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WOOHOO! I'm back! (from seattle and from under that pile of books you saw in the previous entry. Aunty Paulyn, i REEEALLLY read through them k! =) haha) Like i mentioned, i was in SEATTLE for the Remembrance Day weekend and it was a hell of a trip!

We rented a MINIVAN (see picture). It was super spacious and comfy inside, especially for the lazy passengers behind. =) Yanxiang and Dan were the men of the hour as they kindly volunteered to drive!. Dan took to the wheel first. He looked calm, collected and confident (very important, cos we had a $1000 liability if we crashed the car). So off we were and turning off that first left on Seymour street, DANIEL TURNS INTO THE WRONG LANE!!!! My goodness, we were SCREAMING like mad in the back seat. I think even YX's heart stopped momentarily. haha. We have to remember it's left hand drive here of course. Best of it all, I had it all down on VIDEO! Goodness, very very exciting start to the trip. =) Luckily Dan was fast and turned back before anything could ram our minivan.


The drivers.

The route down to the border was nice and relaxing, save for selena's incessant ramblings for dan to drive slower. He wasnt really fast la, though he did hit 155km on the highway later. =) He specifically reminded me to add this in. Even yanxiang the safe driver hit 140km. so there. Boys have a weird affection for all things fast. We were pretty fast clearing customs as well. And why was that so? Cos we CUT LANE!. In typical Singaporean fashion, we 6 blur-blocks drove into a lane only for special pass holders. Being Remembrance weekend, the queue at the border was insane. I think we saved ourselves at least half an hr cutting into the lane just infront of this white car. We were seriously worried that the driver would come down and hit us. haha. But no, nothing happened. Getting the visa(?) took another hour, and by that time, we were roaring to go.

THE place to shop

The insane lines at the border.

Lo and behold, we arrived at the esteemed SEATTLE PREMIUM OUTLETS. For the uninformed, this is like factory outlet paradise, where everything was on sale permanently. =) Needless to say, we spent too much time in there. TOO MUCH, but not enough for me and marilyn. haha... When we finally decided to leave, there was a hailstorm awaiting! Exciting stuff huh. I think we were the only people who were so glad at seeing HAIL. Painful little pieces of ice raining down on you. Would have been more fun if it hadnt been so cold. =) When the guys finally managed to drag us out of the place, we headed down to our little hotel Best Western Alderwood to dump our stuff and continue our little adventure into Seattle downtown.

Our hotel room. Yanxiang ended up sleeping on the floor in his sleeping bag. =)

We settled dinner at this little doggy place called The Turf. I was seriously a little apprehensive at first cos the whole area around was filled with homeless people begging and just unfriendly-looking people in general. It's pretty different from what you'd usually associate America with. Not the high rise office apartments and glam shopping districts that we are bombarded with everyday. It was almost a shock to realise that the US does have it's own sad story as well. =S Oh well. The cafe turned out to be fantastic, with an extremely friendly and accommodating waiter to boot. Very pleasant indeed. =)

The best thing about having a car is the convenience to do what we want at our own time. So after a satisfying dinner, we decided to drive around the city in search of coffee, which is basically what Seattle is famous for. We ended up at the Space Needle (every major city has one of these things now) and Seattle Centre. The night looks really pretty in Seattle. Everything is so still and you feel like the only thing alive in the whole city. Weirdly comforting, and calming. =) We decided to get really cheap wine from 7-11 (thank goodness for it) and head back to the hotel for UNO. (we are really a bit loser right? haha)

First Starbucks outlet in the world. Starbucks is EVERYWHERE.

Space Needle

Pike Place Market (VERY crowded in the day)

We woke up nice and early the next morning for some simple yet really good breakfast. Selena also introduced me to the sinful combination of bagel and cream cheese. SO SO GOOD, i ended up eating the same stuff for the next 3 days. =) We drove into Seattle downtown again and went on the Underground Tour. Interesting info and a witty (and occasionally lame) guide made the walking tour pretty interesting. We went for lunch at Macdonalds wanting to try the "SUPERSIZED" everything we thought they would offer. I vaguely remember the huge portions at a Mac when i was in US about 10 yrs ago too. But no, the portions were disappointing. hahah. SO SMALL!!! unbelievable. i think that was the end of the MAC experience for us in the US. Dont think we will step foot in another Mac during the xmas trip. =)

Headed up to Kerry Viewpoint to catch the view of the Seattle skyline. Although it was really pretty, it was also freezing cold. For some reason I cannot remember or fathom now, we freezed our butts off waiting for the sun to set in the cold, knowing we could have saved ourselves the misery if we had just waited in the warm car instead. HAHA. the things we do. =) Talking about that, we went back to the premium outlets a second time in less than 48 hours for more shopping!.... cant really believe ourselves. We spent an insane amount of money in total, too insane to be mentioned lest others think we are rich, spoilt brats who really only want to shop. No, we are poor students who spent the bulk of shopping on prezzies for friends, relatives and whoever else. we are nice. =) Marilyn thought she lost her wallet there. For half an hr, the mood was sombre almost cos we are in a foreign country and losing your wallet is horrifying. BUT BUT BUT, she found it back!!! WOOHOO. It was like a stroke of luck (she says higher authorities really wanted her to STOP shopping. ha) but yeah, we were superduperuber happy she found it back. Just made us want to shop, MORE. hahaha.

Selena and I at Kerry Viewpoint

View of city from Kerry Viewpoint

Armed with ten thousand shopping bags, we now had to strategize and think of how to "hide" these newly bought goods from the customs cos we didnt want to pay tax. SO we tore off price tags, wore new shoes, tried to make everything look like it was pre-owned so that no one would suspect a thing. And it worked. We got through customs safe and sound. Brilliant. I just think the female customs officer was charmed by dan who was driving. haha

We returned the car in tip top condition and returned home tired but very satisfied. But the trip was not finished. Apparently, Dan's phone was lost! Luckily he and Selena really found it in the car when they went down the following morning. Super good ending to the trip. =)

The trip was different and really exciting cos the car gave us so much convenience and freedom to do pretty much what we wanted to. The 2 guys were superb drivers and so all of us are back in one piece safely. We had so much fun on the trip. sigh... so fun. And now they are thinking of driving down again to the premium outlets cos of the additional discounts during the American Thanksgiving weekend. SOMEBODY STOP THEM!. haha. we rock. =)

@ 4:39 PM

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