (or more likely companies) bid on them. A couple of years ago, the figures up for bid were salmons.
By the time we got back to the city, it way already close to 10pm. We had a rather fulfilling 打冷 meal and went home afterwards. My only purchase at the outlet is, none other than, a pair of shoes. I have to say the bag was rather discriminating towards shorter people. Had I held it properly, I’d be scraping the bag all over the ground.
