This has been a long overdue trip for me. My brother has been in the US for over 11 years and I had never visited him when was studying in ASU or working in Dallas or Seattle where he currently lives. I also never get quality time with bro/sister-in-law when they come to Blr as they have numerous obligations and priorities – fair enough as their visits are limited to once in 2-3 years. But with me becoming an Aunt in Dec’08 and my move to Calgary, I didn’t want to delay my visit any further. So off we went 6-16 Nov’09, though Sharan returned back in 5 days.
My brother and S.I.L ensured that either 1 of them took off and gave me company throughout my stay. It was indeed very thoughtful of them. I got to spend a lot of time (but never sufficient) at home with my nephew Nikhil this way. He is in a very adorable age where he is trying to walk but crawls at a very high speed. Just playing with him for 2 months I think I could loose weight – like how his parents have. He also talks in baby-gibberish, which is absolutely lovely to hear. I enjoyed playing with him, making him eat, putting him to sleep and watch him do his antics.
We got to meet a few other folks and friends:
~ Anand & family – Sharan’s close friend from Blr
~ Lakshmi– Lakshmi is Sharan’s cousin. She has a lovely apartment in downtown Bellvue
~ Champa Aunty & Shelly – Sharan’s Aunt & her daughter. They have a fabulous house on a hill.
~ Genie & wife – Another of Sharan’s close friend and ex-colleague from Blr.
~ Brother’s gang of friends – I finally got to meet the whole lot whom I always heard of but never met: Sanjay & Shwetha, Sam & Bharath and Indira. Thanks to Sam & Bharath for organizing a potluck so that I got to meet everyone.
Since it was slightly longer trip, we got to see around the place as well. Though we did our share of research on the place, we went with my brother’s recommendations. Some of the popular sight-seeing visits we went to were:
Pike Place Market – famous for the pike fish place. Its also a lively market which spans more than 3 floors. One can find absolutely anything and everything there – food, drinks, accessories, paintings, fruits, vegetables, meat, vases, clothes and other knick-knacks. This place also has the first ever Starbucks coffee shop and the only shop with their original logo, which is no longer, used.
Seattle Public Library – Its building is unique and vaguely shaped. A 10 floor library with an auto-book sorter is easily the largest library I’ve seen at least.
Harbor Cruise – a 1 hr cruise that shows you Seattle downtown by water. A pleasant experience – you also get to see many ships docked in the Seattle harbour with some of them being really HUGE.
EMP & SFM – The Explore Music Project (EMP) showcases the rock history of Seattle which housed music greats like Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, Jimi Hendrix and Pearl Jam. This place also has an installation with hundreds of guitars which are connected to play automatically. A music history enthusiast can easily spend days together in this place as it has lot of artifacts and music history to go through. The Science Fiction Museum (SFM) is in the same complex as EMP. It takes one through the journey of Sci-Fi from when it started either through books or movies. Like EMP this museum has a lot of artifacts of famous Sci-Fi movies and books.
Snoqualmie Falls – Away from downtown Seattle, this place is very picturesque with snow-clad mountains as a backdrop. With a height of 268Ft and width of 100Ft, this falls is quite majestic and creates a blinding spray.
Museum of Flight – This Boeing museum gives a good history of aviation with sections dedicated to World War I and World War II planes. It’s also got a section dedicated to Space and NASA where you can try landing a plane or a space shuttle in a fun simulator. You can also enter a portion of the international space station which has also been simulated.
Some of the off-beat places we got to see were:
Bruce Lee’s Grave – Yes the Kirate King was from Seattle. So both he and his son Brandon Lee have been buried next to each other
Bodies Exhibition – This traveling exhibition showcases human nervous system, circulatory system, respiratory system, skeletal system and muscular system with real bodies (dead ones before you wonder). A very informative and highly recommended exhibition if it comes to a city near you.
Improv Show – Don’t ever miss this if you like Improv (yes, like Whose Line Is it Anyway). Improv greats like Ryan Style come to perform at this theatre under Pike Market called Unexpected Productions. It was a laughing riot and Sharan got a chance to go on stage to help them with their show as well. Wowvy! The tradition at this place is to stick a chewing gum at the entrance wall, at least the 1st time you visit it. So we did. It’s quite a sight – a wall FULL of chewing gum stuck on it. Thanks to Lakshmi and her friend Pankaj for taking us to place.
Beaver Lake – This may not be an obvious choice of place to for all travelers but it is very close to my brother’s place and is extremely pretty. It has also got a small hiking trail, which is totally wooded. Once you are on this trail you’ll really wonder if it is in the middle of the city or if you’ve been transported into a forest somewhere.
One other off-beat place mentioning is the Ye Olde Curiosity Shop which has all kinds of odd knick-knacks that’ll make you …..curious. You’ll find all kinds of old gadgets (coin makers, 1900s game machines, odd creatures like 8 legged pig, mummies, etc).
We didn’t go to many restaurants as we either ordered in at home or simple ate scrumptious home food. 2 places worth mentioning were:
La Campagne: Near Pike Place for some awesome French wine and food
Spud: At Alkai beach for some good fish and chips. Though not close to the ones you get in UK, its one of the best I’ve eaten outside of UK.
Thanks to bro and SIL, who are great hosts, we already feel like visiting them once again. There is lot more to see around Seattle. So we have saved it for our next trip.
Here is a link to our photo album: http://picasaweb.google.com/akshatakaranth/SeattleTrip616Nov09
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