Thanksgiving is supposed to be the biggest holiday here.. I heard that it has even more significance than Christmas. I suppose it's equivalent to chinese new year, where they visit their family and well, eat lots of food. Heehee. I would have loved to spend thanksgiving in a warm, candle-lit home having a traditional turkey dinner, but oh well no one invited me.
So I started to panic when I realised that I have no plans for thanksgiving. it's a good time to travel cos there're 2 days of holidays, as long as you can live with the sky high plane ticket prices [and later as we learnt, closed tourist attractions]. Upon learning of weijie's [damn i keep pronouncing that as wei-jee in my head when i read it, it's all ur fault pikkie!] plans to go to seattle and vancouver to ski with his friends, I jumped at the chance toleech off their plans grace their vacation with my presence. Haha, I still remember weijie saying 'join us, my friends are not perverts..'
Seattle and Vancouver was also the perfect place to visit without pb cos he's been there before! Totally coincidental. Means that if i go there now I don't have to worry about not getting a chance to visit it later cos I won't be going there with pb.
Knowing li ling has no plans as well, I left a tag on her blog asking if she wanted to join in, and after a very slow response via her blog entry [she cannot tag on her own tag board.. erm.. yea it's li ling alright] and some emails, next thing we knew she was going on the trip with us! Damn cool.
So on early in the morning on November 23rd, both of us boarded a seattle-bound plane [she from texas, me from cleveland], not knowing what to expect for the next few days..
So I started to panic when I realised that I have no plans for thanksgiving. it's a good time to travel cos there're 2 days of holidays, as long as you can live with the sky high plane ticket prices [and later as we learnt, closed tourist attractions]. Upon learning of weijie's [damn i keep pronouncing that as wei-jee in my head when i read it, it's all ur fault pikkie!] plans to go to seattle and vancouver to ski with his friends, I jumped at the chance to
Seattle and Vancouver was also the perfect place to visit without pb cos he's been there before! Totally coincidental. Means that if i go there now I don't have to worry about not getting a chance to visit it later cos I won't be going there with pb.
Knowing li ling has no plans as well, I left a tag on her blog asking if she wanted to join in, and after a very slow response via her blog entry [she cannot tag on her own tag board.. erm.. yea it's li ling alright] and some emails, next thing we knew she was going on the trip with us! Damn cool.
So on early in the morning on November 23rd, both of us boarded a seattle-bound plane [she from texas, me from cleveland], not knowing what to expect for the next few days..
My customary bk breakfast from the cleveland hopkins international airport, to reward myself for surviving the scary customs. Hehe. The customs that I went through that day, were pretty cool. They had this framed up noticeboard thing, and on it was displayed all sorts of weapons they had confiscated before! And they wrote there that it was only a small collection of everything they confiscated. They had all sorts of exotic weapons, ranging from little pistols to shotguns, and tiny daggers to larger knives, some funny things that I have no idea how to use, and they even had THROWING STARS! Haha.. so maplestory. They even arranged them very neatly, in order of size, and grouped them into different genres of er, weapons. I really really wanted to take a photo but it was smack in front of all those stern officers and i wasn't crazy enough to do that. didn't wanna spend the first day of my vacation in a room being questioned by 'em officials.
I've never travelled in cold-er weather before, so I was pretty fascinated when I saw these men outside the airplane before take off. The only time I see such machines is when those workers prune our trees along the roads in singapore, by standing in these little white elevated boxes that are driven along. Wonder if they saw a weird asian girl snapping pictures of them as they sprayed i-dunno-what all over the plane to get rid of ice/frost/whatever.
Recently fell in love with Sun Chips. They make you feel that bit healthier cos it has multi-grain, but taste even better than bodaydoe jibs. Kindly ignore my constipated expression, it's hard to take self portraits when you're sitting in between 2 other ladies without them freaking out and thinking you're weird.
So I reached Seattle Tacoma Intl Airport safely, and I was really glad to see li ling waiting at my luggage belt! I was starting to imagine what ifs, like, what if none of them turned up. Haha. After I grabbed my luggage, we settled down at Seattle's Best Coffee [was it?] and had a cup of ice blended copi, and talked about our fascinating and glamorous work lives while waiting for the guys to turn up in 2 hours.
And they did! Weijie, Gabriel, Mark, 'miah and Elvin an hour later. We proceeded to take a shuttle bus to get the van..
So I reached Seattle Tacoma Intl Airport safely, and I was really glad to see li ling waiting at my luggage belt! I was starting to imagine what ifs, like, what if none of them turned up. Haha. After I grabbed my luggage, we settled down at Seattle's Best Coffee [was it?] and had a cup of ice blended copi, and talked about our fascinating and glamorous work lives while waiting for the guys to turn up in 2 hours.
And they did! Weijie, Gabriel, Mark, 'miah and Elvin an hour later. We proceeded to take a shuttle bus to get the van..
Our Dodge Grand Caravan from Enterprise rental. It is damn cool, there's this button u can press and the 2 doors at the side will slide open automatically. I like!
Unloading for lunch. Had our first meal at Jack in the box.. Ordered a $1 burger as usual.. And when I got my change, I saw 2 shiny quarters.. Could it be.. and I flipped them over and confirmed, it was the South Dakota quarter! 2 of them summore. Cool! Passed one to mark who's collecting as well. Once I get North Dakota [which was out like a long time ago i guess] I'm done for 2006.
After lunch, we decided to pay Pike's Place market a visit. This is supposed to be about the most happening place in Seattle.
After lunch, we decided to pay Pike's Place market a visit. This is supposed to be about the most happening place in Seattle.
On the way there.. QWest field
Notice how steep the slopes are! If drive manual car here SURE DIE.
Well, unfortch for us the most happening place in seattle was closed! Stupid thanksgiving. Everyone must have been in their nice warm homes having their nice turkey dinners. Bleah. What a way to start our trip.
We tried to walk towards the river(?) side but couldn't reach it, decided to get back in the van and drive towards the Space Needle instead.
An example of our fine photography skills of mr Poh Weijie. To think that I posed so hard for it. And wth is gabriel doing in the background, hehe.
As I've lost faith in all of these tall buildings which charge you like mad just to go up and see the city, we didn't go up. Is that totally expected of us? Haha. We did go to this 2nd floor where there was a security check and all, so we thought it was some viewing gallery, but turned out to need tickets as well, after we walked down the corridor. To think that we stupidly allowed the guy to check our bags. Elvin didn't join us cos he was happily outside the building looking at the ferris wheel and all.. so when he came back, we had to tell him that it was lots of fun and we had a great view and he totally missed it.. haha very typical thing to do. [reminds me of Autumn in New York *wink*]
After taking some photos, we drove around a little more and the skies got darker.. The whole city was practically a dead town, and we couldn't help feeling kinda miserable and cold, especially at the thoughts of all the americans having their warm dinners at home. We originally wanted to go to the factory outlets to check out the midnight sales [Black Friday leh! and also cos Miss Ek needs to buy her coach bags] but because we didn't have anything to do in Seattle anymore, we decided to set off to Whistler [in canada], and find something to eat along the way.
After passing the canadian borders, the first thing we noticed were the km/h signs. Haha, it took a little getting used to! Next as we stopped by a gas station, we had problems interpreting the gas [Oh, petrol i mean] prices. gallons to litres and all that nonsense. Turned out that petrol was actually more expensive in canada than in US. The lady at the gas station said that there was a Boston pizza 'just down the lane' which was still open, where we could have our dinner. We wanted to eat some 'canadian fast food', and we really had trouble finding stuff to eat considering even KFC was closed.
Well. we drove and drove and drove. When we finally saw a Boston Pizza, we found that it was closed. [we later found one that was OPEN, but was very far down.] really have to question their definition of 'just down the lane'. In the end we had dinner at a Wendy's + Tim Horton's. [haha, i actually spelt that as Tim Burton's at first, and had to google for the actual name] I didn't really have much appetite by then, so I just ordered a chicken noodle soup. I did something really stupid, as usual. They sold 'Soup and Roll'. And since Tim horton's sell lots of donuts, I kinda assumed that roll = donut and when I ordered it I ordered the chocolate donut. yuan lai roll is just the bread I think.. and I was charged for the donut. haha so stupid. i don't even like donuts. but it came in handy later on when we reached the hotel and I was very hungry.
After about what, 6 hours? we finally arrived at our Mountainside Lodge. It was a beautiful place!!! And on the way there, although it was dark, snow was falling, and the evergreen trees lining the road were already heavy with snow. And I tell you, the scene was totally like Ossyria, a map in Maplestory. Too bad no one in the van could share my joy. It was so pretty!!
After taking some photos, we drove around a little more and the skies got darker.. The whole city was practically a dead town, and we couldn't help feeling kinda miserable and cold, especially at the thoughts of all the americans having their warm dinners at home. We originally wanted to go to the factory outlets to check out the midnight sales [Black Friday leh! and also cos Miss Ek needs to buy her coach bags] but because we didn't have anything to do in Seattle anymore, we decided to set off to Whistler [in canada], and find something to eat along the way.
After passing the canadian borders, the first thing we noticed were the km/h signs. Haha, it took a little getting used to! Next as we stopped by a gas station, we had problems interpreting the gas [Oh, petrol i mean] prices. gallons to litres and all that nonsense. Turned out that petrol was actually more expensive in canada than in US. The lady at the gas station said that there was a Boston pizza 'just down the lane' which was still open, where we could have our dinner. We wanted to eat some 'canadian fast food', and we really had trouble finding stuff to eat considering even KFC was closed.
Well. we drove and drove and drove. When we finally saw a Boston Pizza, we found that it was closed. [we later found one that was OPEN, but was very far down.] really have to question their definition of 'just down the lane'. In the end we had dinner at a Wendy's + Tim Horton's. [haha, i actually spelt that as Tim Burton's at first, and had to google for the actual name] I didn't really have much appetite by then, so I just ordered a chicken noodle soup. I did something really stupid, as usual. They sold 'Soup and Roll'. And since Tim horton's sell lots of donuts, I kinda assumed that roll = donut and when I ordered it I ordered the chocolate donut. yuan lai roll is just the bread I think.. and I was charged for the donut. haha so stupid. i don't even like donuts. but it came in handy later on when we reached the hotel and I was very hungry.
After about what, 6 hours? we finally arrived at our Mountainside Lodge. It was a beautiful place!!! And on the way there, although it was dark, snow was falling, and the evergreen trees lining the road were already heavy with snow. And I tell you, the scene was totally like Ossyria, a map in Maplestory. Too bad no one in the van could share my joy. It was so pretty!!
It was more like the map with the werewolfs.. but this is the only screenshot of el nath I could find in my lappie. Hehee.
The beautiful Ski lodge. with 'miah and li ling. Meanwhile, the rest were inside settling the rooms, and got we charged extra for having more guests than we should.
Playing on the little ledge outside our adjacent rooms on the 2nd floor.. the crazy guys had a competition to see who could stand out there barefoot for the longest.. hur.
We were denied entry after throwing snow into the guys' room. =p
Our cosy room, complete with fireplace, stove, oven, baking utensils.. Would have been damn cool to stay there for a few days! After all the mountain was just next to the resort.. Would have been damn shiok to ski whole day, and just walk back to the warm comforts of the room and bake some fresh muffins and have hot chocolate. haha i am such a bummer.
Neisha, Philip, Danny and Vincent reached a while later with our breakfast for the next day [bread and peanutbutter! the lodge didn't provide breakfast] and we all washed up and went to catch some winks.
Neisha, Philip, Danny and Vincent reached a while later with our breakfast for the next day [bread and peanutbutter! the lodge didn't provide breakfast] and we all washed up and went to catch some winks.
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