Seattle, WA

We drove from Spanish Fork in Utah to Seattle, WA after our daughter’s wedding ceremony. The drive took about 14 hours but we stayed overnight in Boise, Idaho to split up the trip.  Seattle is beautiful. When we were only 20 -30 mins away from downtown Seattle, even at that close distance, we were still driving through a dense forest surrounded by mountains on every side.  The scenery was simply beautiful!

Day 1

We met some old friends at Isaquah Cafe! Awesome breakfast! Awesome company!

Jakob Two Tree

Thomas Dambo, an artist and activist from Denmark, has created many art pieces ranging from bird houses, trolls, and many more works of art using recyclable materials to bring environmental awareness to the community. There are currently 5 trolls that were built by Thomas in different parts of Seattle and they are each fascinating in similar yet unique ways.

Jakob the troll lives on the Rainier Trail less than 1/4 mile off of the road (just past the dog park right next to the Isaquah Community Center). Parking is easily accessible at the community center for a quick jaunt to see Jakob the troll.

Din Tai Fung

Dinner at Din Tai Dung was fabulous!  There are 3 Din Tai Fung restaurants in Seattle and I recommend making reservations in advance.  We went to the one at University Village Mall, and it was crowded.  The queue was lined up for a long distance out the door!

Din Tai Fung was founded by Mr. Bing-Yi Yang.  He was born in Shanxi, China and immigrated to Taiwan when he was about 20 years old with only 20 dollars on him.  He and his wife started selling cooking oil named Din Tai Fung and dedicated half of the shop to selling Xiao Long Bao (soup dumplings).  His Xiao Long Bao business became so popular that he phased out of the cooking oil business and focused solely on expanding the Xiao Long Bao business.  When we lived in Taipei, we frequently went to the original restaurant, an amazing place, which is now a major foodie tourist attraction, and hard to get into without waiting a very long time…😊 Today, Din Tai Fung has opened branches internationally including Singapore, Hong Kong, throughout the United States and many more countries.  It is named one of the top 10 gourmet restaurants by The New York Times!

Day 2

Chinatown

Uwajimaya

Uwajimaya is a Japanese grocery chain that offers a wide variety of products including fresh produce, wines, Japanese cookwares, etc.  There are also freshly made sushi, poke, bento boxes for sale.  The store is very well organized and super clean. This one is located in Seattle  Chinatown. 

There is a food court inside the grocery store including a Thai restaurant, poke stall, Chinese fast food and a few more.

My favorite is somi somi at Bean Fish!

There are many variations of somi somi offered at this place including savory and sweet options on the menu. I stuck with the traditional sweet somi somi with red bean paste but many other customers ordered the fancy savory options!

Here are some savory somi somi carefully prepared by the chef. The finished products are huge fish when the chef folds the plates together!

Kinokuniya

This huge Japanese bookstore is also located in Uwajimaya, but there’s also a separate entrance from the south side of the store. There are 2 stories with anime stuff on the first floor and manga on the second floor. If you like manga and Ghibli products, you can easily spend hours at this bookstore.

Pike Place

This farmers market is known as the “soul of Seattle” with unique shops and yummy food. It is fun to walk around and check out this place. Right above the parking building, there is a gazebo to sit down and enjoy the beautiful scenery of the coast.

The fresh seafood market located right in the same building adjacent to the shops.

Found this one right outside the shops … maybe this is the same Zoltar they used in the movie “Big”😉

We decided to take a short walk to the mall to Pike Place Chowder as most of the restaurants at Pike Place was pretty crowded and some actually closed fairly early. The food was delicious!

Day 3

Seattle Alki Beach

Alki beach is on a peninsula on Alki Point. It is the first place where white settlers , the Denny Party, embarked in 1851, which eventually became Seattle. We went to a lookout which provides a picturesque view of the city skyline.

Behind the hill of rocks were colorful starfish and beautiful anemones hiding in between the crevices. The best time to find these sea treasures is from around 10am during minus tides.

The paths leading to the rocks are a bit slippery covered with seaweeds and slime, so be sure to wear good walking shoes.

Not sure what this one is but looks like mushroom to me!

There’s also a miniature Statue of Liberty on Alki Beach by the shops.

Lunch at Circuit

Along Aki Beach are many restaurants and shopping places. We went to Circuit, a Mexican restaurant, for lunch. I ordered shrimp enchiladas and it was delicious.

After lunch, we visited a couple more places including:

The Fremont Troll

The Fremont Troll was constructed in 1990 by 4 artists entering an art competition organized and voted by the city and neighborhood. The troll is clutching an actual Volkswagen which may have been abandoned. The main idea of holding the competition was meant to place an art piece under the Aurora Bridge as a deterrent to homeless people, drug users, and accumulation of garbage by people. It has now become a popular tourist attraction.

Right across from the troll, a symmetrical cascading view under the bridge is quite fascinating, I think!

Mount Rainier

Mount Rainier National Park is in the Cascade Mountain Range which spawns over 5 major rivers namely Carbon, Puyallup, Mowich, Nisqually, and Cowlitz Rivers. It is the highest mountain in Washington and is still considered an active volcano although the last eruption happened in 1894😉.

Frankie Feetsplinters The Troll

Just like Jakob Two Trees, Frankie is one of the 5 trolls scattered around Seattle created by Thomas Dambo. He is easily found located right on the street in front of the Nordic Musem in Ballard.

Drive-by Sighting

T-Mobile Stadium

There are many cool wall murals in Seattle and here are some that I like…

Day 4

Starbucks Reserve

This Starbucks is by the largest I’ve ever been. Functional yet decorative, the store is equipped with various machines for coffee. The ambience at this store is very nice and is stocked with a vast variety of merchandise including key chains, Christmas ornaments, Starbucks pickle ball sets, amazing mugs selections and more …
The bakery offers gourmet desserts, they all look scrumptious ❤️ This Starbucks is definitely well worth a visit!

Space Needle

Dinner at Duke’s

Dukes is a wonderful seafront seafood restaurant in Seattle. We met our old friends from San Diego, who are now living in Seattle and they recommended it as a wonderful seafood restaurant with a grade view, and they were right on all counts! Good food, good conversation, and great views of the harbor. a wonderful evening!

Day 5

Harbor City

Dim Sum for breakfast at Harbor

City in Seattle Chinatown.  Food is pretty good but beware of the neighborhood… can be a bit sketchy in Chinatown and downtown Seattle just bed to stay aware of surroundings 

The egg tarts, shrimp stuffed eggplant, lotus seed balls, shrimp wrapped in bean curd sheets, BBQ pork buns, and shrimp dumplings were all delicious and authentic!

Attended Church Meeting at the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Seattle North Stake, amazing building, very unique structure. And very old…hot day and the AC was out, but a great place to be!

We took a ferry from Seattle downtown to Bainbridge Island to hunt for the troll Pia the Peacemaker. The ferry rides are $12 per vehicle and $10 per person each way. The ferry leaves about every hour and our scheduled time was 1:50pm. The ride was on time and it took about 25-30 mins to get to Bainbridge. Pia is about a 1 1/2 mile walk from the pier. We drove to the troll, you can park right next to it so if you don’t feel like walking. It’s an easy drive.

The car queue for the returning ferry ride was long. It took us about 30 mins just to get to the checkpoint window and because the line was so long we did not make the ferry ride after waiting in queue for another 40 mins. We had to wait for another hour for the next ferry ride. Sunday is definitely a very busy day to visit Pia.

Pia the Peacemaker

The scenery of Seattle skyline on the ferry ride back was beautiful…

Cutters Crabhouse

Dinner at Cutter Crab with the family was amazing. This restaurant is located at Pike Place and the food is delicious. We ordered British Columbia Salmon, Sake Marinated Chilean Sea Bass and Dungeness Crab!

Day 6

Lincoln Park

We took a stroll at the park to find Bruunidun the troll.

From the Lincoln Park parking lot, there are multiple trails, all of which lead to the beach/ocean. Most of them converge at the beach at a picnic spot where there are a number of picnic tables. Once you reach that area, there is also a paved walkway. Turn right and proceed about half a mile to the troll on your right. Before you get there, you will pass a community center with a big swimming pool on your left, keep going past that and the troll will be on your right. Enjoy! this is also a great place to go for a longer walk or run along the beach, or explore the beach, so bring your flip-flops or water shoes.

Buunidun

Met up with Buunidun trying to guide the native orcas back playing his flute!

The Bird’s King Troll is located at Vashon Island which is a ferry ride away from Lincoln Park. Unfortunately, we were not aware of how close it was so we missed it!!!😂

Asean Street Food Halls

We had lunch at Asean Street Food Hall inside Westlake Center. We ordered Hainanese Chicken Rice and Malaysian Char Kuey Teow. Th Hanainese Chicken Rice is definitely not the familiar Malaysian style but the Char Kuey Teow was quite good.

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