The Japanese Gardens and SAAM--Seattle Asian Art Museum

Two highlights of the trip were visits to the Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM), and to the Japanese Gardens in Washington Park.

The Asian Art Museum was simply stunning. They had a collection of fabulous artifacts that rivaled more famous contemporaries. No pics from the Museum, as they weren't allowed. Some of the exhibits that were of great interest to both J and I were: "Chinese Art: A Seattle Perspective", "Pattern Richness in Modern Japanese Textiles", and "Discovering Buddhist Are--Seeking the Sublime".

As always, click on the pics to enlarge them...

These pics are all from the Japanese Gardens in the Washington Park Arboretum. The gardens are a beautiful 3.5 acres park designed in 1960. It was much larger than the city-block sized one in Portland, Oregon, and we had a great time touring them. The gardens gave me a lot of ideas for retro-fitting my much-in-need-of-work gardens!

The greenhouse/conservatory was remarkable, and there were many, many beautiful orchids! I took way too many pics...these are a few of our favorites.

And yes, there were fish! Lots of them. I took about 30 pics of them, there were so many different colors. There was a feeding frenzy, as there were a couple of home-schooled kids and their moms there feeding something to the fish. I had a good laugh.

The pic with J under the flower was to show the scale of that huge blossom! It was amazing.

Chris & Jeff Hit the Pacific Northwest!

So, J & I have been back safely in little ol' Vermont for 3 days now--and I'm already being pestered for blogging and pics! I took over 1,020 e-pics, and culled them down to a manageable 950+. I won't bore you with all of them, but I'll try to give you a time line of the trip with some highlighted pics.

Organizing the pics was the clog in the process of getting something online. We usually cull whilst enroute, but I wasn't confident with the detail quality with such a small viewing screen on the digital camera, and preferred to wait until we returned home. Surprisingly, the trusty old Sony Cyber-shot 3.2 mp still takes great pics, although I'm itchin' for a new one....

Now the pics are all categorized into folders with the days and places we went--let the blogging begin!

Part I: Seattle
Neither J nor I had been to Seattle or Victoria before this trip, and our trip to Portland, Oregon last November got us excited to venture farther north. A couple of travel shows highlighting Seattle, and Victoria and Vancouver (the city in British Columbia, not the island off the mainland of Washington state, nor the city in Washington state) got us eager to fly off to the PacNW.

Numerous contacts on Ravelry.com in Seattle, Victoria, and Vancouver (city) offered dozens of tips regarding places to visit, things to do, and of course, LYS (that's Local Yarn Shops to non-knitters) and teashops to spend money at!

Most of you know that I suffer from migraines--and Seattle area contacts assured me that there would be some rain and clouds. Unfortunately for me, it was sunny almost everyday on the trip, and only one or two cloudy days. Boo hoo.

The weather was mostly cool though--mid-60's to low 70s. We brought shorts, but didn't wear them once. We rented a car (J drove), and the trip from the Sea-Tac airport into and through downtown Seattle was pretty cool, I must say! Safeco Field (where the Seattle Mariners play baseball) and Qwest Field (where the Seahawks play football) where very close to the main highway we were on. As a sports fan, it was pretty cool to see two major stadiums right in the heart of the city--easily accessible for fans.

We were pretty tired when by the time we got to our hotel on the northern side of town--the Comfort Suites--really close to the Space Needle. The guys at the front desk gave us a great tip for a Thai restaurant-Bahn Thai, which was about 3 blocks from the hotel. It was THE BEST meal I had had in a very long time, and the best Thai food I've ever had. We usually try Thai restaurants just about everywhere we travel, and this was the bomb!

These pics are from the top of the Space Needle. Stay tuned for a recap of our trip out to the Olympic Peninsula, a spiritual encounter with Wendy, of the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe, and onward to Victoria and Vancouver Island! Oh, and meet-ups with Nigel, Allie, and Jeanne! ; )

Cheers!