Jan-chan’s Tidbits

A couple weekends ago I went to Nu Restaurant to celebrate my mom’s birthday. It’s my third time there so I’m sure I don’t have to say how much I love their food. You can read a review here when I went there for mother’s day with Al’s family. I’ve taken some photos of the dishes we ordered so lets drool over those instead.

[bread with signature roasted salt and unsalted butter]

[roasted corn soup]

[braised short rib mini burger with fries]

[i ordered the pork belly. so tender!]

[the duck was really popular since everyone else on the table except me and dad ordered it]

[dad's favourite: lamb sirloin]

[pumpkin brulee with a candle especially for my mom]

[pear tart]

As some of you know I was up at Kelowna for a conference. I was lucky enough to stay at a hotel right next to the lake and the view is superb. Here’s what you’ll see outside my door/window:

It’s a bit chilly in October but the view is just so beautiful. At night you can see lots and lots of stars in the sky since it’s a lot darker than in the city. I wouldn’t mind going back in the summer for a short vacation and visit the nearby wineries.

We spent the last day of our trip back in Seattle. After breakfast of cereals and more Facebook, Nelson dropped us off outside See’s Candies store before he head back to MS for a couple of hours. We loaded ourselves with See’s coffee candies then made our way across the street to the Bellevue mall. The only highlights of the mall is the frozen yogurt store (Red Mango) which Nelson had recommended, and the Lego store.

At the Lego store, both Al and I got some souvenirs to take home. Here are some of the goods!

[A kitchen timer shaped like the lego head piece. Very cute! (click to enlarge)]

[You should know who that is...]

[name is in the picture...lol]

[The twins with the loots from Lego store.]

After shopping we head down to La Carta De Oaxaca for some very yummy and authentic Mexican food. The homemade tortillas were so good I wish I can take some back. Oh and check out all those different salsas!

[One word: YUMMY]

We stopped by the Union Square Station and walked around Chinatown for a bit before heading to Costco to buy some bell peppers for supper. The Union Square Station is so nice inside. Check out the “staged” picture. At the Kinokuniya bookstore, I bought another Moofia and Al brought me a Mozzarella stuffed toy. This time I got Choco! That makes three! My collection is growing slowly.

[The three guys having a chat at Union Square Station.]

[Here's Choco!]

[Here's my defender of milk!]

Chef Siu cooked a yummy dinner of pasta with mushrooms and bell peppers for us before we drive back to Vancouver. The drive wasn’t too bad but all of us were pretty tired.

Thanks Nelson for taking us around town and driving for the entire trip! Now if you don’t mind, lets get a large order of Debbie D’s Beef Sticks before you head up to Vancouver next time. hehehe

For more photos, visit my Picasa Albums: Jan’s Pictures & Nelson’s Pictures.

After our mad shopping day at the outlet, we made our way to the coast to start our trip back North to Seattle. For some reason it was very hazy so the pictures didn’t turn out too nice. Before we got to the Sea Lion Caves which is North of Florence, we stopped by a view point to take a few photos of the ocean. It’s a bit chilly but I like the breezy and fresh air, a nice change from the city scenery.

I like how the rocks (or sea stacks?) looks like it’s “moving” in the same direction as the waves.

As soon as we got out of the car in the Sea Lion Caves‘ parking lot, I could smell the saltiness of the ocean, along with something a bit different. We paid ($10 per adult) and took the elevator down to the caves. I’ve already been told that it smells really bad but I did not expect the smell to be so strong. I can’t really describe it. It’s almost like a mixture of the ocean plus…rotten fish? Everyone that exits the elevator has the same comment “It stinks!”

It was really dark in the cave so I didn’t even bother to take pictures with my old camera but Nelson managed to take some really good ones with a bunch of sea lions sun bathing on this rock. There’s also this hole in the back where light shines through. We thought it has an eery feeling to it.

Picture of the sea lions by Nelson.

We headed for Tillamook next. First stop was the Blue Heron French Cheese Company. It wasn’t as exciting as I had expected since it’s more like a gift shop/petting zoo. The most interesting thing is that there are a lot of preserves for you to try. I didn’t know about Debbie D’s Sausage Factory until I saw it on one of the travel booklets. Since it’s only 1/2 a block away from Blue Heron, we dropped by to see what’s interesting about this place.

My first impression aside from the small store, is that it was empty. Granted it was weekday and around lunch time so maybe that’s why there weren’t people around. We were given a warm welcome by whom I believe is Debbie’s husband. He asked us if we would like to sample some of their sausages and jerky which we gladly replied: “Yes please!” He was very generous with the sampling, we got to taste almost all the variety of sausages they had. My favourite is the pepper beef sticks. The twins and Nelson liked the hot pepper ones and their best seller, teriyaki flavor, is really good also. We all decided to purchased some to take home but quickly regret not buying more. Nelson’s package of hot pepper beef sticks didn’t even make it back to Seattle. It got devoured in the car.

Took this while I was waiting in line for my ice cream at the Tillamook Cheese Factory.

Just up the street from Debbie D’s is the Tillamook Cheese Factory. It has a visitor center where you can sample the cheese, read up on its history and products, and watch how the cheese are packaged. The line up for cheese sampling was too long so we went upstairs to view the factory and of course, I HAD to try their ice cream. The line up for ice cream gave me time to decide what I want. I got a 3 scoop sampler. The cashier said it’s 3 junior scoops but it turned out to be pretty big. Good thing Nelson helped me out with it. I got strawberry, caramel toffee crunch and marionberry pie.

After about 5 minutes of waiting, here’s me with my 3 scoops of ice cream…and a spoon made with potatoes? [pic taken by Nelson]

Last couple of stops before driving back to Seattle was the Astoria Bridge and Long Beach. Nelson and I had been eyeing the Astoria Bridge since the first time we were researching for this trip. We kept looking at it on Google map trying to figure out what it looks like. The on ramp for the bridge from the Oregon side is very impressive. I managed to snap some shots of the bridge from the car. On the otherside of the bridge we stopped by Dismal Nitch (sometimes I wonder where these funky names came from) for a short stop of fresh air, photos, and a couple of maps from the visitor center. We found another interesting location called “Cape Disappointment” on the South tip of Long Beach which we didn’t go to because it was sort of out of the way.

I really like this photo that I took of Nelson and the North Head lighthouse.

In the Long Beach area we drove to the North Head Lighthouse for some photos and then visited the beach for a short period of time. It was interesting to see that people just drive directly onto the beach because there’s just so much of it (would take forever to walk I suppose).

The drive back to Seattle was pretty good. I managed to stay awake till the last couple of hours. We had Debbie D’s sausages to kill time which made our tummy very happy. There were a few parts of curvy roads for Nelson to feed on also before hitting the I-5. We got back to Nelson’s place around 9:30-10:00 and all of us were pretty tired. However, internet connectivity fueled us till around 1:30am before we all went to bed.

Again, photos can be found in my Picasa Albums: Jan’s Pictures & Nelson’s Pictures.

Up Next: Seattle - Take 2 and Goodies from the trip

Due to technically difficulties, we had lost the ability to access the internet half way through the trip. So now I’m recapping on the road trip to Oregon with Nelson and the twins.

We headed for Portland on Monday after spending a day and a half in Seattle. We found parking in the downtown area and went to grab some maps and booklets from the Visitor Information Center. From my research, I know that there’s a free ride zone where you can hop on any public transit and ride for free in that area. Armed with the map that the friendly info center staff had given us, we hopped on our first train ride to the Pearl District. The trains are very narrow but is pretty spacious inside. We walked around Pearl District, then to Chinatown, then back to the edge of the downtown area because we were…slightly (just slightly) lost. It was around 1-2pm and the sun was baking us alive while the four of us were starving. We spotted a Greek place where we grabbed a quick bite and much needed rest from the heat before heading back out to take the train to Lloyd Center for a some shopping and most importantly, air condition…ahhhhhh.

This is us walking aimlessly (well not quite…but it did felt like that when you’re hungry!) around Portland.

Yes we were really hungry. You can probably tell from how intense this bite was.

Our second day in Portland consisted almost entirely of shopping. Who could resist tax free shopping?! First stop was Fry’s to check out cameras and various electronic goodies. It’s my first time there and Nelson was right when he described it as the “Costco for geeks”. The place is a huge warehouse. I got a chance to look at several cameras but didn’t pick one up yet because our next stop is the Woodburn Company Store - an outlet south of Portland. Originally we had wanted to go to the Columbia George outlet but upon checking the directory list, we decided that Woodburn is better (plus it got a Puma store which is a must). We got there and had a quick lunch before splitting up to do some shopping. The lunch almost cost the same as my Puma t-shirts which I got for about $11 each! I also scored a pair of flip flops from Converse ($12), and the best deal was my Gap capri. It was on sale for $16.99 but when I went to pay, the cashier said it’s only $10.xx because all sales items get 40% off that day for clearance! Nelson and I each got a pair of Gap jeans also. Mine was like $39.99 with 20% off which is much cheaper than here (approx. $69.99 for the Long and Lean line). The twins were more crazy then us. Al went on a t-shirt shopping frenzy. I think he bought a total of 5-6 t-shirts, two pairs of those sport type slippers from Adidas (one for each twin!) and a cap from Converse which only cost like $8.00. Compared to the ones I got for him from Lids, that cap is a steal. Oh, aside from clothes, Nelson got some baking tray and a cooling rack for cheap. If I didn’t already have one, I would’ve picked one up also. We checked out Shutterbug, the camera place at Woodburn. I got my dad’s camera there the next day after we look up the specs back at the hotel.

We left Woodburn around 4:30pm and headed back to Portland. We had wanted to do a picnic at the Rose Garden but ended up eating at a restaurant instead. After dinner, we spent about an hour or so at the Rose Garden taking various pictures. Nelson was playing photographer with Al and I being the props, lol. We didn’t get a chance to see all of the Rose Garden since it was getting dark and we wanted to head back to book the hotel along the coast for the following night. I wouldn’t mind going back there another time to visit the Japanese Garden too.

Here’s me posing! I have no idea what I was thinking when Nelson took this photo.

Here’s one where Nelson and I switch roles: he sniffs (er, pose) and I’ll shoot.

I’ve uploaded most of the photos from the trip on my Picasa Albums: Jan’s Pictures and Nelson’s Pictures. I didn’t have time to put a caption on them yet. Sorry~!

Next up: Oregon Coast!

After that horrible 3 hour wait at the border yesterday we finally arrived at Seattle…3 hours behind schedule. Nelson, which we now call him “Papa Siu” because we’re the “triplets” greeted us with pizza since I’ve text messaged him earlier saying he got three hungry kids on the way.

First stop was Pike Place. It’s similar to Granville Island, with lots of street stands and interesting stores. I’ve got some photos but the majority of them will have to wait till I get home for processing:

Those are bottles that got turned into cheese boards. Very decorative.

We also went to the farmers market where we saw the world famous flying fish. Too bad I didn’t manage to take a photo of that. But I did take some of the jumbo lobster tails:

They look so yummy but I bet they are super expensive…After the market, we went to take pictures of the downtown skyline. The clouds were not cooperative. I’ll need to ninja better pictures from Nelson’s camera.

Day two, we went to watch the Blue Angels at the Sea Fair. It was really interesting as I haven’t seen an air show since Gr. 6 or something. Here are some photos taken by Nelson:

Since my camera isn’t very good, so I end up taking a picture of Nelson…taking pictures…

It was almost 3:30 when we got to Ivar’s for “lunch”. We ordered clam chowders, jumbo shrimp & chips, fish & chips and clams & chips. They were sooooo good. The batter is very light and the seafood were cooked just right. I especially love the jumbo shrimps. Here’s a picture before we chowed down:

After that yummy lunch, we took the ferry over to Bainbridge Island and took a walk around, had coffee before we headed back to Seattle. We met up with Jimmy and Cathy for coffee and dessert at around 9:30pm. Tomorrow, we’ll be heading down to Portland from some shopping and sightseeing.