Pacific Northwest (Part two continued)

Pacific Northwest (Part two continued)
Continuing on hanging out in Seattle, I did the requisite visit to Pike's Market Place. I do now know why, but I have to visit that place. Maybe it is the flowers, plethora of local goods, crafts and abundance of seafood but I am happy when I walk through that place. I did venture to take a pic the original Starbucks that started it all (nearby).

Thanks to Felicia, she was a great fashion consultant. She had me try on alot of stuff but funny thing, I ended up buying the one thing as a fluke (given to me last minute). So I got something for all her GREAT efforts. Thanks babe!

Dinner was WILDFISH in Belltown with Nancy (a transplanted friend I met in Boston but hails originally from the left coast anyways). She kindly came out despite having tons of fun the night before (could not make it out due to a LONG day traveling to Vancouver and back). I always loved her energy. She has a great knack of making people feel at ease, great planner, model and knows ALOT of people. Plus she is a great athlete and has a big heart, but alas she is married to a lucky guy. It was good to reconnect and chat on how TIME has FLOWN. I recall when we worked on the NATIONAL convention for NAAAP in Boston a few years ago. Was it a few years ago? WOW! You are the hostest with the mostest and I appreciate your generosity dear and for meeting up with moi.

Wildfish Restaurant taste was good. But I admit the sushi rolls (especially the specialty stuff) feel apart though the fixings and ideas were great. The seaweed salad was ok nothing spectacular. The Spider Roll (soft shell crab) was decent. I must admit I ADORE the one made by Fugakyu (with the spicy mayo). The nigiri pieces we got were big and fresh--but at $2 a pop. Service was good (then again it was a Sunday night).

Per what my friend Felicia said, there are no "wow" places for food in Seattle. There alot of "ok" or rather you go in not expecting much. She says the baseline of the places in Boston is higher. I guess I am SPOILED and after eating out I can see that (granted at a limited places).
Then came research (further) for the Oregon Coast and Portland road trip. I am a bit nervous as it is the first time to do this with my brother. In the flip side, I think we can explore these places together, get our travel styles in check but also chat as we are different people who only grew up in the same house. But since graduation from school we have not had a chance to spend too much time together.

We made it to Portland in two hours from Tacoma. It is a nice day and we have a gelato from MIO GELATO in Pearl Town (area). It is good but not as GOOD as the ones I got in Italy. (Or is it only in my mind?)

We find our accommodations, I am fan of hostels if I can use them. We go to the Pacific Northwest on on NW Glisan near Portland's Nob HIll area. It is all right, utilitarian and has what we need. The private room was booked but we got a side room with bunk beds (no door but curtains) and lockers. Since we are not Youth Hostel members and needed linens it ran us both $47 for the night.

We headed to the small old town and Chinatown to the Chinese Garden there. It is based on the Suzhou style gardens and it is lovely. After having gone to the actual gardens in Shanghai (I did not have a chance to go to Suzhou) I enjoyed this bit of paradise. The entrance is $7 plus $2 if you want to use a head phone (approximately 50 minutes in length). I end up taking many photos and just enjoying the scenery from the waterfall, scholars garden, rocks and tea house to name a few.

From there, we head to Washington Park to the Japanese Garden (more northwest) and we get there in good time. The Japanese garden is $8 to get in and a bit of a hike up to the entrance (not long at all about 500 ft). There are 7 kinds of Japanese gardens within this compound with the zen stone gardens and other types. We really enjoyed the variety of styles and seeing the waterfalls, small pools of water and just absorbing the atmosphere. It is a definitely bigger garden than the one in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park (though that one is more ornate, smaller and one style). Little tidbit, I found out recently that it was used in the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha" and that Felicia's brother was an extra in the movie! Isn't that cool?
Finally, we cap it off with a visit to the Portland Art Museum (fifth largest in the nation but premier one in the Northwest per the ads I read). It is comprised of two buildings and not far from downtown. Too bad the Artists of Brescia exhibit starts in April (I did take a photo with the sign) as I have visited Brescia and wanted to send it to my friend in Italy. There are two buildings for the art museum, one housing Native American Art, Asian Art while the later has African, Contemporary, Glass and Modern Art. There are some gems to be found at this museum.

Now it is about 5pm and we head over to a local institution JAKES for their happy hour. This place is known for their seafood and their walls are lined with framed photos and you can tell there is lots of history in this place. But to take advantage of the happy hour, we are relegated to the bar area which is packed. So we sit in SIBERIA facing the window away from the bar area. I read that their menu has great prices from $1.95, $2.95 and $3.95 appetizer choices until 6pm . I decide to have the raspberry margarita (yummy). My brother sticks with OJ as he is the designated drive. Our apps take forever (we are starving after I politely ask after 20 minutes about the food) and we finally get them. We nosh on the seared tuna Asian style roll---there are little pieces of seared tuna wrapped in tons of rice battered dipped and friend with wasabi, gari (pickled ginger) and soy sauce (taste factor --rice is too overpowering). Then we have the shrimp won tons with two types of dipping sauce (see crab rangoon with shrimp---though how in the heck this food is called crab rangoon when there is no actual crab in this food item). The salmon cakes were good and I enjoyed them alot. The shrimp etouffe seemed to be more of a fish etouffee with scoop of rice in the middle and a rich gravy and fish surrounding the scoop of rice. I am no expert on this dish, but it tasted more gravy heavy than anything.
It is getting late and since we do not want to head back to the hostel yet, we go to Oregon's biggest mall--Lloyd Center. It has its own skating rink (a la the mall in Houston or one in Tai Koo Shing in Hong Kong). But this mall is not up to these other malls standards. Oregon rocks in one thing--no TAX. I check out alot of cute shops not in Boston---Forever 21, Papaya and others. Ross and Marshalls garnered me some purchases as well as Ritz photo (for much needed film). My brother and I also got a much needed map of the Oregon Coast (with some insets of the smaller coastal towns too). We are good to go.

We start off for the Coast at 8am and depart Portland for Astoria. It takes us two hours. It is very cloudy and cool. By the time we get out of boring route 38, it is finally sunny at Astoria. We hit the famed site Astoria Column. Lewis and Clark ended their expedition in the Oregon Coast. There are many places that tell you about them and some other sites. I wanted to go to Fort Clapsop but I heard the log cabin had a fire earlier this year or last. So it was not somewhere we could see anything. We climbed the 188 or so steps to the top. We had a great view of the town and water and surrounding area.

After getting some advice, we decide to lunch at the Silver Salmon in town on 12th and Commercial Streets. After reading my stuff, I know seafood is what we should get. We order the crab cakes, clam chowder and some entrees. The crab cakes for $11.95 were a bargain for three lumpy crab cakes with minimal amounts of bread crumbs cooked to golden brown hue and YUMMY with a nice sauce. Clam chowder was not bad, not too creamy, had the option of fresh ground pepper but I adored the nice firm bits of clam and potato. I got the pan friend oysters with potato pancake (mashed potato sandwich if you will). My brother got the special, halibut stuffed with crab meat. The fish was a bit dry. (Why is it that fish is hit and miss at western restaurants???)

Onward to Seaside (only 8 miles away) and Cannon Beach another 7 miles from Seaside) further south on the Route 101. At Cannon Beach, we walk to the famous Haystack Rock is here I heard that my friend had seen some sea lions. I did not unfortunately. Lots of people were out biking on the beach, building sand castles and just enjoying themselves. The heavy waves are crashing so nobody is swimming at all. The small town is quaint. I am from the Cape (Cape Cod) so small seaside towns only take so much interest in my radar to be honest. I laughed passing by signs saying "New England style" this or that.

Then we head back North to Seaside, walk down the promenade we read about. It is not that big and the main area took us about 20 minutes tops. The sun has been making this day to be gorgeous (the original forecast was to be rain). The women at the Chamber of Commerce were sweet, informative and helpful in terms of figuring out what we wanted to do for the next two days of traveling in Oregon. We take a photo with a statue of Lewis and Clark (marking the end of their expedition). Then go to the outlet off of rte 101 with 25 shops. I decide to get something for my sister and I. I refrained from further purchases. Also, I gave in and had some ice cream. I think I have ice cream or some form of it each day on this road trip. Gotta have it!

Back at Seaside, we stay at the sister hostel for the one at Portland. This place we get a private room. Our receptionist Kimmie is very sweet and knowledgeable. The room is clean, got a desk, clock radio, towels, linens. Internet is the same here as in Portland 15 minutes costs a dollar. Both have kitchen privileges and the common rooms are cute.

According to the tour guides, the typical tourist goes to the Oregon coast and only sees the northern part---Astoria, Seaside and Cannon Beach. The most picturesque I heard is the southernmost party by California (we did not do it) but we did Northern to Central to Reedsport. In the summer, the two lanes route is backed up (I cannot imagine and it must be hellish, glad it is off season now!) See some people walking about, I forget it is spring break for some people.

We check out the tiny carousel mall which does house a carousel. There is an area with video games, bumper cars if that suits your fancy. Seaside actually advertises this downtown promenade area as Coney Island like. (Then again I have never been to Coney Island so I do not know if this reference is true).