Chessnoid's Travel and Eating Experiences

Seattle Space Needle video 2

2010-05-11T03:00:00.000-07:00

You must be tired of just looking at Space Needle pictures because I was getting sleepy posting them. Just kidding.

I thought I would try posting a video that I took at the top of the Seattle Space Needle just to change it up.

You can see and hear how crowded it was. This place was full of tourists like me. I think if there were less people around, I could and would have explored more of the area.

Seattle Space Needle view pictures set 5

2010-04-06T23:25:00.000-07:00

Continuing from my last post, these are still pictures from the top of the Space Needle in Seattle. These are all thumb links to large photos so be sure to click to get the full effect. I am amazed at all the details our digital camera was able to pick up.

This is just a beautiful view of the city and the bay.

This is another angle of the same area. I think we stayed up there over an hour and I just never got tired of looking and taking pictures. It was a cloudy day so that made it extra nice.

Just below us is what they call the music experience I believe. We didn't check that out but the building looked cool and funky. Even from this vantage point, you can tell it is whimsical.

It had a lot of weird shapes and the monorail passed through this area. It sort of looks like an amusement park, doesn't it. There are rides in the area.

There goes the monorail now. We did take the monorail once just for the experience. It is really something I would not ride again. Just another tourist trap.

The Space Needle is pretty high up and it sometimes hard to tell from the pictures. I do have a fear of heights, but the views are worth it.

Thanks for stopping by and have an excellent day. ;^)

Seattle Space Needle view pictures set 4

2010-03-07T22:15:00.001-08:00

Back to the top of the Seattle Space Needle. My wife and I stayed up there probably over an hour. Even though we both have a fear of heights, we enjoyed the views and taking pictures.

Remember, all thumbnails are links to bigger pictures.

I do not know what this image is but it did look nice. However, the digital camera focused on the wires so it is blurred.

This is a view of the bay and docks. Notice the windows below the cables.

Now there is the famous globe and the park. Can't believe my wife and I walked all the way from there.

This looks like the same picture from above. Not sure what I was trying to capture.

I think this is a great shot of the lower rise buildings. I also think it is surprising to see the trains right there by the docks.

There were many vessels in the bay. They really do have a lot of traffic coming and going.

Across the bay here is Alki beach. We traveled over there by ferry. Such a nice place.

I think I would love to live in one of the condo buildings on this side of Seattle. That is Belltown I believe. We did check out a couple of condo buildings during this visit.

This is a nice view of all the buildings you can live in Seattle. You don't realize how crowded the city is until you are looking down on it.

Another nice city view of all the buildings. My wife and I would really enjoy living here.

Thanks for stopping by. Cheers!

Newport Beach Sunrise 01.2009

2010-02-23T08:21:00.000-08:00

I think I need a break posting all the Seattle Space Needle pictures. Today, I decided to post 3 nice sunrise pictures that my wife and I took at Newport Beach, California. I think this was about 4:30-5:30 in the morning.

We didn't actually come here to take pictures. The pictures were an afterthought. We lived only about 5 minutes from this beach. At least 5 minutes during this time of the day. Regular hours would make this ride maybe 15-20 minutes.

I love the way the sun comes up and lights up the sky in those unique colors.

I wish I had taken more pictures of all the sunrises we have enjoyed together. They give me a wonderful feeling inside.

Seattle Space Needle view pictures set 3

2010-02-18T11:18:00.000-08:00

Just a continuation on my series of Space Needle pictures. These images are thumb nails of larger pictures. It does take a lot of time to upload them.

A view of the bay.

It's hard to believe all the walking we did in Seattle.

You can see Olympic Sculpture Park in this picture. We literally walked from there to here.

There is that famous globe on top of the Seattle P&I.

This image is directly below us.

We actually checked out these condos. I think they were called the Trio condos. The prices have dropped down since then.

Another picture of condos and Olympic Sculpture Park. Yes, I wish I could live here.

Looking at all these views of the building pictures makes me realize this is a great city to walk around and explore. The city seemed safe to walk around.

Amazing how many roof top gardens there are.

The last picture is just a good picture of all the buildings that already exist in Seattle.

Seattle Space Needle Video 1

2010-02-12T17:09:00.000-08:00

This is a pretty cool video I shot with our canon camera. I always forget these digital cameras have the video option on them. Anyways, you can see the other tourists in the video. Enjoy!

Seattle Space Needle view pictures set 2

2010-02-09T01:43:00.000-08:00

This is just a continuation post of more Seattle Space Needle pictures from the top. I think that cruise ship takes you up to Vancouver, Canada and possibly Alaska.

Look at all the condo buildings being built. More opportunity to buy and live there I guess.

Just another view of the high rises towards the downtown area.

I angled the camera down and the picture became a shade darker.

Hey, more condo buildings being built. Remember this was May of 2008.

I want to say this is towards the Queen Anne area, but not positively sure.

A look straight down of the area attractions.

Those are big art sculptures in red.

This is a news building with a helicopter and pad on top of the building.

That's the monorail and the Montreux building towards the left corner.

Don't forget these are all thumbnails and you can check out some great detail by clicking on the pictures. Thanks for stopping by. Cheers!

Going to the top of Seattle Space Needle

2010-02-05T00:46:00.000-08:00

These are all miscellaneous pictures from the top of the Seattle Space Needle. Again, these are all thumbnail pictures, so if you click on the images you will see a large detailed digital photos. I really love these pictures.

Notice the amazing roof garden on that building. How wonderful would it be to live and relax there?

This is just a nice view of the bay. I never realized how much water traffic came through this area.

A close up of the beams and wire support.

This gives you a good idea of how the structure is at the top. It is wired all around and allows you to get great pictures of the entire city.

You can still see all the cranes and building activity going on.

I think this is a great view of downtown. Near the bottom right next to the monorail is the Montreux building that I blogged about where a condo sold for $100,000 there.

I have about 100 of these Seattle Space Needle photos and will post some more. Thanks for stopping by. Cheers!

The Seattle Space Needle 05.22.2008

2010-01-31T23:54:00.000-08:00

After we walked to the Olympic Sculpture Park, we walked to another tourist landmark. I would have to say the famous Space Needle is definitely worth checking out.

At the base of the Space Needle, we saw an Indian Band playing some native instruments. I don't think they were part of the park and looking back at it, I am surprised they were allowed to even plug in their instruments.

There were plenty of flowers and greenery all over the place. It just makes it very pleasant.

Here we are at the very bottom of the famous Space Needle.

If you click on the pictures you can see how big this building is.

Here it is just looking straight up. Both my wife and I have that fear of heights, so this was a challenge.

Here is another picture of some beautiful flowers.

Another shot of the enthusiastic Indian Band.

I think that flute hanging like a necklace was interesting looking.

I don't remember how they sounded but they did attract a lot of people to watch. They also had a display with CDs for sale.

And finally here is a picture of the tickets purchased.

I took about 100 pictures on the observation deck at the top. The views are amazing from 520 feet above the ground. I will post them next time.

Seattle's Olympic Sculpture Park

2010-01-26T09:13:00.000-08:00

It was a very cool, cloudy, and pleasant day when we visited the park. It looked like rain at times and I was hoping for a downpour, but it never happened.

These are just miscellaneous pictures around the park. Look at all those lovely condos in the background with nice water views and this great park to walk around in.

This view is quite awesome to me. I am sure if you lived here you just get used to it. There are some benches just to watch the ships go by while you eat a snack of feed the birds.

Not really sure what this building is, but just below it is an extension of the park with big giant domino looking metal structures. They have chairs you can just pull out and sit where ever like this couple did.

To give you a better idea and perspective how big the park is. It really is a great place to take a daily walk.

The backdrop is this nice bay view. There was a walking tour when we visited and that is why there are a bunch of people in the background.

Different angle of the same structure. The famous Space Needle in the background.

A zoomed in look. We actually visit that on a later day and it is definitely a must do when you visit.

A giant Eraser structure. Don't ask me why.

Another view of the length of the park.

We didn't realize the train came by this way till we saw the tracks.

Underneath the bridge you can see the train tracks even better.

In the backdrop, is the Seattle skyline.

I believe this earth globe I think is part of the newspaper building Seattle P&I but don't quote me on that.

That's all for now. Thanks for visiting. Cheers!

A Walk to Seattle's Olympic Sculpture Park

2010-01-23T00:28:00.000-08:00

Like I said before, the great thing about Seattle is you can walk pretty much to anywhere you need to get to. If you get tired of walking, then you can always take the bus or taxi.

We walked from Pike's Place to Olympic Sculpture Park in about 20-30 minutes. Pretty much every street you walk to get over there, you will see many types of shops in these old buildings.

Near the park is a nice area known as Belltown. This is an area I would love to live just because of the location to all the shops, restaurants, and walking areas. Also, the cloudy and rainy weather is very agreeable to me.

They have a ton of residential condo buildings along this area just across the park. This is an art sculpture of an aluminum tree.

A different view of the same tree towards the intersection. I forget what that glass ceiling building is in the background . It was closed when we visited. In the far background you can see Pier 70.

Here is the famous red art structure that represents an eagle I believe.

This is a good size park and right on the water. Although it you keep walking in any direction in Seattle you will eventually hit water.

I will post more pictures of the park in my next post. Thanks for stopping by again. Cheers!

Steak and Potatoes

2010-01-20T20:37:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, good food is made by your spouse. Tonight, I had a delicious rib eye steak my wife made. She added sauteed mushrooms and green beans. Then topped it off with a side of fresh mashed sweet potaotes made by hand.

Yummy!!

It is nice to go out for dinner, but sometimes it can be just as nice or even better to have a great meal at home.

Life is great!

Seattle's PIke Place Market & Lowell's Restaurant

2010-01-18T22:13:00.000-08:00

One of the great things that I personally enjoy about Seattle is that you can walk to everywhere you want or need to visit. Walking towards the Seattle Pike Place from out hotel probably took us about 20-30 minutes. We definitely looked like tourist taking pictures of everything. The cloudy weather was perfect for walking.

This building would be a place I wish I could one day live in. I imagine it to be a huge loft with spectacular water views. If you click on the picture, I am talking about the top floor.

This little walkway is just a block away from Pike Place and had nice little shops. This picture is very attractive to me.

We took a few pictures of the nice area. Chocolate, books, and a tea shop. I could have hung out here for awhile.

Another shot of this wonderful street or alley.

Now this is even a nicer building I wish I could afford to live in. I can only imagine what it looks like on the inside, but the outside is extremely appealing. Privacy, garden patio, and water views.

To put it in perspective, this is how close it is to all the conveniences.

This is Post Alley where you can find an assortment of shops by foot.

Inside the market is fantastic. Fresh flowers, fruits, and vegetables everywhere you look. We didn't come early enough to see them tossing fish but no big deal.

A nice close up of them. Click on the pictures for the nice details. You can almost smell them.

The fruits all look great. Everywhere you looked was eye candy. You really can't buy wrong at this place.

These do look yummy.

I do like having blueberries with my cereal and raspberries on my cheese cakes.

Garlic and pepper strands with amazing vivid colors.

Inside the Pike Place Market there are numerous restaurants to eat in. We liked this little self serve place called Lowell's which is known for great food and cheap prices. The fish there is great, but we came by for breakfast.

I think the wife had a Denver omelet and I had the French toast. These meals were big, cheap and most importantly delicious.

I forgot the great feature about this restaurant is it is 3 floors and you can admire the water views while you eat.

We saw these cranes from the airplane trip before we landed. If you click on this picture, then you can see a dream loft house with an excellent patio garden. How awesome would it be to live here!

More view pictures of the boats and ferries coming and going to the different islands.

Further to our right side, you can see the ships along the docks and piers.

I'll end it with this last picture which is an old warehouse converted to apartments, lofts, and condos. These would be ideal to vacation in for a month or two. There are plenty of places to explore in this area.

Thanks for stopping by and have an great day.

Cheers!

The Hotel Max in Seattle

2010-01-17T15:41:00.000-08:00

The Hotel Max is an old building located in the center of Seattle. Everything is in walking distance. I posted a google map and it is point A.

We had to wait for our rooms to be prepared, so we ate next door at the Redfin restaurant. They were actually closing for dinner preparatioins, but they opened the door and served us. I remember it being a good meal but can't find the pictures of the food. Not too sure if we took pictures of the meal.

I have to say this is an interesting hotel to stay in. This is an outside shot of the hotel from across the street.

Inside the hotel, walking down the hall of our floor, you will notice artwork on every door.

Even the carpet is quirky.

Another interesting door picture.

A close up of the Eifel Tower in black and white.

The next picture is the last one of the black and white picture doors.

At the end of the hall, a window that is also a fire escape has what appears to be an eye chart.

If you read the letters, they cleverly spell out a message.

The actual room was small. We expected a small room, but this was even smaller than we expected. However, it did have everything we needed like the LCD TV, coffee maker, and the $6 bottles of water (we passed on that). Too rich for our wallet.

My wife and I appreciated these views in the middle of the city. You can feel the hustle and bustle of downtown Seattle at all times.

We had a corner unit with a total of 3 windows. You could literally see out of every window while laying down in bed.

By the way, the many reviews on different travel sites of this hotel always describe the pillows like sleeping on a cloud. It is true. These were the softest pillows I have ever slept on. The pillow top mattress also was pleasantly firm and soft like a giant marshmallow. This was the best sleep I ever had in a hotel bar none.

The bathroom was OK. Many people complained that it was too small and they are probably right. Especially if you are a tall person. It sufficed for us.

Now, I like taking pictures of what is outside our room.

This room had some interesting views out of all the windows in every direction.

The view of a main street intersection. Just above it is the monorail system. A few pictures down I caught it passing by.

A view of the office building with people working or at least pretending to be busy.

A glamorous shot of the tall skyscrapers with one still being built.

This window shows a great old building with some nice detail. On the left side you see a tall mall and the Roosevelt sign in the distance.

This is the bottom of that same building.

This is a reflection of the hotel sign on the office building.

Here is a close up of the Roosevelt sign. That is the Sheratone Hotel next to it. We stayed at that hotel on our previous Seattle trip

This is a close up of that mall Pacific Place I think. It is 4 or 5 stories high.

This is a close up of the monorail as it is actually passes by.

I think just below it is a weird section where a bunch of one way street intersects. Unusual triangle island or bad city planning?

Now the next pictures are some hotel amenities. This is the standard coffee machine with teas on the side.

This weird amenity is for Adult enjoyment. Quite disturbing in that I think these are used and probably been used many times over judging by the wear and tear on the boxes. This is the first time I have seen this in a hotel.

I am not talking about the wine or t shirt. I am talking about this.

We took over a 1000 photos in Seattle, but I will end this post of the room here. Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave me a comment.

Cheers!

Seattle Airport worth checking out

2010-01-15T10:13:00.000-08:00

(click on the thumbnail images for the large detailed pictures)

Just before we land we get a nice look at the Safeco Field Stadium and the Qwest Stadium side by side in Seattle. I wonder if they ever have events on the same day because that would be a traffic nightmare getting in and out.

Look at that spaghetti of a freeway spilling all over the place.

A bit further we see the cranes in the bay area where they unload all the cargo ships for trucks to tranport freight out. Surprisingly there are many of them all over the place.

In this picture you see how much water is everywhere around Seattle. Looks like an island full of rivers. While there are many little islands across the way.

The most noticeable thing I have noticed about airports is that they are all set up like malls and art galleries. They have interesting art wherever you look.

The art glass is nice. You see it immediately when you step off the plane and enter the terminal.

I don't know if these are changed out or if these are permanent works of art. It wasn't the holiday season, so my guess is these are up all the time.

This is a picture of 2 owls I think perched on pine trees.

Here is the whole picture of everything. You can see these are quite large.

In another area we have giant vases hanging off the ceiling. Really artsy fartsy.

Then you see another scene where it looks like it has them spilling out. It gives it the illusion of movement. Get out of the way!

Outside you have these giant structures. I can't say I appreciate this as much, but it is an artist's design.

My next post will be the hotel we stayed at.

Seattle by airplane May 2008

2010-01-13T17:35:00.000-08:00

I really like the city of Seattle. I have been there twice and stayed for a week each time. The first time my wife and I took the Amtrak train. The second time we flew. Both were enjoyable trips.

These pictures are from our second trip. This is the inside of the plane we flew in. Click on the thumbs to see the details, I didn't stretch them out this time so they are not blurred.
The first 2 pictures are from the inside of the plane. I can't remember what airline we took, but my guess would be Delta, by the booklet in front of our seats. LOL.

I think this was a small jet plane of some sort. It was only 3 seats wide. 2 seats on one side, the walk way isle, then 1 seat on the other side. The service was good and the flight was nonstop so we arrived there fast.

Before take off we got some delicious airport food from the deli. This was a breakfast croissant and a some good coffee.

Parts of the airport were under construction.

This is just a nice zoomed in close up look of the same shot.

Here is a picture of the coast with some nice million dollar beach front properties.

This flight went much higher than our Las Vegas flight. Here is a nice frame of reference and you can see some ice forming in the corner of the windows.

The next few pictures are just the Seattle downtown skyline before we land. I really dig these pictures.

If you click on the pictures, you can see the wonderful details from even this high. Amazing.

Las Vegas City lights

2010-01-11T19:25:00.000-08:00

I only have a couple of night pictures of the Las Vegas Strip. The digital camera really didn't capture what I could physically see. There are different settings to capture the images better at night, but we didn't read the manual. The pictures below are stretched thumb shots so they are blurry, but if you click on the picture you get a nice clear and big picture of the shot.

We just put it on auto focus on everything. This is a wide shot of the Bally and Paris Casinos. Every Casino on the strip looks great when lit up.

This is the Paris Casino from across the way. We were on the Belaggio side where they have the water fountain show. That is the body of water in front of us.

This is a close up of the mini Eiffel Tower. It really was a great display even from a distance.

We were killing some time before we went to see a "O" Cirque du Soleil show inside the Bellagio. It was the water themed show at that time and every seat inside is a good one. We didn't take pictures of it because of their policy but many other people did.

The tickets were about $180 a person at that time. I think you can get them much cheaper now since it has been there awhile and now they have other Cirque du Soleil theme shows at other casinos.

Here is a night picture of the Bellagio Casino at night.

The Bellagio lobby had these great big murals all over their ceilings.

Inside the Bellagio they had a Dale Chihuly glass exhibit. It was very nice to check out. The glass fixtures hanging above were huge.

In this next shot, they were very bright colored glass flowers.

Walking around in the Venetian Casino

2010-01-10T00:50:00.000-08:00

You could literally spend the whole day just walking around the casino and hotel. It is like a mall inside with shops and restaurants all over the place.

They even had a snoopy gallery, but the employees came running out telling us we could not take any more pictures.

Inside the mall area, they had these human statues painted in white. They stand still for a minute, then the move sometimes scaring passers by.

Then they freeze again. You get fixated the first time waiting for them to move again.

Then they have the gondolas that go both inside and outside the hotel. I think it was about $30-$40 for a 5 to 10 minute ride. We didn't go on this particular ride because you become the center of being gawked at andpart of the collection of anonymous tourist photos.

Here is a different shot with the background of the building. Again, a lot of details went into the design.

Here is a shot of the entire building. It is a big size casino but on the strip this is probably the average size.

In the next picture you can see the hotel raking in the dollars with more tourist suckers on the gondolas. I think they have 10-20 going all at once.

It is really nice that these hotels are connected by walkways that no longer require to cross the street of oncoming traffic. In the background on the right side, that is the volcano with waterfalls.

The Venetian Hotel Suite

2010-01-09T14:32:00.000-08:00

I think all the rooms in the Venetian are suites. When I went there 5 years ago, all the rooms were about $250 a night minimum. I think nowadays you can get them on sale for about $125 on the different discount websites. I am referring to their basic suites.

The rooms are spacious and I want to guess this one was about 350 square feet. The bed was nice and firm.

The bathroom was quite fancy. It had a separate stand alone shower.

And it also had a separate soaking tub. It would have been extra nice if it was a jacuzzi tub, but I think you have to get one of the more expensive suites to get that amenity.

The rest of the bathroom included dual vanities and a stand.

The remaining part of the room is a sitting area with the beautiful views of the strip.

You can check out my first post to see the actual views of the Mirage, Treasure Island, and the Wynn hotels from that window.

The Venetian Hotel Room Service

2010-01-08T04:00:00.000-08:00

We went all out on this trip. We ordered room service and the food was simply delicious. I wish we took more pictures of the food.

These pictures bring back happy eating memories.

We shared our meal which was more than plenty for the two of us. They actually carted in the meal and the presentation was very great. The meal looked appetizing.

That long piece of bread was freshly toasted and crispy. The gourmet salad had some interesting vegetables in it. The coffee was also excellent there. We wound up drinking the whole pot with our meal and dessert.

I want to say this is grilled sword fish with fresh mango salsa underneath with grilled zuchinni and asparagus. The potatoes were very tasty, too. This was really a fancy meal for room service and was above our expectations.

The dessert was amazing. This is actually creme brulee topped with fresh fruits and an almost crisp placed on top of the scoop of ice cream.

There were also a couple of chocolate covered strawberries.

The Venetian Hotel Las Vegas 2004

2010-01-07T07:00:00.000-08:00

The Venetian Hotel and Casino was very nice when we visited. When we walked through the halls to get to our room they had unusual wallpaper that started from floor to ceiling. The theme is consistent throughout the the place inside and out.

Both my wife and I appreciate art, so this was a pleasant surprise.

We really didn't know what to expect in the room, but the anticipation was building. I forget what floor we were booked on but it was pretty high. I was really impressed with the views. That's the Mirage Hotel across to the left.

Directly in front of us was the Treasure Island Hotel which was I think remodeled recently. They have the live pirate show every night. We had a direct view of it and we could here the cannons blasting at night. However, we were too high to be able to see the show.

Below is a zoomed in picture of that scene where they put on the shows where you can see cannons from the pirate ship and the village. Truly a lot of work and planning for this out door stage.

There is also an exploding volcano on the other side of the pirate ship that goes off a few times every night. This is great free entertainment easily available just walking down the strip.

And the view on the right side was of the Wynn Hotel. This was before they built the second sister hotel the Encore. They look identical in size and color. This is also before they built the Venetian's sister hotel the Pallazo which also matches.

And directly below us, they were doing some major remodeling as well.

Looking up from the airport shuttle

2010-01-06T12:39:00.000-08:00

I have actually been to Las Vegas like a million times when I was a kid, but the only thing I remembered was being inside Circus Circus playing arcade and mezzanine games.

It had been many years since I last visited and there were many more casinos that have come down only to be replaced by fancier and newer hotels. Straight from the airport, we take one of those airport shuttles directly to the hotel.

The inside of the shuttle is fairly standard. Looks like a mini bus and the rates were much cheaper than a taxi. The only thing is you have to wait for the shuttle to get full before leaving. The rates at this time were only $4.75 a person. Now that is cheap.

The driver was pleasant and new his way around the strip. He completely avoided Las Vegas Blvd and still gave us a nice tour of the casinos from a distance.

The parking structures are stacked up to 6 floors high depending what casino you are visiting. This makes it convenient for the patrons to drive and park. It also made for a nice perspective view from the ground.

I want to say the next building is of Bellagio Hotel which was a brand new casino at the time. It has the great water fountain themes in the front.

This shot is a peak a boo of the the Eiffel Tower in front of the Paris hotel. The clouds in the background make it cool.

These casinos have a ton of nice architecture with great details. I know everyone is here to mostly gamble, but if you appreciate buildings this place has many to admire.

I am guessing this building is the Venetian Hotel which is where the company booked us to stay. At the time, I think this was the latest 5 star fancy shmancy hotel to open. Quite honestly, if we didn't win this trip, we were not going to be able to afford to stay here.

Flight to Las Vegas Trip 2004

2010-01-05T22:30:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, I had won a trip to San Francisco from a collections incentive contest. That was a great contest, so the company decided to do another trip prize. Needless to say I was one lucky guy back then. I won 2 back to back trips from the company which included air fare, hotel stay, and $500 spending cash. I was the most hated manager of that time and they wanted to institute a no double winner rule after that. Lol.

Las Vegas was actually the first trip I won and took and San Francisco was the second trip.

We took a plane over there. I don't remember the airline but I do remember the trip being smooth and fast. It only took us an hour to get to our destination.

We flew out from John Wayne airport which is much smaller and less crazy than the Los Angeles International airport.

It had been many years since I have flown on an air plane so this was a treat for me. We had window seats but it was next to the wings so it wasn't a clear view.

Even the journey getting there was quite awesome. My wife and I (OK, my wife really) took some great pictures while we were up in the sky. I am amazed at how much detail the digital camera catches.

I want to say this is UC Irvine because it is near by, but that would only be a guess since this could be a high school.

Here is an excellent view of the coast. Those are all million dollar homes in the OC

These pictures are kind of like from google maps today. But back then we didn't have that application, so these pictures are interesting to me. The picture below is of the Palos Verdes Peninsula I think. Again all guesses from what I know of California.

This next picture is already half way through the trip. We are higher the mountains and the clouds. This is a nice artsy fartsy picture, isn't it.

The next few pictures are more of the same, but I really like them. Kind of makes me realize how big this world we live in is. Just check out the horizon line in the distance. How far do you think that is? It has to be hundreds of miles, right?

The mood changes when flying through all the clouds when it gets thick like pea soup. That's when you start appreciating all those technical gadgets the pilots have which allow them to fly.

You do get a weird feeling when everything turns dark in a minute. Kind of similar to an eclipse. But it cleared up for us by the time we landed.

Here we are at the Las Vegas airport and you can see the famous landmarks already. The skies cleared up or we flew ahead of the storm. Everyone was ready to gamble before the plane stopped. You could see the gambling frenzy in their eyes.

I will post more pictures tomorrow, of course, but for now I will say good night and thanks for stopping by.

Driving along the Coast

2010-01-04T15:45:00.001-08:00

This is a continued post from my San Francisco trip in 2005. Another nice thing about this area of California is it on the coast. You can literally drive along the coast and see a stretch of beautiful unobstructed views of the Pacific Ocean.

On this day, we had some beautiful grey clouds. It was one of those days where a huge storm was coming in.

There are many look out points where you can just pull over and take in the ocean and listen to the waves coming in. Some areas like the one coming up has a place for you to walk down to the sand and take a leisure stroll.

This camper had the right idea. Front view ocean views and the rent is free. This is something I want to try one day. Rent an RV or air stream and just drive it along the coast from California to Oregon to Washington and then back down.

There are nice light house stations you would not expect to see. This looks like a picture from a book. It is very serene looking.

The roads do literally wind around the coast and sometimes curves in and out along the cliffs.

This is no big deal if you are not afraid of heights. I am afraid of heights, but I try to keep my eyes on the road to avoid the spaghetti legs feeling.

Must keep my eyes on the road. Must forget about how high that bridge is, but why are we still going up. Lol.

This next picture has a weird sign. If you look on both sides there is just a hill and the ocean. There are no houses in this area so I am not sure where these cross walkers on PCH will come from in the next 1500 feet.

The next 2 shots are just direct views of the Pacific Ocean. All these pictures were taken by my wife. I was doing the driving.

I am a bit surprise at how clear they are considering I was probably driving at about 55 miles per hour.

Eventually, we took a break and walked along the sand on one of these isolated beaches. I must admit this place is absolutely wonderful.

This next shot is a zoom in view of the background. I wish we had taken more pictures back then. This was our first digital camera so the capacity was small. Unlike today, our latest digital camera can hold about 1200 pictures on one sd card. Now that is amazing.

Here is another picture of the same bay on the other side. Look at all those seagulls just lined up at the bottom. In the far background, there are some really old homes with some wonderful ocean views. If you click on the picture, then you will see it in the larger picture.

This next picture is some sort of dried up seaweed. It is freaky looking isn't it. The texture does look amazing. It almost looks like dried noodles to me. Just add water and boil for 5 minutes. LOL.

If you haven't done it before, then I would recommend taking a drive along the coast. Especially, if you are not on a schedule. That way you can enjoy everything at a leisurely pace.

These are the last ocean shots before we go back into the city.

I have to admit, this next picture my wife took is spectacular and I wouldn't mind framing it. It is a beautiful shot that captures the mood of the day. Peaceful, cold and cloudy.

Filipino Pastries

2010-01-03T18:30:00.000-08:00

Today, I went down to the local Filipino store and bought some goodies. This feeling was brought upon looking at the yummy goodies in the first San Francisco post I did. Here are a few pictures taken on my cell phone.

I stretched them out here and so they might be a bit blurry, but the links to the pictures are more clear. They sure do look yummy.

I have been going to this chain for many years. The pastries are always good. I mean ALWAYS. I have never been disappointed.

Two delicious cakes I highly recommend are the Mango cake and the Coffee Crunch Cake. They are both light and fluffy, and the frosting they use is not overbearingly sweet.

The last picture just has your typical morning pastries like pan de sal, ensaimada, and mamon, etc. Please forgive my spelling on these treats.

I bought a few days worth of goodies, and they all go good with coffee. Thanks for stopping by. Cheers!

San Francisco Union Square January 2005

2010-01-02T16:04:00.000-08:00

The pictures in this post seem to have a blurriness to me, even though the actual pictures are very clear, with the exception of the last one. I think you can click on them to see how clear and detailed they really are. I think I uploaded them incorrectly into blogger so I apologize in advance.

From our hotel, it was about 5-6 blocks away to walk to San Francisco's Union Square. This area is like the hub of downtown with all its fancy shops and restaurants.

Some of the buildings are more modern than the area we were staying at. This was Saks 5th Ave building. I am not sure what building is in the background but it looked quite nice.

The building looked very prominent. This is a zoomed in picture from the same angle. The building has a good view overlooking the city that's for sure.

Back to Saks 5th Ave. We took some pictures of their window displays showing the latest fashion for that year.

The first picture is to our left side of the building facing Union Square. They look like evening wear gowns.

The second picture is to our right side of the building entrance. You can kind of see the partial entrance. Again, the window displays have more designer dresses. I am sure they were all priced in the thousands.

Across the way, this is a nice shot of some shops. From left to right is Tiffany's, Williams Sonoma, Levi's, and then Niketown. I believe the rails closer to us in an entrance way to underground parking.

I wondered if those stores occupied every floor of the buildings, or if some of those floors were used for private residences. That would be a great place to have a loft, don't you think?

On this street, you can see the hustle and bustle of the city. There's the Disney Store that also houses the Borders books and music store. On the left side is the Westin St. Francis Hotel I believe. Again, in the background you see some nice architectural detail of the past in those buildings. It's amazing they still have those fire escapes on the outside of some buildings.

This wide shot captures the taller and more modern buildings in the background. I think that is the business district, but am not completely sure. What is also interesting in this area is that it is not full of hills. It is very flat and walker friendly.

This is another shot of those buildings in the back of Saks 5th Ave. They are definitely over 40 to 50 years old. I think if I changed this to a black and white photo, it might even capture the mood of that decade when these were the newest buildings.

There is also plenty of art all over the city. This looks like a roman statue. The cloud backdrop kind of frames it perfectly. Sorry, I don't anything about this piece. But it surely is an attention getter.

We did step out later in the evening and it is funny how the city atmosphere changes. I felt like the city was resting. The lights on these older buildings seem to help capture that mood.

This is a close up of the top of the same building. Very peaceful.

It did rain on our visit on and off. You can see some evidence in the modern park benches. Very sleek metal design. It probably can withstand most vandalism too.

You can feel the city go to sleep as the number of people dwindle. The rain also seems to give it a cleansed feeling.

San Francisco January 2005

2010-01-01T17:58:00.000-08:00

I used to live in San Francisco when my father first relocated our family to America. We only lived there for 2-3 years in the 1970s.

Well, back in 2004 I worked for a collections company that is now defunct, but I had won a lottery drawing from an incentive contest. I was a manager and your team had to produce x amount of dollars to get a ticket entry. The other managers had more tickets than me, but I was the lucky one who won the package. It was 2 airline tickets, hotel stay, and $500 spending money. Those were the good old days.

Here are some pictures of the hotel we stayed at below:

So this is a straight shot from our window. I really like the architectural style of these buildings. They really take you back to a certain era.

Then if you peak out the edge of the windows you can see the corner of the block in both directions. This was our first trip together to San Francisco, so everything was exciting to look at.

That is the famous Warwick Hotel. Many of the streets are one way and extremely steep. I am glad my rental was an automatic and not a stick shift, so I didn't have to worry about rolling backwards. Ha ha.

On the other side, another hotel and restaurant. There was also a parking lot. I think it was $35 a night to park our rental car which seems expensive to me, but that is the normal amount for the downtown area.

From this window high above, you can still hear all the traffic, especially the buses passing by as they open their doors to let people on and off. You can actually hear the people from below too, yelling and screaming. If you are wondering why they are yelling, it is because there are many homeless people in the downtown area. Probably more so now than 5 years ago.

It didn't bother either my wife or me because we are use to the city noise. You can't see it in this picture but there are many shops, restaurants, and delis at the bottom of most of these buildings. I purchased our water and snacks from Walgreen's because it was substantially cheaper than the hotel prices.

What I enjoyed was the all walking convenience to these places. There was a Jewish deli but I can't remember the name of it down the street. My wife and I took these pictures of their pastries on display.

I think we purchased about 6 pastries to take back to the hotel to enjoy with our meals and coffee. I may have possibly bought a dozen because they looked great and were made fresh daily. This was the time in my life I was a bit overweight and had a healthy appetite.

Looking at these pictures, I can remember they were delicious.

One great thing about the city is you can walk around and just sightsee by foot. I remember there was a film crew doing some movie when we visited on this street. It was on the other side, and they had police officers on motorcycles monitoring and directing traffic. I didn't see any famous celebrities.

A few blocks away you could look down and see Alcatraz Island in the background. You can also see how high we are and how steep the hills are. I really like those old buildings. Crazy how they have all those old telephone and electric lines hanging above. I sometimes wonder how nice it would be to live here.

Then a few blocks in another direction you can see another famous landmark called the world's most crookedest street. There were many cars slowly snaking down the path.

I thought this was a great picture my wife took because you can see the different buildings in a nice city view. Again, look how high and steep the streets are. We drove and did not walk here to get the full effect of driving down the landmark. Again, a fun and free tourist landmark. The cool and cloudy weather was definitely to our liking.

These pictures were not all taken on the same day. I am just putting it in a nice story context. This landmark is the famous pointy Transamerica building. Notice the one way street. I am not a fan of the one way streets because I am paranoid I will drive the wrong way.

We thought this Indian restaurant was weird that they served breakfast with beer. Who knew?

We drove down towards the Golden Gate Bridge. Along the bottom they have the San Francisco Maritime Museum. I can't remember if we got out to explore here or just took a passing picture of it.

It's pretty cool that you could get around the entire city by bus. They were plentiful everywhere.

That is the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance. We did stop by this park to check it out and take some more photos. I remember there were a ton of eucalyptus trees here and they smelled great. It may have just rained too, because the air seemed so clean and crisp too.

Across the bay, you can see the downtown skyline. Right in the center you can see the Transamerica Tower. This area has a great walking trail. It wasn't crowded or anything and the people here are always friendly.

These are some funny looking trees in the same area. Very tall and sleek. This whole area had tons of different trees.

This rock is on a look out point. I remember seeing this as a young boy but it had tons of sea lions and seals laying all over it. The time we went was a bit disappointing because it was empty except some sea gulls.

Towards the left of me are nice condos with views of the bay. These are probably all worth a million dollars since they have million dollar views. The weird thing was that big windmill on a Dutch looking building in the background.

It must be nice that you can walk along this beach everyday. That is if you owned one of these nice condos.

Now look at the next two pictures of these cliffs. It has some trees growing in them. These are big tree and the cliffs are over 100 feet high.

There are no people or cars to put it into perspective but this was actually an amazing sight. Especially when you are at the bottom looking up. I don't know if you can actually drive to the top or not, but those views would be spectacular.

I have tons of pictures from this trip so I will post some more later. Hope you enjoyed them.

Cheers!

Travel and Eating

2009-12-30T14:42:00.000-08:00

I have been wanting to create a post simply about my experiences of my travels and foods that I eat. I don't really travel a lot or eat out a lot, but when I do I enjoy the experience. I wanted to share my personal views with you. Not just with words but with pictures.

I hope I enjoy posting on this blog and that it doesn't become a chore. I decided to create the blog on google's blogger because they make it easy to get things up and running. The template I chose hopefully accommodates larger than normal pictures. I hope to post many pictures.