ferries and islands.

here we continue. on the ferryboat we arrived on bainbridge island 30 minutes away. lots of people who work in seattle live here. so they commute by ferry everyday.

bainbridge island is your typical idyllic island-small town. it's small, quiet, charming and amazingly beautiful.




the beautiful flowers blooming.

jiejie in a corner.

the sun sets and the shadow is cast.


on the way back to seattle. it was already 8pm and the sun begins to set.


one of my favorite pictures. i remember this funny scene where all 3 of us saw the sail boat coming by and we were like "quick quick! take the boat and the sunset!!"

the fluffy light pink mt. rainier.

the sun slips beneath the mountains. ready to peer out in singapore. oh it's actually already out in sg!


i like the trail that the boat leaves behind. it's just like the cloudy trail that the planes make in the sky. our footsteps in the sand. our past in the making.

hokay after that we hopped onto a cab and went to this nice brewery cum pub cum restaurant to eat seafood! it was yummy. =)

on wednesday i met the sisters after class to show them around my campus and yes my tiny miserable room. then took them onto the ave just a stone's throw away and my 2nd sis went mad. she loves it. all the vintage stuff and clothes and the university of washington sweaters.

this is my 2nd sis taking off her boots and wading in the cold water of lake union.

after walking around we headed downtown to catch hiromi, this unbelievable, girl-with-fastest-fingers, talented japanese girl who is so petite but packs SO much power in her piano playing. without score. and with a band. it was out of this world and i like her. i have a recording of her playing a jazzed version of "sakura" and the hairs on our hands stood. literally. she's the girl on the far left, behind the piano.

i shall steal the picture of us and hiromi from my sister's flickr. next time!

random: one huge box of strawberries make me happy. and i mean a HUGE box. not the usual punnets that you buy from NTUC.

ok now on thursday we went outlet shopping! and that's pretty much what we did. =)

then on friday we went to san juan islands to whale watch! it was fun and exciting and really memorable. i can fondly recall the days of watching free willy.

on the ferryboat from anacortes ferry terminal to san juan islands. it's an archipelago of islands and we're headed to friday harbor, which UW also has a research facility there. for marine biology/oceanography/geography studies etc. how cool is that.

spot the sister/drama queen.

the cars are on the boat!

just islands and more islands. beautiful.

3 of us again. it was cold cos of the strong winds at the bow.




a peak of friday harbor as the ferryboat pulled into the harbor. small quiet town, but more bustling than bainbridge.


we visited a lavendar farm! complete with outdoor sculptures! =) very pretty. and just touching the lavendar leaves was enough to make my fingers smell of lavendar.

favorite shot of the day. =)


pie = 3.142
spot the sister.

lavendar shrubs that only bloom in july. sigh.

here the bees are out and about grabbing their nectar. i took this shot and immediately ran for the tiny house that sells the lavendar stuff. bees freak me out.

okok. next time i'll kope pictures from my sister plus whale watching pictures plus some of the pictures from the weekend with gerri and her family.

school's driving my nuts by the way. just finished one paper and one presentation today. i have 100+ pages of reading to do, a project report+presentation to do, one more paper, and 2 final take-home exams. oh not to mention trying to absorb every sight of seattle, packing woes, booking accommodation for summer and planning the trip. looks like i'll only have time to plan during my plane ride.

argh.

familiarity.

so my sisters, all 2 of them, were here in seattle to visit me. my 2nd sis was here for a microsoft conference. you'll never believe how well they treat their clients. my eldest sis just needed a break. she has been working hard during the SYF period.

so my eldest sis arrived on friday and dan and i went to pick her up at sea-tac airport. i packed stuff for the weekend's stay at gerri's house and i didn't wanna leave. i didn't know i would miss living in a proper house so much. with a room and kitchen and living room with big LCD HD TV and toilets. strange but true. now i just remembered the pictures from the weekend are in the other memory card and i happily forgot to upload them. ok next time then.

anyway summary of what we did during the weekend: friday we went back to gerri's house, sat and talked and talked. gerri and jie were catching up even though they just saw each other a month ago in singapore. i played with the kids. then we went to costco! its this big supermarket that sells everything in bulk. and its really in bulk and it's cheap! the things are so supersized it's scary.

we got groceries and stuff for dinner, then went back to the house and started cooking. soon gerri's neighbours came over with the kids in tow. it was noisy but so homely. reminds me of our parties at home. and i watched grey's anatomy on HD tv and it really makes a difference! i wish HDTV would come to singapore soon. it's so sad that sg is lagging so behind in terms of technology and media.

saturday we had breakfast of pancakes with strawberries, icing sugar, whipped cream, toast, sunny side ups and coffee. it was yummmyyy. and relaxing 'cos we weren't really rushing for time. which was nice. then we all packed into the car and drove to tacoma to visit the glass museum! it was really very nice. =) pictures would tell the tale better. then we drove northeast to a little city to horseback-ride! it was fun fun fun. i love horses. we all had a horse each and we went into the trails in the forest and we saw mt. rainier! it was nice and a very interesting experience. then we had dinner at a thai place in issaquah. good food. =)

sunday we went to downtown seattle 'cos my sis wanted to go borders to get her choral CDs. then my 2nd sister landed in seattle and we met her at her hotel. a starbucks venti hazelnut latte helped her with jet lag. haaa. then we drove to a winery called chateau ste. michelle and we went for a wine tour! complete with free wine tasting. after that we had time to kill before dinner, so we went to seattle art museum's olympic sculpture park to check out the sculptures and walk around the waterfront. =) dinner was at cheesecake factory. yummm. we did wait like 45 mins for a table.

so that was the weekend.

now for the first part of the week. monday. after my class, i came home for lunch before heading out to meet my eldest sis at the hotel to go to space needle. it was a beautiful clear day with amazing blue skies.

waiting to take the lift up the space needle.

the olympic mountains in the distance. they lie west of seattle.

reflection.

the waters that surround seattle. it's so blue.

downtown seattle, the safeco fields and mt. rainier. all representative of seattle. the day was so clear i could capture mt. rainier. =) my sisters brought the sunshine from singapore.

me and my eldest sis. =)

downtown seattle and the queen anne hill neighbourhood.

the eastern cascades, lying east of seattle. now that's why seattle gets so much rain. 'cos it's smacked right between 2 huge mountain ranges.

the sun was hot, according to my well-acclimatized body.

the beautiful rainier.

then my 2nd sis joined us at the needle after her lunch with microsoft people.

the needle from below.

after the needle, since it was such a beautiful day, and since my 2nd sis and i are huge grey's anatomy+derek shepherd fans, we decided to go sit the ferry boats! this is for mr. derek i-have-a-thing-for-ferryboats shepherd. =)

the port authority of seattle with the safeco fields. =)

downtown seattle, pike place, waterfront.

away from shore, on our way to bainbridge island.




ferryboat! =)

i'll leave till the next post for bainbridge island pics and the rest.

a lot of work to do!! and i'm getting excited about travelling, getting upset about leaving seattle.