This was a trip the girls looked forward to, counting down the days at home to departure date. We weren't in town for Christmas for I can't remember how many years and this year the girls are excited to be in LA at that time of the year.
This time we drove from Seattle all the way down to Los Angeles. We clocked 14656 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean and 2299 miles driving in US. That's mighty alot! Even friends who self-drive in US don't clock that many miles as us. Granted that this time hubby got a good car at a good price, the ride was really comfortable + girls were fighting alot lesser behind us.
The watermarked pictures - are the selected snapshots from the DSLR, some taken by che-che and some by yours truly.
We still have many more in both our DSLR and phone camera but too lazy to upload from phone n go-pro to put in everything. It was a long or maybe not that long holiday but I came back with 15 000+ photos! It's definitely not possible for me to put everything in here. But I'll put in some pictures (no watermark) which I took and posted in Facebook on some days. I won't be detailing too much into the trip and all the places we went as it'll take ages for me to finish this blog entry.
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When we got our tickets we realised its a Sanrio flight. Ha! The girls have outgrown Sanrio but great that we didn't have to deliberately purchase Sanrio flight tickets. Anyway, Sanrio or not, I'm just glad that we have priority boarding. Tho we'll be on our butt longer but the extra time gives us a chance to organise stuffs around us.
Okay I must admit, it does get too overwhelming from screaming kawaii for everything right? And I was told later, we could actually bring home the cutlery set. I would if the girls are still in the bento-ing stage.
Transitted in Taipei, enough time for us to walk to the connecting gate and pee. How is it that the area looked so old- fashioned (still) after the last time we were here in 2010 or 2009?
Second lag of our flight - spent my time sleeping, stargazing and trying to get pictures of the stars (but with the stupid wings' lights.. it was a failure.), then sleeping. It's great that the girls are big enough to feed themselves, even when they were young they were so easy to handle in the plane, that I can sleep as much as I want. Anyway a trick I learnt during my solo long-haul flight with a young Athena is to pretend to sleep even when you're not sleeping. Such that after trying to get your attention and the child don't get it, they'll automatically sleep..... eh..... I think it works or maybe my kids are just wonderful travellers.
We were lucky that it wasn't a full flight into Seattle. As such, it's the first time we can have landing videos from both sides of the aircraft. Che-che took the seat behind me, lil' one remained in their seat on the left side of the aircraft.
Wah.... like so pro.... actually shaky videos. heehee. But no luck in seeing Mt Rainier and all the other big mountains. I did a check on flight path during my holiday planning so insisted that someone has to be seated on the right side of the aircraft. But alas!
Ahh..... the christmas station. Yup! Thanks for getting us in the mood for Christmas in 13 days time. Thankfully this time round I didn't have to sneak in Santa's present in lil' one's room before we leave the house.
Drive time around 25 minutes to our hotel in downtown. Girls belting to christmas songs, they sure are in a jolly good mood
Finally we get to see skyscrapers
will see you later day. Let us try to adjust to the time difference first.
Checked in. Dropped luggages and then it's time to reccee around the area.
We minimised driving in Seattle itself as it's really easy to move around on own or on public transportation. We can save so much $$ as parking along the streets is also high.
We walked to Lake Union to see darkness. I'm impressed that they have trams in Seattle. Trams are rather uncommon the in US, so when I saw the trams I had to do a double take if I'm in Europe.
I was lucky there was an AT&T shop on the way, so I dropped in to get a card for my portable wifi. In the end I never got a chance to use it as the staff told me it's easier if I do a hotspot to them instead. Hmm... made me pack my portable wifi and add on weight to luggage. Then the girls were hungry and everywhere was crowded at 6pm, we settled for Shake Shack - the girls' first SS. At first it seemed nice sitting outside in the cold with a hot chocolate warming my bare hands, then suddenlt it started raining. I'm like "oh no!" I knew it rains often in Seattle, as often as in London but somehow I'm sad. It had better not rain tomorrow when we do our sightseeing on foot.
A grocery run is always necessary wherever any travellers go. We made towards Whole Foods Market near our hotel.
Something about grocery shopping overseas usually is the display ..the display of fruits just wanna make me go on a fruity healthy diet.. Here in Seattle, one will notice reusable bags are often used. But coz we just arrived and my new shupatto bag
is still in the luggage, we just made do with the extra NTUC plastic bag in my slingbag and che-che brought out her tote bag. I love how the fruits are displayed in such wide spacing in between, makes shopping more pleasurable. So tempted to get lots of fruits.
Yet on the other hand...the unhealthy girls had been planning on what they would buy again on this trip and eyeing on the neatly displayed snacks.
Haha!
Haha!
Got back to hotel, and start my maid duties (washing socks and undergarments. Ha!). Organised stuffs that we need the next day, tidy the luggage bag coz usually we'd change out of our summer airplane clothes to winter wear in the airport, so naturally I don't have the time to put them neatly in the ziploc bags. And when I was more settled myself, it was time to slot the SIM card inside my phone. Yes!
Before sleeping, I'd usually go through my itinery planning for the next day. While everyone else are sleeping. Anyway, Goodnight!
At around 3 am.
The lights opposite us never seem to go off! At early hours, and ppl are still walking around inside. Oh no! Jet lag! I need my lavender eo.
The next morning, had our first American breakfast the real way. I'm not keen on waffles but when I'm in US, I do the american way but in smaller portion.
After breakfast, brought them to an interesting place. I was surprised the girls never flipped through the travel itinery journal at all, otherwise they would have known where I'll bring them to.
Research done and app downloaded all in SIN - all ready for the experience. Was lucky there is one near our hotel, so we didn't have to walk far.
Amazon Go - convenience store with no cashier. Coincidently this is the first flagship store
I could tap them into the mart via the gantry since I have the app.
While we were inside, a few others popped by to see, and it was probably something that they chanced upon so they weren't prepared with downloading an app until a lone staff explained to them what they had to do.
Check out the cameras and sensors in the store! So many so rest assured that nobody is able to steal anything.
Checked my phone immediately as we walked out of the gantry. It was that fast!
Told the man that since we're in the city area, parking fees are more likely to be ex so we can bus down to the furthest spot and walk back nearer to our hotel as last stop for the day will be Space Needle
Klondike Gold Rush NP - Another NP done. Who would expect a NP in the city. It was an educational one reading up on the gold rush in the 1890s.
#addingontohercollection#
#addingontohercollection#
She was really lucky that we have the sticker to this NP at home. So all we did was to stamp date her book.
Hoping to see Mt Olympia but no luck
It's without biased that I planned that we needed to drop by Beechers, I know it's che-che's fav - cheese. And usually holidays are about them esp when it comes to food or snacks.
“Is this nice? Or che-che’s mac n cheese nicer?”
Lil’ one pointed to her sister.
Haha! She's probably trying to gain brownie points from her sister.
Lil’ one pointed to her sister.
Haha! She's probably trying to gain brownie points from her sister.
We walked alot, the First Starbucks was an eye-opener for us, but the staff was really rude. The girls bought a refillable cup adding on to their collection. And it's really special especially when they bring their cup to Starbucks Singapore to order their drinks.
When you see a group of people hanging around you, one starts to get worried if things might get out of hand. Which direction we should be running to avoid any clash between the protestors and police
Rested at McDonald's before making our way to Space Needle
The super busy girl...a journalist on the go? Handphone camera, DSLR, go-pro. Oh wait! I forgot - a disposable camera (too!) that she was trying to help her friend to use up hers.
Nice shot! Mount Rainier would be somewhere behind but the clouds are really thick and low. Winter's not the right time in Washington and Oregon. Should come back in summer time. Unfortunately I couldn't plan a trip to Mount Rainier at this time. It'll be so nice, totally different from Yosemite.
Seattle - Portland
Don't ask me what she's taking, I would think it's the sun rays. Last aerial view of Seattle before we make our trip towards Portland, Oregon.
First of our many rocks rocks sights.
I must admit it’s an awesome feeling to be standing on and walking along the shore in another mother nature’s works.
Stops enroute : (1) Cannon Beach
Here, we did a detour to Cannon Beach to see Haystack Rock - a giant monolith.
Twilight
Not a good pic with the trees blocking but you should see the colours in the sky. It's so beautiful
Took this in a moving car, and I can't remember what I was taking. Hee!
We didn't want to waste time driving in all the way and then walking to the lighthouse from the carpark about 800m away. No joke when you're rushing for time and you have a lil' grandma with you.
Anyway, if you realised I didn't type the dates now. I'm so tired to do this blog entry so taking the easy way out by simply posting pictures.
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Bandon - coz we arrived when it's dark (the disadvantage when travelling during winter) the day before we couldn't see anything. So the next morning, I went on a walk around the quiet little place on my own first. The people are so friendly here. It's a neighbourhood where you won't expect hoardes of tourists here, all residential area except for 2 small motels
Sunrise but it wasn't a good spot for me and I kindda trespassed into someone's property 
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Fortunately the owner didn't let out a fierce dog on me seeing that I'm still standing in his property after 5mins. Hee!
I even walked by a house where the builders are building a house. Really like what we watch on TV, using woods as raw materials to build a house.
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Gold Beach - Spotted these 2 cows (female elks) near our lunch stop, so while the family went in to order food I was outside snapping pictures. A man happened to drive past, wound down his window said "they're lovely aren't they. You only saw them on National Geographic before, now you can actually see them." Well, I'm not sure if he was being sacrastic or what, but I did tell him "I've not only seen them on NG but on Youtube too. So you're right I'm really lucky to see them now."
Another guy walked past as I was turning to go back, asked if I had any nice shots of them and he was going to take some as well.
Another guy walked past as I was turning to go back, asked if I had any nice shots of them and he was going to take some as well.
Thie one is looking at me, the other kept showing me its back.
"You know my dear, It isn't safe for a little girl to walk through these woods alone." - Big Bad Wolf
The thing we had to do just to view some ..... rocks!
The thing we had to do just to view some ..... rocks!
We spotted a few elks in this trip, we couldn't stop for some but we did for this. 3 elks, a few cars stopped as well.
The very first one we encountered days before, it looked at us and ran across the road infront of our car. It happened just too fast to take any pictures but we rmbr fondly that cutey elk.
The very first one we encountered days before, it looked at us and ran across the road infront of our car. It happened just too fast to take any pictures but we rmbr fondly that cutey elk.
While I was taking pictures, I had one girl (lil' one) whistling or dunno what trying to get their attention. After that, the older girl asked if we could pet the elks. What the heck was she thinking? There's a reason I told her I had to use a telephoto lens. We are suppose to leave the wild animals alone, though they may be tame, they might feel threatened and attack suddenly. Or worst when they get too comfortable with humans, may affect their eating habits and survival
The first time hubby, me and our moms were in Palm Springs was for a friend's wedding. Little did I know I was already pregnant with che-che. So we always tell her she's been to USA when she was a teeny weeny embryo.
Another diversion - Pioneertown
Didn't manage to take pics of animals here, che-che was excited when I told her there's coyotes and bighorn sheeps amongst the few animals. She kept her eyes open, needless to say she always walks away from me so fast wanting to look for animals. Lil' one saw rabbits, rats but couldnt' take any pictures, che-che said she know there are 3 or more birds species coz' she's heard 3 different chirping sounds. Haha! Like that also can. We did spot one bird but just can't identify. And..... nope, sadly we didn't see any coyotes
Rock-climbing. At one place, we spotted alot of rock climbers (more than any other places) and I spoke to one man. He explained that's the spot where climbers will go first for practice as there are various "levels" in that one spot.
They just need to go back to take their sunset timelapse again. ε！ε₯½εδ»δΉη΅θ§ε°ε»ε½θ±‘... tripods, phone cameras, go-pro, DSLR.
Going once!
Twice!
Gone!
Goodbye yolk!
The little Aunties ajummas like Friends sitcom
and tho’ the sitcom started in 1994, our era, I’ve not watched one at all π€£
Family pic
Such a clear view of Downtown. Lots of diversions here and there when you leave the itinery planning to the wife. Haha!
We just have to go back again this trip.
It's not the last, we will be back again. This is che-che's playground, she loves the place so much. I'm sure we will be back in 2020. Yup! We've planned to come US again end of the year.
It's not the last, we will be back again. This is che-che's playground, she loves the place so much. I'm sure we will be back in 2020. Yup! We've planned to come US again end of the year.
Our trusty ride that took us 2000+ miles down south, tuned in to a station that keeps playing Christmas tracks since the beginning. Haha! After a while we got so sick and tired of the songs. Yah! Like how many christmas songs are there in the first place?
For the avid reader, The Last Bookstore is a must go. It's much bigger than Citylights in SFO but the patrons are generally the same.
Outside The Grove, it's post Christmas, post Boxing Day, pre NY and the crowds are there! We didn't walk around much coz our intention was to go Farmers Market.
Awesome trip! And yep we planned for a trip to US next year (2020) too!
** the published date for this blog entry is not accurate. It's the day we arrived home and I wasn't able to put everything in within one day **