Good Muffins and Baked Goods(Specialty's Seattle)

I was in Seattle in the morning after my flight from Dallas and I decided to visit the Seattle Public Library. However, by the time I got there, it wasn't opened yet, and I was getting hungry, so I started looking around for food. About two blocks west of the library, I found this cute bakery called "Specialty's". I decided to walk in and give them a try.
  I was glad I did. As I entered, I was greeted by a the smell of freshly baked bread and coffee. Then, the barista/baker greeted me right after with a friendly smile. Looking around the coffee shop, it seemed like a very comfy place to sit and read a book at. The lighting was just right (not too bright and not too dim) and the mahogany furniture.
  I browsed through the baked goods on the rack before I decided to buy anything. All of the baked goods look so gourmet and makes my mouth water. After pondering for a while, I settled for a muffin. This muffin was really good, it was not too sweet, and the crust of it was not mushy like the muffins you would get at a grocery store, yet it wasn't too crispy either. I would highly recommend this bakery if you are in town!

Breakfast for under $3? (Jack in the Box Everett Review)

The thing I love most about Jack in the Box is that they serve breakfast all day and they got a pretty good variety of foods other than the burgers you would get at fast food joints. It was about 10 in the morning when my friend and I arrived here and we were starving for breakfast. We just spent two hours at the Boeing Factory filming planes, and we were on our way to Seattle when we decided to make a pit stop here.
  Walking in, this place felt just like any other Jack in the Box. I looked at the menu and I didn't want to spend too much, so I challenged myself to spend only $3 on breakfast. Water was free, so I didn't need a drink. They have good coffee here (I believe it's Kona Coffee that they serve here), but I was saving up for Starbucks' coffee in Seattle.
   After debating myself for a while on what to get, I decided to get a breakfast jack (for about $1.50) and an order of mini-pancakes for $1. It was advertised that there are 10 mini pancakes for only $1.00! The wait time was abit lon the long side, I think I waited for about 5-10 minutes for my meal to be ready, but there wasn't many (if any body) at the restaurant at the time.
  When the meal came, I quickly grabbed a seat because I was pressed on time. The breakfast jack was pretty good. Not only was the portion big, it included a piece of ham, eggs, cheese within a burger patty. It was almost equivalent to A&W's cheese and egger. The only down side that I didn't like was that it was abit on the salty side.
  The mini pancakes are a classic at Jack in the Box, and it is a must get for me whenever I come here. Not only are they cheap, but they are good too. However, during this visit, I wasn't too satisfied with it. The pancakes were abit on the hard and cold side when I got it. I think it has been in the cooker thing that they use for abit too long (as it tasted abit cold and slightly on the hard side) and it was missing 2 pieces when it came. (Or I read it wrong, and there was only 8 pieces). Other than that, I would say that the value of the pancakes were really good (and it came with syrup and butter) for only $1!

$1.50 for 3 big scoops of Gelato!!! (Costco Seattle)

There are many Costco's out there, but this Costco is probably one of my favourite ones to go to. Besides being on the site of the first ever Costco (apparently, the first Costco was torn down, but the original site was across the parking lot from here), they have Italian Gelato for $1.50 for 3 big scoops!

   Not only is $1.50 a ridiculous deal for the Gelato (you are probably thinking... $1.50... the quality must be pretty bad). There are about 3 choices for you to choose from. So when it comes to choices, you don't get that many. The three choices that was available when I came today was: Chocolate Chip Cookie, Pistachios and Chocolate.    I decided to get a mix of the three different scoops, so a scoop of each. I first started with the Pistachios, and I must say the taste of pistachios was there, but it wasn't very strong. The texture was pretty smooth, with a bit of a taste on the sugary side.
  The next flavour I had was the Chocolate Chip Cookie flavour. This one was full of flavour and is probably my favourite one too. The chocolate in the ice cream was in chunks and you actually have to chew the chocolate.
   The final flavour was the chocolate ice cream. This chocolate ice cream was smoother than many of the ice cream I had. It wasn't as sweet as the other two flavours from before, but the chocolate taste was very thick. Because the two other flavours were abit sweeter than this one, the chocolate taste didn't come out as much.
    Some advice: make sure you finish it as soon as soon as possible and not eat it while you are inside a hot car... (I learned my lesson the hard way). Things can get sticky really fast and because the portions of the ice cream is so big... when it melts, it melts like a waterfall. That said, I really like the ice cream and I would definitely come back again. 

Fields and Fields of Tulips at RoozenGaarde (Skagit / Mt. Vernon Tulip Festival)

   Even though there are many places where you can go see Tulips, they are usually in isolation and in little patches. It is only when the Tulips are in huge patches that they can have a stun factor. Knowing about the Skagit Tulip Festival for some time, I never got the chance to actually visit it. Driving by the I-5, you can see the huge cement cylinder (I think that's a chimney but I'm not sure), and there are Tulips painted on it.
   The way the Tulip Festival work is that there are multiple patches in the Skagit County/ Mt. Vernon area, and you would drive around the roads that are designated by the map: http://www.tulipfestival.org/map/print, and there will be patches along the side. The two of the biggest Tulip places are Roozen Gaarde and Tulip Town. That said, there are many places that you can see the Tulips too and they are all located along the roads that are marked on the map.
   For us, we arrived via the I-5 and we exited at exit 230 and drove around for a bit. There were a few patches along the sides of the road that was free to view but the parking was limited. Also, it was very muddy and slippery (so remember to dress for the weather and wear boots). We didn't get off our car until we were very close to Roozen Gaarde and there was a free patch for us to look at. The patch of tulips here were big, but the tulips themselves were relatively small. After, walking around this patch for a bit, we decided to go visit Roozen Gaarde just around the corner.
   I was very impressed with Roozen Gaarde as we drove into the parking area. Because we came from the south, we can see the the huge patch of tulips on the left and then a Dutch style gift shop like thing on the right. Driving into the parking lot was a bit of a pain because the parking lot was improvised and we were driving on grass that wasn't very well drawn out. There were parking marshals to help guide out the road, to the correct parking location thankfully.

Me running through the tulip fields

  Once we were parked, we made our way towards the entrance. Before the entrance, everyone had to make a pit stop at the porta potty. Just a warning about using these, make sure the doors are LOCKED when you use them. I saw a few cases of people opening up the porta potties with people in them... even though it was funny to watch the reactions, I'd imagine it would be uncomfortable for the parties involved.
  Surprisingly, the admission line was slightly long. It took about a good 10 minutes before we were able to get into the gardens. It costs about $5 per person for admission and each admission entitles a free parking spot. Walking into the gardens, it was memorizing to see the long rows upon rows of tulips.
   There were many colours and many shapes and sizes of tulips. Most of all, there were just so many and everything in sight was tulips. We began our walk on the tulip patches. Besides the fact that it was a bit too crowded and muddy, the tulips were just gorgeous. It's the middle of exam season for me right now, but being here, I forgot about my exams (temporarily).
   After walking around the tulip fields for about half an hour, we decided to cross the street to visit the displays (which is included in the admission to RoozenGaarde). There was a traffic crossing patroller who was in control of traffic so pedestrians could cross the street safely. He had a huge layer of sunscreen on his face and it was kind of funny to see him all covered up as if he was a bee keeper.
  Once we crossed the street, we entered the display area of the gardens. I never knew that there were that many varieties of tulips! There were hundreds, if not thousands of types of tulips. All of these tulips that are on display could be ordered too (if you would like them for your own gardens).
   Some of the names of the tulips were really funny. Like there were ones called "orange juice" when the tulip was really more red than orange. I found a variety that is called "Chinatown". I am not sure why, but Chinatown wasn't blossoming as much as the other varieties yet.
   Not only was the display area filled with many different types of tulips, but there were concessions selling food as well. It sort of felt like a carnival.
   In short, I would definitely recommend coming here for a walk. Despite being a bit too busy, the tulips themselves were worth it. Also the drive in the country side was a good break from reality.
 For more info, please visit: http://www.tulipfestival.org/

$2 Egg/Breakfast Burritos (Runway Grill/ Seatac Airport)

    After arriving at Seatac airport, I decided to stay here over night because I wanted to take some pictures of airplanes (huge aviation nerd here) and there is quite abit of traffic at Seatac. (I will upload all of the pictures soon). Walking around for about 5 hours and taking hundreds of photos of airplanes, I got hungry and I started to hunt for food to eat.
    What was weird was it seems like during breakfast time, most stores are selling Continental Breakfasts. Even the Chinese place at the food court was selling the American scrambled eggs and sausages rather than Chinese style breakfasts.
   I ended up at the satellite building and was in awe when I was looking at an Hawaiian Airbus 330. I wanted to find something to eat that was near here. I didn't want coffee because I was saving up for coffee in Seattle. I found this place called "the Runway Grill" that had something relatively inexpensive. They had menu options for only $2 and I decided to get the egg burrito.
   The portions I would say is fair, but it is a bit on the small side. The only downside that I didn't like about the burritos was that they were slightly greasy. Also, If you ever ask them for a cup of water, be careful that the water might be abit sweeter than you would expect. I think the filter in their drink machine is funky so when they pressed the "Water" button, traces of random soft drinks must have gotten mixed in with it.

Sarku Japan (Westfield Southcenter)

   I was travelling with my grandma to the Southcenter mall, and it was lunch time so were looking for a place to eat. She doesn't like Western cuisine as much as Eastern cuisine so we decided to find a place at the foodcourt.
   Sarku Japan had some teriyaki samples so we decided to give it a try and my grandma liked it so I decided to get her a chicken teriyaki lunch set. I must say the experience of waiting in line at Sarku Japan reminds me of a production line. The cooks and servers kept adding on to the orders. One person would fill the rice, the other would fill the teriyaki and someone else would do the vegetables. It is almost like a production line with little to no attention to detail. That said, it didn't taste too bad. it was slightly on the saltier side, but overall not too shabby.

Hotel max (seattle part 5)

The hotel's location is only a few steps away from Westlake center and Macy's. Around the hotel there's at least 3 Starbucks, a Mcdonalds and tons of places to eat. The best part is across the street, it's the US Federal Court House.

From the outside the appearance of the hotel looks very vintage, you can tell from the architecture that it was built a long time ago. When I entered the lobby, I was greeted by the valet guy ( not sure what you would call these guys that took your car keys and then park your car). The lobby looked very cool, it didn't resemble the traditional hotel lobbies where the floor was shiny and the lighting was super bright. This hotel's lobby was slightly dark when it comes to lighting and the windows were tinted.

When we checked in, I mentioned that I made the booking thru hotels.com, the check in process was efficient. After checking in, I was curious how old the hotel was, so I asked the manager there and she told me it was built in 1919... So this building was built 94 ( as of 2013) years ago..., upon learning this fact, I felt both excited and creeped out... However, from the construction of the hotel to now, the hotel's gone through numerous renovations. Including the most recent one, giving the hotel an artistic feel.

Once we were finished at the check-in desk, we proceeded to the elevator. The elevator was abit scary, it was extremely small in space, it could probably fit maybe 6 people, but anything more it would be too cramped. As we went up the elevator, the walls of it slightly shook.

When we arrived to our floor, the hallway immediately gave me the impression of a haunted house. It was relatively dark and on the doors of the room, there were black and white paintings of artists. This lighting in addition to the age of the hotel gave me a slight chill. As my friend and I walked towards our room, we passed by the ice machine (which apparently is only on odd numbered floors).

Once we entered our room, the entire feeling of creepyness faded away. The room itself was quite impressive. The double beds were very well made and the lighting inside the room was nice, not only was this nice, but the flatscreen TV and the spacious washroom with the view of the courthouse across the street was pretty sweet.

Something I must mention though, is that wifi is not free as well as the bottles of water on the table, but the coffee brewer and tea were free to be used. The wifi is free, however, if you have a rewards membership with the. They also featured Aveda soaps, lotion and shampditioner(shampoo and conditioner) washroom for free. If you ever visit here and are looking for amentities or snacks, there's a drug store a few steps away from the hotel and charges significantly less for the same items the hotel charges.

The hotel also had a business center downstairs (but internet costs money on those computers), they also had a printer there too. In general, besides the fact that the hotel is abit vintage, and charges for internet, I say the location and the cleaniness, view of the room makes this hotel a great place to stay at.

Once we finished putting our stuff down in our hotel room, we headed to the Space Needle before sunset.

MUSEUM OF FLIGHT (SEATTLE TRIP PART 3)

Once we got off the bus, the entrance of the Museum of Flight was conveniently located right beside the exit of the bus. The museum is actually divided in to two parts, with one part on the west and the other on the east part of Marginal way. The bus (124 if you are coming from downtown), you will be dropped off on the west part of the museum.

We started our tour at the west part of the museum where there is a space exhibit and the airpark. Before we entered, we paid $18 for admission, which I find is an awesome deal to see so many things. Starting with the space exhibit, there was a mock space shuttle, space probe, and walls full of information on the space program. What I found was the coolest thing in this exhibit was the space toilet. There was a video along with the space toilet that explained how it worked. Too bad they didn't put a functional one there for guests to try.

After the space exhibit, we went to the airpark. Personally I am a huge fan of aviation and when I saw all of the aircraft parked outside I went wild. There was the Concorde (the only on the West coast of North America), the first Boeing 747 "City of Everett", world's first 737, Boeing 707 "airforce one", and "Connie" a Trans Canada airlines (i forgot what model, but I think it was a DHC).

The coolest thing about this air park was that guests can actually climb aboard the aircraft and take a view of the insides. Not all of them are open for viewing. When we were there, only the Boeing 707 "airforce one" and the Concorde was open. We started our tour of the insides of the aircraft with the Concorde.

When you enter the Concorde, you will immediately notice how small the insides are. The doors are just about my height, maybe even abit shorter and I'm only 5'8. Once inside, I find that my shoulders are just the width of the aisle. Although all of the seats were put behind a wall of plastic to prevent damage to them, you get to see what they looked like.

One thing that stumped me was that I remember in physics class, the professor mentioned something about how there were wheels attached to the seat of the Concorde because at Mach 2, the body of the airplane is supposed to stretch... My friend and I looked for a bit, but we didn't see any wheels... That said, the other thing that stumped me as well was that in pictures of the cabin of the Concorde, you see how comfortable and spacious the Concorde is... I realized that they must have gotten people who were shorter in size in these picture shoots. Anyway, sorry for getting side tracked, these are just observations :p.

After we disembarked the Concorde, we headed over to the Boeing 707, "air force one". Once we entered this aircraft, it had quite a vintage feel to it. The first thing you will notice is the two washroom, that had curtains as doors. Then, you will notice the passenger portion (I guess this is where the media or other people the president brought along sat). The seats were pretty spacious. The typical 707 for economy class fits 6 people abreast, however in the passenger component of the air force one, it was 4 abreast. From this you can see how spacious it is.

If you keep walking past the passenger section, you will enter the president's state room. On the way, you will also notice that the area that you would normally put luggage in, in other words  the over head luggage compartment, it is actually a crew rest that drops down from the ceiling. The crew rest it self wasn't very big.

The president's state room felt abit like one of those diners. There were tables and a series of round couches that were organized in an oval formation. Besides the fact that these couches felt abit vintage, the president's quarters felt very comfy. After passing the president's quarters  you will walk by the communications room. It is really cool to see the equipment like the radio transmitters and etc... What was really interesting was to see a "fake thermostat , which the museum even pointed out on a display. I hope back then, when the aircraft was being used by the presidents they used a real thermostat.

Before you disembark the aircraft, you will get a view of the cock pit, this was before the age of "fly by wire". So you will see all of the analog equipment that was used before all the screens indicating the altitude and seperate measurements came out.

After we left the airpark, we crossed the pedestrian bridge above Marginal Way to the other side of the museum. The first thing we noticed was the architecture of the bridge. The way the glass combined with the steel frame structure really made the bridge look cool.

The first thing you run into after you cross the bridge is the lobby of the museum of flight. We decided to visit the gift shop first. Inside the gift shop, you will find a selection of items that are all aviation related. There are models, numerous books, toys, gadgets, tons of souvenirs  One thing I must say is the price of the models aren't cheap. Personally, i'm a model collector and the price that they charge for each model like the 787 hogan 1/200 is at least 10 bucks more than what the Boeing store charge for. Mind you, the museum is non-profit, so by buying these models, you are indirectly supporting the museum. Besides the fact that the models are more expensive, the rest of the items I find are pretty fairly priced.

We didn't end up buying too many things (mainly because we are students and kinda broke...), we continued on to visit the rest of the museum. The next stop is the Great Hall. Once you walk in you will immediately notice the amount of aircraft that is hanging from the ceiling, parked on the ground and everywhere.

What I found really cool was the fighter jets that were parked on the ground. I imagined these fighter jets to be small, but they are actually pretty big. In addition to American fighters, there were many jets from China, the Soviet Union, which is always interesting to see.

Besides these jets, they also have a display about space here too (not really sure why they don't put all the space displays together), but this display is slightly different than the display on the other side of the bridge. This display features the international space station, and a section of it. When we were there, we ran into a volunteer who was super passionate about space, and we learned that the section/module of the space station is one of the few in the world on display. On the floor of the module, you can see the scenery of Earth as the space station flies above us. What was cool was this volunteer was able to point out where some things were such as the beach in North Carolina where the Wright brother's took their first flight.

A specialty of the Great Hall is that above it, there is a tower exhibition where it is setup like a control tower of the King County Airport. You get a nice bird's eye view of the aircraft taking off from King County Airport. Moreover, at this tower display, you get to see on the screen the incoming traffic coming into the SeaTac area.

In addition to all that's mentioned about the Great Hall, there are some flight simulators here. When I was here before, I tried the small simulator where you get to drive a plane with a buddy (or by yourself) and try piloting a plane. It was really cool because you get to do a 360 degree roll. However, the ride itself is pricey  For 4 mins of flight, it costs $8. We weren't even able to land our aircraft in that 4 minutes.. Haha, but never-the-less it's pretty cool.

After we were finished in the Great Hall, we (well.. I was) were hungry and we made a pit stop at the cafe to grab a bite to eat. I wanted something light so I got an Odwella juice. The price was abit more than you would pay at somewhere - say Target... But I thought, well because the museum is non-profit... Might as well.

Once we left the cafe, we noticed we were short on time so we made a quick stop at the World War I and II gallery. This gallery was really cool because it contained many artifacts about WWI and II, many were models of the aircraft that were used then. The coolest thing is you can see the transition from wooden frames for aircraft in WWI to metal frames in WWII. Besides the aircraft, they have things like uniforms from both the World Wars. It is definitely a great exhibit to explore more, if there was more time. Another notable thing about this WW1 and WW2 gallery is it's atmosphere. With dim lightening and also the ventilation in that place, it gives a feeling of sadness to the exhibit that can send chills up your spine I think if you were in there too long.

Before we left the museum, we visited the Red Barn. This was the Boeing Company's first factory. It is amazing to see where one of the world's largest companies started. Inside the barn you will see various displays of machinery that helped build planes back then. Inside there are some interesting facts about Boeing's history. One of the most surprising facts was that the first engineer for Boeing was of Asian descent! That's not all, there are brief biographies of some of Boeing's top engineers. As a word of caution, this building because of it's age and wooden structure, you can hear the floor creek as people walk upstairs... and when you are upstairs, it's a bit freaky to hear the floor creek below you...

When we were finished visiting the Red Barn, we had to run outside as the next 124 bus taking us back to Downtown Seattle was arrive. In general, this was one of the most worthwhile $18 I've spent because it opened up my eyes and also inspired me to the dream of flight. I would recommend this museum as a must visit for all aviation enthusiasts and just someone looking for a good time!