Seattle Trip 2010 - Day 7

July 10th was my last day in Washington state as I was leaving on early morning flight on Sunday, and it was the best day spent with my friend.  My friend's friend had a group of 8-9 friends going to Bridal Veil Falls on Saturday so I was going with them also.  The place is about 1 to 1.5 hours away from Redmond and includes a 2 mile hike to the top to get to the falls.  I walk a lot but I have never hiked before so this was something new for me to try out.  It took us about 1.5 hours going up with very rocky, hard, straight, down, steep, and narrow paths.  In fact, the last half mile was extremely steep with stairs and rocky formations.  We finally got to the falls and once I reached near the falls, the hike was completely worth it!  It was an amazing view of the mountains from the top and the falls itself was a sight to see.

 

After spending an hour or so near the falls, we started to head down.  I think hiking down is faster than hiking up, but it's much harder in a sense that hiking down puts more pressure on your knees and you have to keep control on your speed.  Four of us out of 11 who went to the top got down first in an hour and then the rest of them followed one by one within 15-20 minutes.  I was really tired after that 4 mile hike, but couldn't really tell if my legs were aching until I had to go up the stairs to the gate of the apartment complex :P.  I could feel the pain in every muscle as I was walking up...haha...I guess it was a bit tough start for a newcomer hiker ;).  

 

We got home and I took quick shower.  Then went out to a restaurant for a nice evening dinner with my friend before I leave Washington.  It didn't feel like the last day but unfortunately I had to leave the next day :(.  Me and my friend came home, I packed my bags and then instead of going to sleep, we played the game of "gloom".  That was the first time I was playing and I won :).  Finally headed to bed around 12:30 am setting an alarm for 5 am.  I wasn't going to get much sleep but I was planning to sleep on the 2.5 hours of flight anyway.

This was a great trip and a lot of fun.  Taking lots of memories with me and a big Thanks to my dear friend for making this vacation really fun and enjoyable.

Seattle Trip 2010 - Day 5 & 6

Day 5:

My friend dropped me off at Redmond before going to work and I fell asleep again once getting to my friend's place.  Remember, my plan today was doing nothing but relaxing and sleeping.  I really needed the sleep and a break since we were roaming around for the past 4 days.  The day kind of progressed as I got ready, ate lunch, watched Chak de! India again....

In the evening, I went with my friend to dinner in downtown, had an ice cream afterwards, went to Golden Garden park and finally to Gas Works park.  The Seattle downtown view is so spectacular from Gas Works park that my friend literally made me close my eyes, held my hand and made me walk up the hill, down the hill until we go to the top of the park for the entire view and then she made me open my eyes.  The view was indeed breathtaking.  It was the midnight beauty of Seattle and highly recommend to everyone who is in Seattle to take the time out to experience the beauty of the view!  I tried to take a shot of the entire skyline but could only capture a bit of it and that too is just an example.  The picture hasn't turned out as good as the view itself was.  We went home around 12:45 am and that was end of Day 5.  It seems short compared to other days, but I was happy getting my sleep and doing almost nothing all day.

Day 6:
 

Again woke up really late and got ready kind of late as well.  My friend had taken a day off so we both were being lazy :P.  Finally we pushed ourselves to get ready and went to Japanese Garden around 4 pm.  Due to the crazy nature of Seattle traffic, we got stuck in the traffic for a while.  Honestly, I can't imagine driving on the Seattle roads and we got lucky the first 4 days since we were able to take the express lane with 3 people or more in the car.  The place was nice and pretty, but kind of small.  They had a small pond in the center and different trails that you can walk through within the garden.

In the evening, I met one of my cousins at Microsoft where she works and then we went to the Bainbridge island and from there we went to a small town called Poulsbo with an Italian theme shops, and it has a nice walk by the lake side.  The island is surrounded by Puget Sound.  It got really late coming back so I went to her place and stayed there overnight.  Came back to my friend's place in the morning.  So two days of relaxation with little bit of site-seeing :).

Seattle Trip 2010 - Day 4

Today, we wanted to cover the last 2 attractions of the CityPass which are Woodland park zoo and museum of flight.  Plus we had a tight schedule to cover these 2 since my brother was leaving today in 6:50 pm flight.

The day started with beautiful and sunny weather and initially we had planned to leave by 8:30 am but couldn't leave until 9:45.  This was a minor set-back.  We reached the zoo and explored the entire zoo in 3 hours.  Unfortunately some of the animals were either sleeping or not visible, so that kind of made our trip quicker.  We left the zoo around 1:30 to get a quick lunch at the subway and tried to leave right away for the Museum of flight.  Keep in mind that my brother's flight was at 6:50 and we needed to be at the airport by 5:30 pm (I wish I was aware of the traffic at that time), we kept out trip moving forward to the museum.  We got lost in the way but somehow made it to the museum by 3:20 pm.

I think this was one of the best museums I have seen so far.  It was  amazing to see all kinds of planes from century old styles to new fighter planes.  Also they have Airpark hours where you can go in and see inside the Air force one airplane including some other ones like british airways, etc.  This was one attraction I wish we had more time for.  We could only spend an hour due to time constraint but if you are planning to go, then I would advice taking out at least 2-3 hours to see the entire museum.  We actually couldn't see one of the exhibitions on the 2nd floor but that's ok.

Rushing out from the airpark around 4:30 pm, we planned to pick up my friend around 5 pm from her work and get to the airport by 5:30 pm.  Good plan, right?  Well the plan kind of went down the drain when we were stuck in traffic itself for an hour and got to my friend's office at 5:40 pm.  The only thought rushing through my mind was that how are we going to get these 2 boys to the airport in time!  Now it's not like the rush hour was going to be any less going the other way to the airport, but tension was high and I was freaking out....you can ask my friend :P.  Finally we get my brother and my friend's brother to the airport at 6:20pm for a 6:50 flight....Thankfully it was Wednesday and the Seattle-Tacoma airport security screenings are not too bad.  They made it to their flight and their flight took off just 3 mins after they got on.  This tells me only one thing that they were the last two to be boarded on the plane...phew!  That was very close call :-o.  I was really tired by then but I was relieved that they were on plane :).

Now for the evening plan, I was going to meet one of my school friends after 10 years.  I knew she was in Seattle so called her up since I was going to come.  We decided to meet up for dinner.  I got freshen up and she picked me up to go to the restaurant.  She hasn't changed a bit and according to her I haven't changed a bit :).  It was great to see her and meet her husband who is just as nice as her and fun person.  We had dinner in an indian restaurant and great chat over all the school stories, friends, teachers, who is doing what and not....there wasn't enough time for us to catch up, so she asked me to spend the night at her place.  I didn't really have any plan for the next day so I thought why not?  On the way to her place, I heard her and her husband's college stories, surprise engagement party (yea, you read it right...it was a surprise engagement for her husband :P, I still can't stop laughing), and their wedding plans and preparation timeline.  It was all fun.  We got home and our chat was still not over.  Me and my friend talked about our school, her college, our friends and much more, so don't really know what time we fell asleep.  That concludes the end of Day 4 :).

Honestly, these 4 days have been really tiring, so that's why I had not planned anything for July 8th and wanted to just relax and sleep all day.  I still went to some places with friends but it was relaxing instead of continuous site-seeing.  Next you will get the updates of Day 5 and 6 together since there is not much going on.

Tata!

Seattle Trip 2010 - Day 3

As much as I love to sleep in, I had to get up at 7 am because of 2 reasons.  One, we had a solid plan to cover all 4 attractions in Seattle downtown if we left home on time and two, I had to make the sandwiches for lunch :).  Made the sandwiches, all 3 of us got ready, and headed to catch the bus to downtown.  My friend was working that day so it was going to be me, my brother, and my friend's brother.  Now before going to Seattle, I had decided to take the Seattle CityPass which covers 6 attractions for 1 low price of $59!  I think it's a great deal if you want to enjoy the hot spots of Seattle.  Since my brother was going to be in the city for only 4 days, we got the CityPass, but there is even a better deal called "Go Seattle Card" which covers about 35 attractions for around $130 which you can use over 7 days.  We didn't have that much time, so we decided to go with CityPass.  The 6 attractions were Argosy 1 hour harbor cruise, 2 visits to space needle, admission to Seattle aquarium, admission to Pacific science center with one 2D/3D imax movie, admission to Woodland park zoo, and admission to Museum of flight.  Now that's one good deal!

Our first stop was argosy 1 hour harbor cruise.  Now we got there an hour earlier than the cruise was scheduled, so we just waited around the shore.  It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm, so we waited until 10:30 and then got first in the line for 11 o'clock cruise.  Now here is a tip for all of you....take the first cruise of the day because it'll be less crowded and you can get the seats on the top deck for the best view.  The tour started at 11 am and we had a great view of the Seattle skyline/downtown, mountain ranges, and the best view of the Mount Rainer.  Here is one of the good shots of Mount Rainer.  Our tour guide was also nice and knowledgeable, so it made the tour more interesting.  We came back from the tour in an hour and had our lunch. 

Next stop on the agenda was Seattle aquarium.  Argosy cruises and the aquarium are so close to each other, we had less than 5 minute walk to get there.  We spent about 35-40 minutes tops at the aquarium and saw big octopus, sea otters, jelly fish, etc.  Overall the aquarium was ok...if you don't have kids and going by yourself, you can cover the aquarium in 45 minutes max, not more than that.

After the aquarium, we started heading to Pacific science center which was about 1.2 miles from the aquarium.  The weather was great and we were not tired so we decided to walk.  Plus the walk is right by the waterfront so you have a great view as well.  It took us approx. 25-30 mins to get to pacific science center.  Since we had citypass, it included an imax ticket (40 min movie) for one of their discovery movies, so we got the tickets for "The Living Sea".  Overall was a good experience and fun time that we were there for almost 3 hours.

The final stop of the day was the Space needle visit.  Space needle was extremely close to the pacific science center with less than 5 minute walk.  With CityPass, you get 2 visits to the observation deck, and once you go on the top,  you can stay there until they close.  We went to the top, took pics, and chilled for a while.  I could spend hours there just overlooking the downtown and beautiful sunshine from a big height.  I wanted to also see the night view from space needle, but since the sunset was pretty much late around 10 pm, we left the needle to go to dinner.  We met up with my friend, had some great and spicy indian food at Kabab house and then went to Kerry Park for night view of the space needle and downtown from some distance.  It was gorgeous!

It was already night and I wanted to go back to space needle for a night view of the city, so went back and enjoyed the breathtaking view.  Here is a snap of night view, but let me be honest that my camera does not do the justice to the view that I saw and what was captured.

We got back around 11:30 and we were dead tired.  I don't know about others but I was already falling asleep but somehow managed to get up and change and then go back to sleep :D.  End of Day 3.  More fun to come in the zoo and Museum of flight on Day 4.  Oh and also my brother and my friend's brother leaving the next day in the evening flight, so got a tight schedule.

Seattle Trip 2010 - Day 2

After a hectic 4th of July, we all somehow managed to get ready by 11:30 am on July 5th to keep our plan for Olympic game farm.  We grabbed a lunch to go and were on our way to the safari.  First on the clock was the ride to the Kingston via ferry where you can go on the ferry with your car.....30 minute ferry ride gave us time to eat on the boat :).  Once we got to the Kingston, our drive included scenic views, mountain ranges, greenery all around, lots of trees, and finally to the stop of Safari (Olympic game farm).

We spent an hour in safari which included the close ups of yak, deer, elk, Bison, Brown and black bears, llamas, tiger & lion (those two were in cages and sleeping), and some other animals.  The best part was when any of the animals came close to the car, the two brothers will try to show off by pulling down the windows in the back and my friend and I freaking out and my friend screaming out of scared horizon (if that's a real word :D).  And I am not joking, I have a proof on my camcorder :P.  At one point, our car was surrounded by all the bison which looked like they were being flirtatious with her car.  They left their dirt mark on the car on both sides :P.  It was fun!

After the safari, we went to a nearby STIP in Kingston which was beautiful.  Here is a glimpse at the shore.  We took pictures and stayed there for a while.  The good thing was that there was no crowd...there might have been maybe 2 or 3 other people besides 4 of us, so it was nice and peaceful.

After the photo session at the STIP (I think that's what it was called), we started heading back to catch the ferry.  On our way, there was already a display from a mile before which read that the ferry will have approximately 2 hour wait!  Seriously, they don't kid around when they said 2 hour wait.  We had rediculous over 2 hour wait before we could go on the ferry and then add another 30 minutes on the ferry.

After we got off the ferry, it was still day light.  Let me tell you first that the sun rises in Seattle around 5 AM and does not go down until 10 PM.  You have the longest day ever!  We all went to the Fremont troll afterwards.  If you want to go to fremont troll and don't know the proper directions, you might want to know the exact directions b/c otherwise you will get on the wrong side of the highway.  It takes a while before you can turn back to get on the other side.  The thing is really hard to find since it's under the bridge, but once you get under the bridge, you can not miss it.

After taking some snaps, we stopped by at subway before heading home.  By this time, we all were completely out of energy since we have been doing non-stop sightseeing.  Our next day was going to be covering 4 attractions in seattle downtown from our CityPass (which I will explain in next day), so I wanted to prepare lunch ahead of time so we can save time by not going to restaurant and waiting forever.  I prepared the potato stuffing for the sandwich and went to bed around 12:30 am.  Sunday and Monday have been great days but they were little chilly, so I was kind of excited for tuesday since it was going to be sunny and warm.  More excitement to come.....Watch out!

Seattle Trip 2010 - Day 1

On July 3rd, we reached Redmond around 11:15 pm and slept around 1:30 am....That was late! Well at least Denver time, it was around 2:30 pm.  We were all tired, and very ready to call it a night.

On July 4th, we had initially planned something else and ended up doing something else.  First of all, we all woke up really late.  Got ready around 12:30 pm.  Our initial plan was to go to Olympic game farm which was around 2-3 hours away from Redmond and leave the house around 10 am to reach there in time to see everything.  Getting ready at 12:30 was kind of a sign that we shouldn't even try to go that direction since it'll be late by the time we get there and they'll be closing.  We did not have our lunch so we had to do a quick stop at a restaurant so that included another 30 minutes.  The Olympic game farm closes around 5 pm and the last entry they allow is at 4 pm, to go to the place, we had to take a ferry which was around 40 minute ride, and plus since even my friend was going for the first time, we had approximate estimate of 2.5 hours....in short, when you add up the time, there was no way for us to reach there in time!

First, we stopped by at the nearest paratha place from my friend's place and packed up some lunch and went to Snoqualmie falls.  It was nice place and they had picnic tables so first thing we did was eat our lunch there.  There used to be a hike where you can walk all the way down close to the falls, but unfortunately they closed the path due to construction which will again open in 2012 or 2013.  Looked around the falls, took pictures and came back to the car.  On the way back, we played taboo in the car, and somehow we decided to go watch a movie.  Initially the only choice to watch a movie was "The last airbender", not for its story but JUST to see the special affects!


We were so decided on that movie, but somewhere in the conversation my brother mentioned that we can instead watch "Knight and day".  Well then we were in dilemma and started the debate on who's in for which movie.  Everyone was up for either of the movie but still wanted to watch both movies except me.  We got to the theater, and after about 15-20 minute debate, we just blindly decided on Knight and day, because otherwise we were going to be there all night long w/o any decision.  We buy the tickets and my brother says "Wait!  I want to watch the the last airbender".....supporting him in the decision was my friend's brother in line and then my friend and then me and all of a sudden my brother says "Wait...I don't know ....I want to watch both movies"....What!  I just took my ticket and started walking towards the theater for Knight and day hoping they would do the same.  They did and finally we were in theater 10 mins before the movie started.  I enjoyed the movie, there was action and there was comedy, so it worked out well.

The fun day is not over yet!  Since it was July 4th, we had to see the fireworks!  My friend said that the Gas Works Park fireworks is really good.  But before going to fireworks, we went back home and ate.  We were all tired and was having hard time deciding whether we should go or not.  Again after much debate, we just decided to go, park the car somewhere and take the bus to the Gas Works Park.  Even after we took the bus, we walked down the street about 10-15 minutes to get as close to the park as we can.  The place was packed down the entire street, and the fireworks had already started when we got there around 10:15 pm.  We were lucky to catch the entire fireworks and I think it was fantastic!  But let me tell you this, whenever you go for fireworks at night, do not expect to take the bus back home!!!!  We came to our stop to catch the bus to go back to our car around 10:55 pm.  Our bus was scheduled for 11:10 pm, but there was no sign of it until 11:25 pm.  We finally see a bus but it did not move past a single traffic light in another half an hour!!!!  Finally frustrated, exhausted, and tired, we decided to walk to where the car was parked! HA!  No, it was not close by.  No, it was not the right time to just decide to take a walk.  And No, we didn't know of the neighborhood! But what we did know is that even if we waited for the bus, it would have still not moved past a single traffic light in the next half an hour.

I don't know what it was but as soon as fireworks ended, there were millions of cars which came out of nowhere...well it was definitely the fireworks traffic, but it was CRAZY!  The walk at the midnight that we decided to take was 2 miles within the neighborhood we were unaware of!  Hoping for the best, and chanting prayer (especially me), we got to our car after an hour of walk and soared legs...phew!  It was like a real mission accomplished to get home safe and sound.  Everyone got hungry again and ate Meggie except me.  This was another long day and we slept around 2 am.  I don't know how we're going to get up tomorrow to go to Olympic game farm in the morning.  Until then, stay tuned for Day 2!

Seattle Trip Begins...

Dear blog readers,

I am writing after long time but a lot has happened in the last two weeks.  2 weeks ago I had really rough week including a visit to an ER, visit to a dental clinic, and visit to an auto shop to fix my car damage after I cracked the windshield washer fluid :(.  Well I could write a completely separate blog on that but right now I want to first tell you about my Seattle trip before I forget or get lazy about writing it.

One of my close college friends have moved to Seattle, well Redmond to be specific, for work and she had been pursuing me to come there since past 2 years.  Finally I decided to take out a week from my vacation to go there.  My brother and my friend's brother also accompanied me but they were only coming for 4 days and I was going to be there for the whole week.  Booked my tickets for July 3rd to July 11th.  I am going to write a post for each of the days I was there and that way I can write about my experience in detail :).  Either it's going to bore you to death or get you really involved in the reading about the trip.

All 3 of us got to Seattle on July 3rd.  Now since my flight was earlier from my brother's, I had to wait for him for another hour on the airport and just told my friend to come late.  I went from Colorado with 91 degrees and came to Seattle where the temperatures were in 60s.  I kind of expected it but didn't think I would have to use my jacket right away as I land in Seattle :P.  We got home around 11:15 pm or so and then had delicious butter paneer masala made by my friend.  Since Washington state is on pacific time zone, it was already midnight in denver but we were not sleepy.  We stayed up, chatted, watched couple of episodes of "How I met your mother" and then went to bed around 1:30 am or so.  Our main trip starts from next day, so watch out for my next posts!

Enjoy!