Seattle Day Trip (19 July 2009)
We woke up early at morning of 19 Jul 2009, as we got a long day to go and we would go to Seattle for a day trip. Before departure, SL and I prepared for our lunch and dinner for the day, where sanwich as our lunch and fried rice for dinner.
After we had done with all preparation, SL and I departed to Seattle immediately, it would took us 3 hours to get there. After we exited Oregon and entered into Washington state, I found that was something special on their signboard, there is a face on it and written with some number, so that I was thinking who is the face there, and finally I figured out it was the people of the state name, Washington, the first US president, this state is named after president Washington and the only state with a president name.
After three hours of driving, we finally arrived to Gas Work Park in Seattle, the place was used to process gas in past, that's why they named as Gas Work Park, but I think they are not working now. From Gas Work Park, we could oversee the view of Seattle City Center, with all tall building there and the famous Space Needle. At there, we also found many peple had their family event in the park, like picnic, kite flying, biking, jogging and so on, I think this is a good place for city people to find some relaxation.
After Wandering in Gas Work Park, SL and I just proceeded to Seattle town area, we needed to look for a parking at first as we would travel around Seattle by foot, which is the best way to travel. However, we took quite sometime to find a space as we were looking for the public carpark by road, instead of parking lot from private. Why? This is because parking in Seattle is really expensive and it is only free on Sunday for parking by road, that's why we chose to visit Seattle on Sunday. Well, I need to say Seattle parking is the most expensive that I had ever seen, it is unbelievable expensive until they can calculate their rate by every 20 minutes, and the most expensive that I saw was $5 for each 20 minutes park :S
Luckily, that we checked with Seattle public parking before the trip, else I think we would bankurpt after our Seattle trip :P
Generally, Seattle town can be divided into three areas, Seattle Center (with Belltown), Pioneer Square (with downtown) and Waterfront (with Pike Place Market), there we went to Seattle Center first to see the famous Space Needle, it was awesome but with expensive admission fee if you want to travel to the top of tower, which is $16 per person, therefore we didn't take the tour as I think it was too expensive, this is more expensive than Pisa Tower in Pisa, Italy as what I think.
Anyways, we still took a walk around the center area and I think that was a fair on our visit day as we saw there were so many booth setup and many people were enjoying with their time there. After backed to our apartment, SL told me that was Bon Odori in Malaysia on 19 July, I was thinking if it was also a Bon Odori in Seattle :P (haha... am I thinking too much?)
There is an International Fountain just in Seattle Center and we saw a lot of people were playing around it, everyone was so enjoying with fun of water, I think that must be feeling good during this hot summer, but we didn't join them as there was not spare cloth for us.
At Seattle Center and Belltown, we went to some signaficant places of Seattle like Space Needle, Key Arena, Pacific Science Center, Experience Music Project, Children's Museum and Austin A. Bell Building, we took some pictures with them but we didn't go into the exhibition becuase admission fee was expensive to us and we didn't really have much time there.
We spent sometime to find Austin A. Bell Building, this building designed by Elmer Fisher and constructed by Austin Americus Bell, but I don't know them :P But Austin A. Bell with a story behind this building as he was suffering with illness and depression during construction this building, until he committed suicide at 35 years old before the building completed, but his wife saw through the project completion. This makes me felt some regret on Austin, I think it was lot of pressure on him during he was doing the project :(
After we had Seattle Center and Belltown visited, we just walked to Waterfront and Pike Place Market area, I liked this area the most among those three as I found here was more lively and close to daily live. At Waterfront, we went to a shop called as Ye Olde Curiousity Shop and we could find a lot of interesting (or should I say strange or different) things there, this shop also sells some souvenir.
The Ye Olde Curiousity Shop.
And, I enjoyed the most in Pike Place Market, where we could find a lot of people doing their daily shopping there and I found that was a long line at a donut stall, I could hold my curiousity any longer that I really wanted to try their donut as they are inexpensive. Therefore, SL bought a dozen of plain donuts for me with less than $3, I liked it so much as they are so tasty.
That was another interesting stall in the Pike Place Market just at the main entrance of the market, where is a Fish shop and their employees would have some performance, like singing, dancing, fish throwing when that is an order placed, and the most important thing is they are just like a performance team and recieve tips from their audience :D I think they are clever and know how to do business, they should be the most popular fish shop in the Pike Place Market :P Please don't worry to find them as the stall always full with crowd with many people are holding their camera and videocam to record their presentation.
This is a pig just right at main entrance of Pike Place Market, it's called Rachel, a piggy bank used to raise money for low-income people.
While we were walking along the street of Pike Place Market, it wasn't hard to see many groups of people had their performance there and public could tips them if they had their performance well.
Of course, we would never miss the first ever Starbuck in the world, it is just along the Pike Place, can you see it? Starbuck's first logo actually is different with their current logo, where you could see the whole body of two-tailed mermaid.
Then, we just had our last part of trip at Pioneer Square and downtown, there is a huge hammerer in front of Seattle Art Museum, but I didn't see him hammering, I was doubt as my guidebook told me that he would keep hammering from 7am to 10pm daily, unless labour day, but he wasn't hammering at all on the day, I am thinking if he rested on Sunday too :P
This is Pioneer Building at Pioneer Square, which is completed after the Great Fire and voted as the "finest building west of Chicago", fire again, this makes me think if US is a place common of fire, as I know Yellowstone National Park aslo suffered with a great fire long time ago :S
There is a firemen statue in Pioneer Square, I think this is memorial to those hardworking firemen for the Great Fire.
What do you see from the statue? I think it's a lying lady :D
It was about five after we covered most of the Seattle area, we needed to leave the city center and had a visit to Bruce Lee's buried place. Yes, he is buried in Seattle near to 5th Avenue, it wasn't too hard to find the location if we followed the description, he is just close to center pole at hill and face to a beautiful scenery, there we also could see his son just placed beside him. As a respect to Bruce Lee, we didn't take any photo at that area, just sent our regard to him and his son, he is really a miracle star in Chinese world.
After that, we also drove to Microsoft headquarter, which is just 10 miles away from city center. Wow, Microsoft headquarter is really huge, it just like an university with a lot of buildings, I couldn't count their number and I don't think we drove through every place.
After a short tour around Microsoft buildings, we just ended our tour and had three hours drove back to Hillsboro :) It was really an enjoyable trip.
After we had done with all preparation, SL and I departed to Seattle immediately, it would took us 3 hours to get there. After we exited Oregon and entered into Washington state, I found that was something special on their signboard, there is a face on it and written with some number, so that I was thinking who is the face there, and finally I figured out it was the people of the state name, Washington, the first US president, this state is named after president Washington and the only state with a president name.
After three hours of driving, we finally arrived to Gas Work Park in Seattle, the place was used to process gas in past, that's why they named as Gas Work Park, but I think they are not working now. From Gas Work Park, we could oversee the view of Seattle City Center, with all tall building there and the famous Space Needle. At there, we also found many peple had their family event in the park, like picnic, kite flying, biking, jogging and so on, I think this is a good place for city people to find some relaxation.
After Wandering in Gas Work Park, SL and I just proceeded to Seattle town area, we needed to look for a parking at first as we would travel around Seattle by foot, which is the best way to travel. However, we took quite sometime to find a space as we were looking for the public carpark by road, instead of parking lot from private. Why? This is because parking in Seattle is really expensive and it is only free on Sunday for parking by road, that's why we chose to visit Seattle on Sunday. Well, I need to say Seattle parking is the most expensive that I had ever seen, it is unbelievable expensive until they can calculate their rate by every 20 minutes, and the most expensive that I saw was $5 for each 20 minutes park :S
Luckily, that we checked with Seattle public parking before the trip, else I think we would bankurpt after our Seattle trip :P
Generally, Seattle town can be divided into three areas, Seattle Center (with Belltown), Pioneer Square (with downtown) and Waterfront (with Pike Place Market), there we went to Seattle Center first to see the famous Space Needle, it was awesome but with expensive admission fee if you want to travel to the top of tower, which is $16 per person, therefore we didn't take the tour as I think it was too expensive, this is more expensive than Pisa Tower in Pisa, Italy as what I think.
Anyways, we still took a walk around the center area and I think that was a fair on our visit day as we saw there were so many booth setup and many people were enjoying with their time there. After backed to our apartment, SL told me that was Bon Odori in Malaysia on 19 July, I was thinking if it was also a Bon Odori in Seattle :P (haha... am I thinking too much?)
There is an International Fountain just in Seattle Center and we saw a lot of people were playing around it, everyone was so enjoying with fun of water, I think that must be feeling good during this hot summer, but we didn't join them as there was not spare cloth for us.
At Seattle Center and Belltown, we went to some signaficant places of Seattle like Space Needle, Key Arena, Pacific Science Center, Experience Music Project, Children's Museum and Austin A. Bell Building, we took some pictures with them but we didn't go into the exhibition becuase admission fee was expensive to us and we didn't really have much time there.
We spent sometime to find Austin A. Bell Building, this building designed by Elmer Fisher and constructed by Austin Americus Bell, but I don't know them :P But Austin A. Bell with a story behind this building as he was suffering with illness and depression during construction this building, until he committed suicide at 35 years old before the building completed, but his wife saw through the project completion. This makes me felt some regret on Austin, I think it was lot of pressure on him during he was doing the project :(
After we had Seattle Center and Belltown visited, we just walked to Waterfront and Pike Place Market area, I liked this area the most among those three as I found here was more lively and close to daily live. At Waterfront, we went to a shop called as Ye Olde Curiousity Shop and we could find a lot of interesting (or should I say strange or different) things there, this shop also sells some souvenir.
The Ye Olde Curiousity Shop.
And, I enjoyed the most in Pike Place Market, where we could find a lot of people doing their daily shopping there and I found that was a long line at a donut stall, I could hold my curiousity any longer that I really wanted to try their donut as they are inexpensive. Therefore, SL bought a dozen of plain donuts for me with less than $3, I liked it so much as they are so tasty.
That was another interesting stall in the Pike Place Market just at the main entrance of the market, where is a Fish shop and their employees would have some performance, like singing, dancing, fish throwing when that is an order placed, and the most important thing is they are just like a performance team and recieve tips from their audience :D I think they are clever and know how to do business, they should be the most popular fish shop in the Pike Place Market :P Please don't worry to find them as the stall always full with crowd with many people are holding their camera and videocam to record their presentation.
This is a pig just right at main entrance of Pike Place Market, it's called Rachel, a piggy bank used to raise money for low-income people.
While we were walking along the street of Pike Place Market, it wasn't hard to see many groups of people had their performance there and public could tips them if they had their performance well.
Of course, we would never miss the first ever Starbuck in the world, it is just along the Pike Place, can you see it? Starbuck's first logo actually is different with their current logo, where you could see the whole body of two-tailed mermaid.
Then, we just had our last part of trip at Pioneer Square and downtown, there is a huge hammerer in front of Seattle Art Museum, but I didn't see him hammering, I was doubt as my guidebook told me that he would keep hammering from 7am to 10pm daily, unless labour day, but he wasn't hammering at all on the day, I am thinking if he rested on Sunday too :P
This is Pioneer Building at Pioneer Square, which is completed after the Great Fire and voted as the "finest building west of Chicago", fire again, this makes me think if US is a place common of fire, as I know Yellowstone National Park aslo suffered with a great fire long time ago :S
There is a firemen statue in Pioneer Square, I think this is memorial to those hardworking firemen for the Great Fire.
What do you see from the statue? I think it's a lying lady :D
It was about five after we covered most of the Seattle area, we needed to leave the city center and had a visit to Bruce Lee's buried place. Yes, he is buried in Seattle near to 5th Avenue, it wasn't too hard to find the location if we followed the description, he is just close to center pole at hill and face to a beautiful scenery, there we also could see his son just placed beside him. As a respect to Bruce Lee, we didn't take any photo at that area, just sent our regard to him and his son, he is really a miracle star in Chinese world.
After that, we also drove to Microsoft headquarter, which is just 10 miles away from city center. Wow, Microsoft headquarter is really huge, it just like an university with a lot of buildings, I couldn't count their number and I don't think we drove through every place.
After a short tour around Microsoft buildings, we just ended our tour and had three hours drove back to Hillsboro :) It was really an enjoyable trip.
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