Summer vacation entry is up, finally! Phew~

Day 1

We took off from Davis at about 8.30am. Niat di hati nak bertolak awal, but the day before, we slept at 2 am preparing food for the journey, packing as well as cleaning the kitchen, so the driver need an extra hour of sleep.

We made 4 stops in between for brunch,lunch,performing prayer and nature's call.Hahaha. The rest area only has restrooms bukan macam R&R Tapah okey. On the way, I couldn't sleep sebab big boss asyik kejutkan suruh tangkap gambar pemandangan cantik. Memang cantik pun Mt. Shasta!

Rather than sembahyang tepi jalan, we decided to search for a proper place via zabihah.com to perform our prayer. So, we made a stop at Eugene,Oregon. The place was kind of secluded, macam belakang kilang2. At first seram gak lah, but as we entered the mosque, it was clean and comfortable. Alhamdulillah. Stopped by Starbucks for a dose of coffee.

Reached Oregon at about 8pm. We were so tired but Jai wanted to swim so we went dipping until 10pm. Sampai bilik, flat terus tido,

Day 2

We checked out from the first hotel since we couldn't book the hotel for two days straight as it was full. We decided to check out Washington Park since there were 4-5 places of tourist attraction within the same area. But we only went to International Rose Test Garden where there were different colors of roses. Just name it, purple, yellow, orange, pink, orange.. they got it all.

Then, we took a train or hyper rail to Downtown Portland. The ticket was $4.95 all zone and all day but they have also one zone ticket but if you aren't sure which direction are you going, just grab the all zone ticket. Anyway, it was Sunday and they had Farmer's Market on the weekend.

We checked out few places in the downtown area such as:

1. The Chinatown which was like a dead town, probably few Chinese shops and one dragon arch which marked the area as Chinatown but nothing special compared to Chinatown in San Francisco. 

2.PGE Park which is the baseball stadium of home team, Portland Beavers. There was a game going on that day but the tickets were sold out but we asked the security to let us in just to snap few photos. They were so nice!

3.  Farmer's Market : There were few places, one is at the heart of the town and the other was nearer to the Portland Bridge. We just took the train and stopped whenever we saw one.

Well, I would say Portland is a city resembling both San Francisco and Los Angeles. But I like San Francisco more for sure! We couldn't find any halal restaurant that open, so we went ahead to have sushi :)

We went home around 7pm and knowing our second hotel has a kitchen, I decided to cook for dinner.


Candlelight dinner for two at our living room :)

Day 3

We didn't manage to find a souvenir shop in Portland. Strange! But we decided to visit the University of Oregon (The Ducks) store before we leave for Seattle.

Portland is just 3 hrs away from Seattle, Washington. But we stopped by for brunch anyway since I have cooked nasi goreng the night before. I was amazed of how easily we got hungry when we brought home-cooked food. Perut asyik lapar je memanjang, padehal masak sardin and nasi goreng aje.

Our next hotel was in Bremerton, Washington which supposedly was 14 miles from Seattle. But it was NOT! I don't know how the heck did the hotel check out the distance but it was actually 60 miles. We were so disappointed knowing we have to travel an hour to Seattle. Anyway, we decided to boat a ferry instead since the jetty is just 5 mins walk from the hotel. I felt uneasy knowing Bremerton is an army town and they were all over the place and some of them actually staring at me noticeably. Well, I always knew when people were staring at me even without me looking at them. I just knew. On the way, we stumbled upon a family and they said 'hi' to us, which is common in the US. Then, one kid in that family gave Jai a piece of paper saying it was a ferry ticket, later to find out,it was written "The terrorist who met god". I was so pissed off but we kept walking.

At one point, Jai was asking me " Are you okay?" I said " No! and I broke into tears. That was my usual reaction when I was mad but couldn't let it out. Then, we went back to the hotel and I cried sheepishly while he was searching for other hotel in Seattle. Siap kena ayat sentap ok.. "Kalau macam nih pun nak nangis, tak yah duk US lah, balik Malaysia lagi bagus". Sentap okeh ayat Jai.. Taulah rumah die pernah kena baling telur kat England, tapi jangan lah bagi ayat sentap. Sedih mak noxx!

Unfortunately, there were no Marriott/Hyatt hotels (where can we get discounted room) available for the next 2 days, so we decided to just find any hotel that available in Seattle ourselves rather than calling any hotel in random. So, off to Seattle by car, of course. To cut the story short, dapatlah book Quality Hotel tapi kena bayar lebih. Huhuhu. Anyway, while searching for the hotel, kitorang checked out siap2 places to visit for the next day. We ate dinner at one halal Pakistani restaurant in the area of Washington State University but tak sedap sangatlah beriyani die.. Bolehla... Then, balik hotel sebab dah kul 10pm, nak drive sejam lagi. huhuhu.

Day 4

We started the day early today since we wasted so much time the previous day. Took 8am ferry from Bremerton to Seattle which costs us $14. The travelling time was 60 mins. Sejuk ya rabbi atas ferry sebab berangin, kuar keta tangkap gambar pastuh masuk balik keta. Then, we went straight to Quality hotel to park our car since parking in Seattle was expensive, ~$15-20 per day. Some of the hotels do not offer free parking so do check before you book any hotel in Seattle. First place, Space Needle but on our way there, we saw a booth selling Seattle City Pass comprises 6 places to visit for USD60 which was cheap considering the price was much expensive if we buy each ticket separately.

So, we went to Pacific Science Centre which was just within our walking distance. If you have children, then it is highly recommended to visit this place. But if you don't have one, don't bother :P

Then, we walked back to our hotel, took our car and went lunch at a Vietnamese Halal Restaurant. We were so thrilled looking at the menu cos there's lamb curry, tomyam and whatnot. Lega tak kena makan kebab :P I ordered Pho, it taste like Chinese style kuewtiaw soup which is my fav!

 Next, we headed to Museum of Flight and had a tour inside the last Concorde plane and Air Force One.

 
Best2x rasa mcm duk dalam filem Transformers. Then, we rushed off to Snoqualmie Falls which was 30 mins away from Seattle. The scenery was breathtaking and made me wanna visit Niagara Falls next.

The next stop was Microsoft Museum. It was not really a museum per se, only that if you wanna get some souvenirs from Microsoft, fell free to visit. Well, they sell software to their employee for a really really cheap price. Windows 7 dalam 30 bucks je, serious murah! But because we didn't know any Microsoft employee, tak dapatlah beli :(

Then, it's time for dinner! We chose a halal pizza restaurant this time, it was delicious! Balik hotel jap, mandi and after Maghrib, we went to Space Needle. So, using the City Pass, we can get in 2 times within 24 hrs, so we decided to enjoy Seattle view during the day as well as night. Balik hotel, tido sudah.

Day 5

The next day, we were so exhausted so we decided to jalan2 after lunch. We went to the same Vietnamese restaurant again! So, the first place of the day was Pike's Market. We took a bus from our hotel and sampai depan Pike Market terus.

We took a quick stroll as we were catching a cruise touring Seattle harbor which was included in the City Pass! The cruise took about an hour and we got quite a nice view of Seattle from the cruise plus the tourguide did some brief explanation of any historic or interesting building whenever we passed one.

After the cruise, we went into the Seattle Aquarium. At first, we decided to skip this as we're not really interested with marine creature but since the aquarium was just on our way back to Pike's Market, why not? Compared to Monterey Bay Aquarium, this one was way much smaller and the marine species they had were not so much different than Monterey. We headed back to Pike's Market and bought some souvenirs. We also stopped by the first Starbucks shop in the world, which was located just opposite the market :) We are not coffee-drinker so tak beli lah coffee beans, but if you're one, do check out the place.

We were thinking of taking a bus, but without realizing, we were halfway to the hotel already. Jalan kaki sudah! Oh, we went back to the Space Needle just to snap some pictures of Seattle during the day :) Then, balik makan restaurant sama, mandi jacuzzi dalam bilik (awwww!), kemas beg and tidur.

Day 6

It's our last day in Seattle! :((( The weather was cold that day, macam tak bagi kitorang balik jer. We went to the final tourist attraction included in the City Pass... The Woodland Zoo.

 
Ok, once you have gone to ONE zoo in the US, you don't have to go to any other zoo. Semua sama.. But, we went in LA zoo before, so LA zoo was much better compared to the one in Seattle. Pergi makan kat restaurant tercinta, oh I will miss the Pho :(  Then, we headed home, but bukan terus balik California lah. Tak larat drive 12 jam. So, we stopped by Medford, Oregon. Sebelum sampai Medford, singgah shopping dulu since Oregon has no imposed sales tax. So, bersuka-suki lah shopping baju, sikit lagi je nak beli flash camera tapi tak jadi since ade orang tuh nak beli hadiah hari jadi :)

 
Oh, I caught a cold on the way home. Bila singgah dinner, Jai suruh makan ubat selsema. Weng terus, sedar2 rasa Jai bawak keta laju sangat. Sampai hotel pun rasa cam separuh sedar je.

Day 7

Takde singgah mana2 sebab tuan punya blog masih selsema and rasa macam nak demam. Singgah makan kat mana tah, lepas tuh aku tidur sepanjang jalan.


Anyway, itu jelah cerita I. I was dragging myself to type this post as the stories ain't that fresh anymore. Nak pecah entry jadi 7 hari, lagi lah mak tak koser. Nevertheless, here it is. Enjoy reading and have a good weekend!