6/30, I took Amtrak to Vancouver.
The 4 hour journey took 5 hours. I arrived at the station 11pm.
The view was quite good at places, especially at sunset.
7/1, Canada Day. Fireworks. A lot of people.
7/5. Saturday afternoon. Visited University Women's Club at Vancouver, its 100+ year-old Hycroft mansion and garden. Quite pretty.
6/28, Sunday. Weather forecast is not favorable. Still hoping to squeeze in a short hike, we headed towards Bandera Mt.
We hit rain on I-90, so doubled back and parked at Ollalie State Park's Homestead Valley TH.
Took the trail to Mount Washington.
We started in mist, then fog, then rain.
Decided to go to a viewpoint instead of continuing up to Mt. Washington.
Here it is (the left photo), a bonafide viewpoint, but no view.
Some beargrass, tiger lily. Along the road: foxglove, daisy.
This cavenous rock has a natural spout of water in the rock. Maidenhair fern adorned the "ceiling".
Some climbing walls in the lower elevation, with anchors on the rocks.
Back to Seattle (and out of the rain) hoping to catch the end of the Pride Parade.
Too late, the crowds were leaving. Trash everywhere.
Went to Seattle Center. Still a lot of people, dance and band on 2 different stages.
A guy walking around completely naked, quite a few wearing strange outfits.
Definitely body positive here.
6/18, Thursday, ~900 people sat at tables over 2 city blocks to eat 4 pieces of dim sum together in order to break the Guinness Record for largest 飲茶 gathering
There's a count before and after the "eating".
Odd things is that there are vegetarians who ate these mostly pork filled snacks, and there are a few who just came to eat and left without the final count.
The judge (on the left photo on the stage to the right) from NY certified the event, and a new record was made. The last record was under 800 and for 2 pieces of dim sum.
This weekend, Japanese Cultural Festival at Seattle Center Armory.
Other than performances that showcase various aspect of Japanese culture (like this drum team), I like what's on the second floor: art exhibition (these bronze of monkey couple are funny), ink brush scrolls, go, haiku, flower arrangement. They were set up already on Friday.
Performance is Sat-Sun only. I very much enjoyed this Taido group.
The Kimono try-on was very popular, good for Instagram users.
Very wet December this year. Not much outdoor activity.
Lots of holiday lights.
Booked a 2bdrm-2ba suite in downtown Vancouver for a week.
Our unit is at 21st floor. Great view.
However, only one elevator was working, so a long wait and get to meet many other guest in a tight setting.
Played ping-pong and pool in the evening.
Saw a group of Barrow's Goldeneye at Sunset Beach at the end of False Creek.
Nelson Street with Butterfly building, Saint Andrews Wesley Church + First Baptist Church.
Art Gallery's large Christmas tree.
Christmas market by Coal Harbor / Canada Place.
Quite a lot of pedestrian. Seemed lively.
As usually, checked out the lights around LaFarge Lake.
It's attracting a lot of people year after year. Some even come out with umbrellas.
Armed with a new phone, I tried to take some evening shots.
Of course, food is not skipped, whether it's make-your-own with whatever in the fridge (brought too much food), or in a restaurant.
10/18, Saturday. Drizzle. I went to the Diwali festival at Armory.
More people outside than inside. I wasn't aware of the rally today.
Quite a turnout at the No King rally.
Many fun signs, Trump balloons, blowup suites. Colorful on this grey day.
Inside of Armory, it was dry and warm.
There're booths selling snacks, clothes.
They dished out a free vegetarian meal (rice, gabozo beans, veggie, a purple desert), all afternoon.
Henna, face painting, roti making, with a small fee ($2).
A fresh flower tribute (which was swept into garbage/compost afterwards - what a pity).
On the 2nd floor terrace, a large 3D model of Temple of Vedic Planetarium, and multiple smaller dioramas telling the legend of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and emphasizes on his golden complexion.
In the classrooms on 2nd floor are art work display, half of it is from kids and they are very good.
In the middle is a story teller. I actually sat down and listened to her entire story on a monkey and a crocodile, and on traditional story telling (weaving one moral into another).
Spent some hours(!) on painting this mandala coasters.
You can pick a few designs, mix your own colors.
I didn't expect this to be so slow. Definitely a calming excercise.
I'm not all that pleased with my handywork.
This weekend is another Fall for SLU celebration.
Officially 11-2pm.
When I arrived at 11:05am, there was already a long line at this cart.
Fresh squeezed apple juice (very sweet).
Each person can take 3 items from this veggie/fruit truck.
There are volunteers handing them to you.
In front of the Spheres, corn maze, swing chair, scarecrow.
A lot of pumpkins (both real porcelain pumpkins). Cloth sunflowers. All very colorful. A lot of people.
The town of Long Beach was bustling. The kite festival is a week long event.
Many teams were praticing their routines, carefully choreographed.
4 quadrons on the sand were fenced off for competition, demo and practice.
We, the tourists, walk along the edges. The organizer was smart enough to leave a gap between each quardrons.
Many more kites stay flying in the sky. We saw a few whales, one half guy only waist down, a large octopus, many butterflies and birds (including a large crane).
All very colorful.
The air is fresh, breezy and chill (not sure if it is even 70°F).
Then it's the demonstation. All the groups are fabulous.
I especially love those large groups, this one with 12 people.
I don't know how they avoid entangling their 12 kites.
The most impressive is this guy, one person flying 3 purple kites with long tails, all syncronized.
Last time, we saw a deaf guy flew 3 black kites (no tails). It was very impressive.
The most impressive group os TKL of 6 people. They did 2 demos. Both incredible. Won many applauses.
Other wonderful groups that I got the names are: Quantum (4 kites), Sky Sisters (4 kites).
This is really an exceptional show.
At ~5pm, we left for Cape Disappointment state park.
First, we parked at the boat launch lot and tried fishing off the pier.
There's a fish cleaning sink and water hose. A lot of fish bones on the rocks below, attract a lot of sea birds.
This family in the photo came to clean their catch: a large salmon.
The dad told me where people are catching fish: over the jetty.
So we headed there next.
So many people were trying to fish here. They all had long thick rods.
The jetty is long, what this photo showed is only a small part.
It requires some scramble to get to the water side.
We tried our luck with fish and crab. Seems no one is catching anything now.
This is a good place to wait for sunset too. Good view.
Groups of pelicans flew west from time to time, no idea from where they emerged.
View of Oregon coastal mountains to the south.
Jellyfish in the water.
Headed back after sunset.
Willapa National Wildlife Refuge, which was just mud and marsh, now looked very pretty in the dying sunlight.
A very long drive home.
Seattle's Pride Parade is always fun to watch.
A lot of groups. A lot of colors. A lot of flags and balloons. A lot of noise.
All sorts of people. Some in wheelchairs. Everyone is happy.
The parade started at 11am, and we went ~1pm near the finish line.
Stayed until 3pm, and it wasn't done.
Mexican consulate has the best costumes. Quite a few small marching bands, dancing groups.
We were just commenting on not many Asians, there came a Taiwanese group with a sign "first Asian country to legalize same sex marriage".
A group of naked people near the end, some with both male and female physical distinctions.
One teenage girl proudly walking topless without breasts.
A large group of people in husky head and paws. Must be hot in today's weather.