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Washington
July 2 - 19, 2019
July 2 - 19, 2019
| Travelogue 2 |
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Since we aren't doing a big family trip this summer, Connie, Zack and I decided to visit my family in Washington State for a couple of weeks. We had a pretty smooth trip and mostly spent the first several days hanging out, except for the 4th, which I'll talk about in my next post. It's been nice visiting, but the weather has been pretty dreary. Even though it's July, the temperature has mostly ranged from high 60's to about 70 and, with the exception of one afternoon, the sky has been a gloomy gray. I can really see how the weather could wear on you if you live here. At least everything is nice and green.
One thing I will note, just in case you ever happen to be in the area, Tacoma has a really great children's museum. Free even (though donations are requested). I wish we had one that nice back home.
Once in Canada, our first stop was the city of Richmond, which is known for its large Asian population. Chinese especially but, judging from the signs and stores, there's a large number of Japanese and Koreans as well. While the Asian area spans a number of streets and shopping plazas, we stopped at the Aberdeen Centre, a nice Asian shopping mall, for lunch and to look around. It's certainly a fun place to eat, with a large food court and a number of fancier Asian restaurants of all types. Connie and I ended up at a Taiwanese noodle place, which was pretty good. Some other highlights of the mall included a large Daiso (Japanese 100 Yen store), a Japanese bakery, and a store with a whole lot of Japanese anime and game figurines (though they were a bit on the expensive side).
Once we'd finished walking around, we drove another half hour to so to Vancouver and checked into our hotel. At that point, it was too late in the day to do any major sightseeing, so we took a walk through downtown Vancouver to the nearby bay. The views were nice, and there were lots of seaplanes in the water and even a floating gas station to service them.
Vancouver is a fairly clean city without too much of a homeless problem (at least in the areas I saw) and a strong emphasis on health (judging from the shops and restaurants). It's also a good walking city, at least if you're in the downtown area. We eventually ended up at a very good Persian restaurant (Vancouver has a large variety of international food) before heading back to the hotel to call it a night.
All in all, it was a pleasant day and gave us a good impression of the area.
Random Canada Comment: A Foreign Country
Of all the countries I've been to, Canada feels the least like a foreign country. I suppose that shouldn't be too surprising, since Canada and the US have a lot of similarities. If I were dropped into Vancouver without knowing where I was, I wouldn't immediately know that I wasn't in some northern US city. The architecture, street signs, fashions, and, of course, the language are pretty much the same. You do see a bit more French (though Vancouver isn't really a French Canadian area), and there are some brands of shops and restaurants that are unique to Canada (along with a whole lot of US staples), but that's about it. And, while I did encounter some people with what I think of as a Canadian accent, there were also a lot of people without one. For US Citizens, that makes Canada, by far, the easiest foreign country to visit. It does lack a lot of the excitement and mystique that often accompanies international travel, but it's still a fun country to visit in its own right, and maybe a good place to start if you're nervous about leaving the US behind.
Granville is known primarily for its indoor shopping centers, which make it something like a permanent farmers' market and art show. We started out in a large food market, then one more focused on art, jewelry, and the like, and finally ended up at the kids market, which is filled with toy stores and play areas. All in all, it's a fun area to explore. Not quite as nice as some of the markets in Japan, at least for me, but that's probably more personal preference than anything else.
Since it was a nice day, we decided to take the kids to the nearby water play area. A park with a massive splash pad (only part of it is shown in the photo), fountains, and even a decent size water slide, all free and open to the public. Unfortunately, although the sun was out (yesterday and today featured the best weather we've had on this trip so far), it still wasn't that hot and the water was freezing. We still had fun taking the kids on the slide though.
After that, it was back to the food market for lunch. Though I had to spend a lot of the time chasing after Zack, who was more interested in chasing birds than eating. In the end, I got some poutine (I figured that, being in Canada, I really should give it a try), which was good, though certainly not one of the more healthy options.
Once we'd finished exploring Granville, we decided to walk back instead of taking the ferry. That involved crossing over a long bridge, and a walk through part of Vancouver (following a rather weird route that Google maps listed), before we eventually arrived back at the hotel. Zack needed a nap and everyone else was either resting or taking Isaac (my nephew) to the pool. But I figured I might as well explore Vancouver a bit more since there's no telling when I'll be back. So I headed out to walk around downtown a bit more.
I ended up following a major shopping street, which apparently also doubled as British Columbia's version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. But, while I'm sure those people were famous and all, the relative handful of plaques were stretched along multiple blocks making the whole thing look a bit sparse and lame. I also walked through a nice underground mall, which reminded me a bit of some of the ones I've seen in Japan (though not as big), and spent some time browsing in a large comic book shop. While there are some seedy areas, Vancouver really does seem like a nice city.
I eventually met up with my family back at the hotel and we headed to Yale Town, a Vancouver district that looks like a trendy area for drinks and dining. We ate at a popular vegan restaurant. Not exactly my thing, but the food was actually pretty good. While we wouldn't be driving back to Washington until the following morning, the meal pretty much marked the end of our Canada trip. I really enjoyed it and could have easily spent a few more days exploring Vancouver and the surrounding area, especially if I wanted to do some hiking. Not sure if I'd want to be up there in the winter (or even the spring), but does make for a good summer destination and I wouldn't mind going back sometime.
The main part of the park is a driving course where you move slowly along the road and stop to feed llamas, yaks, deer, antelope, and more. Not to mention the famous waving kodiak bears (though they didn't seem to be in a waving mood for us). Zack did love it, though he couldn't seem to bring himself to feed the larger animals directly (he had Connie do it). Isaac, on the other hand, got a bit freaked out when the animals started putting their heads inside the car. It took us about an hour for a leisurely drive, and to use up all our bread (on that note, unless you're by yourself, I'd recommend getting at least two loaves). After that, we spent a while longer in the play area which featured a goat petting zoo, reptile room, and a few other animals and things for the kids to play on.
Then it was off to lunch (Sequim is a nice little town with more restaurants than you'd expect) and then back home. While Sequim a bit of a drive from the Seattle area, I'd say the game park is worth a visit if you have kids or if you just really like animals.
By the time we finished picking, we still had some time until our next destination opened, so we hung out for a while at a rather unusual playground that had a neat design, but was clearly meant for older kids. Anyway, after a while we made it to Camlann Medieval Village, which is more living history museum than Renaissance Festival. It's a small European style village where you can walk around, look inside the buildings, and talk to the various villages about their work, the village, etc. There's not a whole lot there, but you can learn a good bit about medieval construction, crafting, and the like and I found it interesting and worth the small admission fee. There's also an inn with a restaurant serving traditional food in a traditional setting. We had other plans for lunch, but did stop in to try some really good vegetable stew. On a side note, once a month the village has a traditional dinner feast that you need to preregister for. Probably worth checking out if you'll be in the area at the right time.
Leaving Carnation behind, we set off for the town of Kirkland (home to Costco), passing through some nice looking tech industry towns along the way such as Redmond (where Microsoft is based). Kirkland itself has an attractive downtown by the water and a lot of really good looking restaurants. Our group split up for the meal, with Connie and I visiting a very highly recommended Thai restaurant called Isarn. There was a bit of a wait, but it had one of the more unique Thai menus I've encountered, along with a dish that I'd only ever seen back at my favorite Thai place in Phoenix, Arizona. It was a great meal and I enjoyed walking around Kirkland a bit before we headed back to my parents' place to the kids could rest.
Anyway, once we made it to the city proper, we stopped off an unlikely combination of coffee shop and Persian restaurant for a quick lunch then made our way to Seattle's China Town, an area I hadn't visited on my previous trips. As far as China Towns go, it seemed decent. Not one of the more impressive ones I've visited, but not bad either. That said, I didn't walk down every street so that's just based on what I did see. One thing of note is that, despite being a China Town, there were a number of Japanese and Korean stores and restaurants as well, including this cool import and retro game store. However, our actual destination was the Pinball Museum, which is situated in the middle of China Town. Despite the name, it's not so much a museum as a place to play a bunch of pinball (all the machines are set on free play so your admission fee gets you unlimited games), though some of the machines did have info cards with a few quick facts about them. The machines ranged from fairly early models to the most recent (yes, they still make pinball machines, though not very many) and it's interesting to see how they've changed over time. They also had a few old shooting games and an original Missile Command cabinet, which I had fun with. Although it has two floors, the museum is rather small and cramped, to the point where they often have a waiting list to get in. That also made it a bit difficult to handle the kids, who were too young to play the machines (museum rules say 7 and up), but really wanted to mess with them. While I do wish the Pinball museum had some displays about the creation and history of pinball, I enjoyed it and would probably go back sometime if given the chance. It's not that easy to find even one real pinball machine these days, much less a whole collection.
After spending some time in the museum, and checking out that aforementioned game store while the others went to an Asian market, we slowly made our way across the city, stopping at some places I'd visited before such as Pike's Market and the nearby waterfront, before ending up at a fancy Vietnamese restaurant where we met some friends of my parents for dinner. Finally, it was back to the ferry for some nice sunset views on the returning ride. While Seattle isn't one of my favorite American cities, it's still fun to visit, though I think one day was enough for this trip.
It was a pleasant trip, despite the crummy weather we had for much of it, and Connie and I both enjoyed our time in Washington. However, this will likely be our last trip there for the foreseeable future as my brother and his wife will most likely be moving in the not too distant future and, without them there, my parents would rather live full time in Hawaii. So this is probably goodbye to Washington for me as well, at least for a while. And I'm fine with that. It's been a fun place to visit but I feel like I've seen most of the highlights, at least in the Seattle area, and there's just too many bad weather days. But hey, you never know. Maybe I'll be back sooner than I think...