Christmas is coming to Seattle

The day after Thanksgiving is the time when all everyone turns their attentions to Christmas. This year is no different. Similarly to London where annually there is a Christmas at Trafalgar Square, Seattle also has one in Downtown Seattle outside the Westlake Center. Usually this is very nice, but this year, it got the nickname of the "Charlie Brown Tree". The reason for this is in reference to the cartoon strip where Charlie Brown's tree only had a few branches. To see if this nickname is fair, I will let you decide for yourself. Here is a link to the snippet of a video showing the tree on YouTube and a photo of the Seattle tree during the day:

"Charlie Brown Tree"

The general theme this year was the Nutcracker so there were 60 Nutcracker sculptures placed all over the Downtown Seattle and the waterfront. Each of them were designed by a different artist and sponsored by local businesses or organizations. Although I have not seen all of them (and no, I have not had the urge to find them all although that would be a challenge), I have mixed opinions on what I think about them. Here are some photos of a few that I have come across:


The tree and the Nutcracker sculptures together with the Macy's Star and the Christmas Carousel make up the obvious decorations Downtown. There are also other events dotted here and there as well. Two such events were the "Gingerbread Village" at the Sheraton Hotel and the "Festive Gingerbread Pike Place Market" at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel. While the latter is just for general display, the former is a light hearted competition between displays made from gingerbread and candy. The competition is voted by the visitors, but in my opinion, all of them were very impressive and the photos I took of them do not do them justice. Anyway, if you are wondering which one I voted for, well, it had to be the one labeled "Chinese New Year" - no prizes to guess why and which one it is :-)

The only thing that is not made from Gingerbread

Gingerbread Village

Gingerbread Pike Place Market

Christmas Carousel

Macy's Star

The race is on!

The summer is officially over now and with the beginning of autumn/fall, the weather has decided to turn for the worst. However, this did not stop thousands of people, including myself, from attending the first Red Bull Soapbox Race held in Seattle. The Red Bull Soapbox Race is a race with 36 teams of amateurs racing their creatively designed human-powered carts to race against the clock in a downhill sprint to the finish line at the end of the half-mile course. As the race was held at Fremont Avenue, it was quite local to me, but I showed up a bit late so the best places to watch the race and the big screens were already taken. I did find a spot after the finish line, but I decided to fight the crowds and try and get a spot in the middle of the course. Luckily I found one at a tricky part of the course, thus had move opportunities to see some crashes. As it was raining, I was only planning to stay an hour or so, but I enjoyed it so much I stayed for the whole event. My favorite cart was "The Crapster" (yes, it is a large toilet), but unfortunately it did not win. Other interesting carts were the "Rollaroid 600" (a large Polaroid camera which won the "The People's Choice award") and "Rollin Troll of Fremont" (it really does look like the famous Fremont Troll), which came in third. In fact, although the racers came from all over the US, Seattle based teams won all the prizes and no, it was not a fix ;-)

From a photography point of view, one good thing about this event was that it gave me an opportunity to take some photos of moving objects. As you can see from the examples before (there were more blurry ones), I think I still need a lot of practice. For better taken photos of the event, check them out at the official Seattle Red Bull Soapbox Race website.

Spectators trying to get a good view of the race

Was he that quick or was my hand shaking?

I don't think the toys with paddles helped his speed

Cheater!!! That has a motor!!!

Day trip to Tacoma, Washington

Me and a colleague from work had been planning to trip to Tacoma all summer and finally the weather was nice enough for us to go which was not a working weekend for me. Tacoma is 32 miles southwest of Seattle and two of the attractions that we decided to visit were the Museum of Glass, and Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium. Truthfully, the Museum of Glass did not have many things to see inside, but it did provide you the opportunity to see live glass-making in the Hot Shop Amphitheater. As you can guess, the artists were very good and it was interesting to see the whole process from start to finish. What I liked the most was actually outside of the museum. The thing that strikes you the most when you arrive at the museum is the 90 foot cone which houses the Hot Shop. This cone has become the landmark that symbolizes the museum. The other attraction outside the museum is the Chihuly Bridge of Glass, which is a 500 foot log pedestrian overpass that links the museum to the rest of downtown Tacoma. The bridge itself houses a collection of glass work from Dale Chihuly in the form of the "Seaform Pavilion" (a ceiling made of 2,364 objects from Chihuly's Seaform and Persian series), "Crystal Towers" (the towers rise forty feet above the bridge deck and serve as beacons of light for the bridge and city) and the "Venetian Wall" (an eighty-foot wall displaying 109 Chihuly sculptures). We spend some time at the bridge as the glasswork there was just amazing.

The artists at work

The cone

Fellow tourists under the "Seaform Pavilion"

One of the "Crystal Towers"

The "Courthouse" reflecting off the "Venetian Wall"

A light rail train on Union Station (you see, I told you that there is a Union Station at every US city)

After a spot of sightseeing in downtown Tacoma, we headed over to the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium. I had already been to the Woodland Park Zoo and the Seattle Aquarium so I was not expecting anything different from those. Inside, we realized that it was not that big but we still wanted to be selective to what we would see. After a quick trip to see the muskoks, reindeers and polar bears, we spend the rest of the trip in the aquariums mostly looking at the walruses (they are massive), puffins (I notice that all they do is clean themselves), penguins (they are cuter when they are swimming), sea otters (they were so playful with each other) and the beluga whales (swimming in circles). To wrap up the trip, we were fortunate to see the feeding time for the walruses and the beluga whales. Both were entertaining as they were performing tricks for the crowds and provided lots of photo opportunities to trigger happy amateur photographers like myself :-)

Which one of you is Rudolph?

The penguins

Playful sea otters

Shocking! a puffin which is not cleaning itself

Walruses (swimming, waving and close up)

Beluga whales (swimming and waiting for dinner and health checkup)

In the Aquarium

Anyone for a beer?

Although I am not an alcohol drinker, me and a friend decided to pay a visit to the Fremont Oktoberfest. The original Oktoberfest is a two-week festival held each year in Munich, Germany during late September and early October and famous for providing people the opportunity to try different types of beers, eat lots of bratwurst and get really drunk. This was not our intention but we really wanted to experience the atmosphere. Unfortunately, the Fremont Oktoberfest was a bit of a let-down. Although there was a reasonable amount of beer on offer, the glasses that we were given was quite small so it worked out quite expensive for each beer we wanted to try. The biggest disappointment was that they did not have the famous tents containing the rows and rows of tables for people to sit down and drink and socialize. Oh well, maybe my expectations were based on the original German Oktoberfest and I should have known better :-( Oh, if you are wondering if I forgot to upload my photos of this event, well I did not take any. That says a lot by itself.

Where is the Kimchi?

One thing I like about Seattle is that it is a multi-cultural city and all year round, it promotes this by having events and festivals for the different cultures at the Seattle Center. Today's one was the turn of the Korean Cultural Celebration Ch'uSok (Harvest Moon Festival). As I had a busy day today, I only stayed for several hours which included some time to get something to eat for lunch. My initial intention was to try some Korean food that they had there, but the queue for it was just too long (it must have been free :-)) so I ended up getting some seafood instead from the Steamers restaurant there - yeah, I know it is not very Korean, but it was good.

As well as there being stands and displays introducing Korea and its culture, throughout the day, there was a lot of performances ranging from dancing, singing, martial arts demonstrations, playing of music instruments and tea ceremony demonstrations. Some of the performances were very similar to the performances that I saw at the Seattle's Chinatown-International District Summer Festival but they were still enjoyable to watch nevertheless - I really liked the performances of the different types of drums the most.

No, these are not the performers

One of the many drum performances

Are they in sync?

One thing that I did notice was that the martial arts demonstrators where mostly performed by kids aged 12 or younger. They were actually quite impressive and most definitely I would not pick on any of them. Hmm, thinking about it, I think I can take them on if we had a fight but I would say that wouldn't I ;-)

Hmm, can his kick reach my head??

Go Seahawks!!!!

Given that I have been following American Football and the NFL (National Football League) for 20+ years, one of the things that I really wanted to do since I arrived in the US was to go to a game. Although I support the New England Patriots, the Seattle Seahawks has also become a team very close to my heart (no prizes for guessing why). Unless you are a season ticket holder it would be near impossible to get tickets for a regular season game, but they are easier to get tickets for pre-season games. The last pre-season game before the season starts for the Seahawks on the 9th September was the game against the Oakland Raiders today at Qwest Field. Fortunately, me and my colleague managed to get some tickets. Originally we were going to be sitting at one of the seats at the top of the stadium (yep, a mountain top view), but my colleague knew someone who worked there so managed to get us seats in the club level. These seats were so much better with better views and also more comfortable. The game itself was good but as it was a friendly, we did not see some of the big named players and the atmosphere was so relaxed and not as tense. Overall, it was a very good experience and being able to shout, scream and abuse the opposition was a great laugh. I will definitely go to another game, but maybe try to go to one of the regular season ones to experience that atmosphere. Oh, just in case you were wondering, the Seahawks won the game 19-14 and no, I did not have a good view of the cheerleaders :-)

Before the crowds arrive

Our original seats were five rows from the top!!!!

Filling up...

During the game

Day trip to Portland, Oregon

After working over the past several weekend, last Sunday I decided to reserve a train ticket for Portland thus forcing me to go out and start enjoying my weekends again.

So today was the day of the trip and from it, I made several observations:

1. 4 hours train trip each way is a very long time. Thinking about it, in 4 to 5 hours I could have flown to New York.
   
2. This is the first time that I have traveled on an Amtrak train. Apart from it looking like a tin of sardines due to its metal shell, the interior is no different from a British Rail train.
   
3. I always get old women sitting next to me. Although, they have lots of free seat to choose from but they more often than not, they pick the seat next to me. Having said that the lady today was pleasant and we did have a good chat (and no, having headphone in your ears does not stop them from starting a conversation with you).
   
4. The train stations that we stopped at were very basic and to get to the station itself, you may have to walk across other tracks.
   
5. Never trust the weather forecasters. It was supposed to be mostly cloudy but it ended up being hot and sunny (although I am not complaining). I was just a bit overdressed.
   
6. There is always a Union Station wherever you go to in the US.
   
7. The people in Portland are really nice. Two independent individuals came up to me and asked me if I needed an assistance while I was just looking at a map. Both gave good advice as well.
   
8. There are quite a few beggars and homeless people around many parts of the city.
   
9. Preparation and research is important. This is something that I did not do on this trip so not surprisingly I got lost trying to found the Visitors Center (luckily for internet access of my phone so I can look up address and ask people).
   
10. Although I walked most of it (and my feet are still suffering), the transportation (buses, streetcar and light rail) are very easy to use and convenient.

As I was only there for 5 hours, I had to be selective to the sights that I could visit. In the end, I chose:

1. Downtown District
   
2. Portland Aerial Tram
   
3. The Saturday Market
   
4. The Waterfront
   
5. Portland Classical Chinese Garden
   
6. Pearl District
   
7. The Apple Store (come on, it is tax free shopping in Oregon State - did not buy anything from there though but I did buy a couple of Wii games from the GameStop next door)

Downtown District - this is the area where the Tourist Information Center is so this was the first port of call. After getting a much needed map and suggestions to where to go, I was fortunate to come across an Festa Italiana (Italian Festival) at the Pioneer Courthouse Square. As I had limited time, I did not stay too long but just enough time to get some snacks and catch some entertainment.

The Portland Aerial Tram is Portland's newest public transportation link connecting the city's South Waterfront district and Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and the Marquam Hill neighborhood. Although intended for students, staff and patients of OHSU, the 3 minute ride also provides the views of the forests, Mount St. Helens, Mount Hood and downtown Portland so it does get a fair share of tourist like me. For me, although the views from the capsule were good, I did not manage to get a clear view of the mountains due to the clouds. You can also see that Portland is slowly developing and not as built up as cities like Seattle.

View of Downtown Portland from the Aerial Tram

The Saturday Market is the number one attraction that was recommended to me by the Tourist Information Center and I could see why. The market was not like the normal weekly street market (well, it is open on Saturdays and Sundays), but one that you typically find at an annual festival. The market was spaced out across multiple streets and contains lots of stalls for shopping (clothes, jewelry, crafts etc), food and drinks as well as street entertainers and artists. The best thing was the atmosphere. There were just lots of people there having lots of fun.

Shopping, food and entertainment

After a quick walk by the Waterfront, the next stop was the Portland Classical Chinese Garden. I have always loved the old Chinese architecture so for me, this Suzhou-style walled garden was a must see. Admittedly, I was somewhat smaller than others that I have been to, but it was good to just sit and relax over a cup of Chinese tea looking as if you have been transported back to Ancient China.

Ancient China in modern Portland

My final stop was the Pearl District. Several colleagues recommended this to me for the restaurants and shops, so I decided to check it out although I was not planning to buy anything or have a meal). The problem about districts is that there span across blocks and blocks so I really don't think I found the heart of it. I did come across the Powell's Books though which I was told was the largest independent used and new bookstore in the world. Truthfully, it did not look that big to me :-)

In general, although most of the time was taken up on the train there and back, Portland is a nice little city to explore. I think that I will go back again in the future and maybe have the time to visit Washington Park with the Oregon Zoo and Portland Japanese Garden there.