east glacier national park (8th Oct)

woke up pretty early...somewhere in the middle of the night it turned colder... coz my socks clad feet were feeling a wee bit numb with cold. hahaha.... today we'll be heading to the east side of Glacier National Park.
Upon looking out the windows from our 'chalet - Two Bears', seemed that the rain had stopped! And we can finally get to see some scenery outside our 'chalet'. That's a plus point. I mean having no rain is really really a plus point coz its really horrible when it rains. U can't get good pictures and moving around is difficult etc.

Scenery outside the chalet we stayed

morning misty mountains

The cottage we stayed in

Cottages

Morning dew on pine needle

After washing up, taking our breakfast and preparing our lunch, we were all good to go. However, we must definitely take some pictures before we head off to the National Park. hee hee.....Coz the scenery is just too nice to give it a miss....Then its time to head into the national park. My sister thought it would be good to drive to Apgar's Visitor Center in the West Glacier. Coz its the only visitor center in the National Park that was still open in that season. So that's the 1st place where we head to. The ranger there told us about the weather conditions and also where exactly the roads are closed and where would we probably have sightings of bear! hahaha.... i guess being able to see wild life in national park is a plus plus point.... and exciting also. As for the road closures... they were expected.... coz my sister and I tried to do up some checkings of road closure in the National Parks, prior to coming to US. So instead of being able to take the well-known 'Going to the Sun road', we had to take the super long road hat goes around the National Park. Coz we were heading to 'Two Medicine', Saint Mary, 'Logan Pass' and if possible 'Many Glaciers'. It was a super long drive... coz it took us about 2.5hrs to 3hr to reach 'Logan Pass'. And its at Logan Pass that we'll have to stop and 'U' turn back.

The road to Two Medicine

Lower Two Medicine Lake

Mountains covered with snow 

My sister drove today (it she will be driving all the remaining 7 days). Along the way, when we see fantastic scenery, we'll stopped and take pictures or well get down to use the toilets. I must say.... in the mornings... could be due to the morning mist and fog, the scenery was beautiful but as the day goes on, the sun comes out... the scenery becomes even more fantastic. For those photographer enthusiasts and artists, they can take superb pictures or paint superb art pieces here! It just really really wonderful.

Entrance to East Glacier National Park

trying to be innovative

As we passed Saint Mary and continue driving up to 'Logan Pass' we saw snow along the way. And as we head up higher, there was more snow until the scenery changed from green, yellow colour to completely white. At Logan Pass, the snow was really really thick and it was snowing... when the wind blows, u just want to hide. Hahaha... coz the snow keeps getting into your face and land on your camera lens and that can be pretty irritating at times.

straight road to Saint Mary

scenery changed to mountains & the lake

Family photo

Saint Mary Lake

Logan Pass. U know that the Glacier National Park is shared between the USA & Canada? Well if you go further north, u'll hit Canada 

That's me at Logan Pass

Misty mountains

Looking down at the valley

After trying to wait for awhile for the sun to appear and shine on the tops of the mountains on the opposite side, we gave up waiting... coz the winds were just too strong. We left Logan Pass and head to Saint Mary instead. And hike a little to view the Saint Mary falls. It was about 1mile from the carpark to the falls.

scenery we see as we left Logan Pass

Scenery seen at Saint Mary falls

Saint Mary Falls (it a pretty small waterfall)

flowing downstream

After viewing the falls, we decided to leave the National Park and head to Greatfalls, the next town that we'll be staying for the night before we head to another town before entering Yellowstone National Park. Coz it was going to be a long long drive to Geatfalls. And we were also worried about our accomodation. Coz we did not check out what were the available accomodation the night before. And my sister said, worse come to worse, we'll stay in 'Super 8' one of the cheapest sort of motel/hotel.

blue lake, snow-capped mountains

Chains of mountains along our way, bidding us 'goodbye' as we left the national park

Bye bye!

And 'Hello' yellow flat plains & straight road

the moon has emerged @ 5pm (Montana Time)

So when we reached Greatfalls, it was already nightfall. Coz when its autumn, the night comes much earlier. And we relied on the GPS to search for accomodation. and we decided to stay in "super 8'. Luckily, there were still rooms available. We got 1 room with 2 Queen Sized beds. Put down our stuffs and head out to look for food. Coz there was no kitchentte. So we'll need to eat out today.

We wanted to eat at 'Applebee' that night. However, there were so many people waiting to be seated. I doubt we can get a table within that hour (coz there were close to 20 people waiting to be seated). Hence we decided to drive around and just could not decide what and where we were going to eat. In the end we found ourselves in the downtown area. We saw a diner 'Tracey's Diner' and decided that we'll just eat there. I must say that the food is not bad.... me & my dad ordered the beef. The beef was over-cooked... otherwise it would have been a perfect meal. hahaha..... the ambiance as pretty good. Coz stepping inside, gave me a sort of feeling that I've stepped into the 1960s era shown in the movie "Back to the Future' sort. Even had a juke box at a corner.

Turkey Noodle soup

my very over cooked & dried steak & mashed potato

After dinner, we went to the Ross outlet that was just beside our hotel. However, there nothing that we were interested in buying. Hence headed back to the hotel, however, we wanted to get somemore stuffs.... so we drove out of the town area to a Walmart that was next to a oil refinery. Wah i must say the air was super smelly due to the refinery. But we managed to get the supplies we wanted then headed back to the hotel to crash out. Tomorrow will be an interesting day for us! Just can't wait!!! =D

going eastwards to Glacier National Park (7th Oct)

Yay! today is the start of our adventures to visit 1st of the 3 National Parks on our itinary. Today after checking out from the apartment which we've been staying for the past 7 days, we drove to Marriott to leave our huge baggage whilst we each carry a small backpack. we reached the airport pretty well on time.... but because we thought we were still early... we sat around and drank coffee before we checked in. Because we did not have any baggage to check in, we got our boarding passes pretty easily... only thing was... we had to head to the boarding gate to get our seats.

By the way, we'll be taking Alaskan Airlines to Kalispell, Montana. My sister had sort of planned out the route... I was just a passenger/tourist here to enjoy. Coz prior to coming for this 2 wks trip, I was really busy with my Soka Activities and also pretty nervous about the conference and super busy with my work.

Anyway back to the airport, when we were at the boarding gate, we were the last 4 passengers who have yet to get our seats! oops... seems like we were pretty slow huh.... The plane we took was 1 that was operating on propellers! Yup! not joking... this is a 1st for me. And we'll be on board that plane for 2hrs. (in fact on the air ticket its 3 hrs as Montana is 1 hr ahead of Seattle.) The airlines was Horizon Airlines (think its the sister company of Alaskan Airlines).

Horizon Airlines (the plane that we were going to board)

Seattle Airport taken as we took off

I must say that I'm pretty impressed. Hahaha... the plane was pretty stable. Like most budget airlines, they also serve some drinks and snacks on board. but the ventilation was bad... really bad.... coz think 1 of the passenger in front of us farted twice.... and we smelt it. it was really bad....  soon... we arrived in Kelispell.

Kelispell, Montana from the skies

but it was raining and it was raining rather heavily. Kelispell was much much colder than Seattle. As in the temperature then was about 10 degrees Celsius. But the face that it was raining.... makes the temperature even much colder... coz once u get wet, u feel colder. After we got a car (Ford car) and drove to the city center of Kelispell. Needed to get out supplies coz we're intending to get Motels with kitchenett so that we can do some cooking for our daily dinner.

Luckily my sister brought a GPS, hence we were able to find our way around the town. After getting our groceries, we drove to West Glacier. We wanted to try our luck in viewing some of the sights in West Glacier. Coz we do know that parts of the road "going to the Sun' road was already closed. at least from the gateway of West Glacier, we were able to drive another 16 miles before we had to U turn back. Along the way, we saw some fantastic scenery. The only super down side was it was raining rather heavily. However, my sister and me will get down the car to take photos despite the rain.

Entrance of Glacier National Park

yellow & green trees dripping with rain water

mini waterfalls

After we reached the 'close off' point, we turn back and head to the town 'West Glacier' to our 'chalet' at the 'Great Northern Whitewater Resort'. The owner was out but she left us a note and the key to the resort that we were staying in. I must say that the 'chalet' we had was amazing. it had a fireplace (but it was fake wood but real fire) and the heat given off by the fire produce the heat coming from the heater and also warm up the entire 'chalet'. In fact the chalet allow up to 6 occupancy (coz there was also a sofa bed). Too bad my brothers were not here with us.

my dad & sister trying to get warm at the fireplace

In the midst of preparing for dinner, the owner, Victoria, came and check if we've managed to find our 'chalet'. She came and talked to us. Really nice. Coz i guess she is worried that we may not have made it to the resort. After talking to her for a short while, she left and we tuck into our dinner (cooked by my mum). After that we call off the day. Coz we could not do much that night as there were no shopping places for us to visit coz we were a little far from the town center and it was still raining. Really hoping that tomorrow the weather will be great. Coz we've still so many things to see and explore in Glacier National Park.

last day in Seattle (6th Oct 2011)

Today is also the last day of the conference I'm attending. For the past 4 days.... it had been juz amazing... i mean I learnt a lot from the numerous talks i attended and also the posters that I viewed and people whom i interacted with. I must say that uTAS is a conference that is more for the academic rather than those from the commercial companies or world. However, I must say that most of the professors, are also trying to steer their research into an ultimate application. Anyway I will not delve much about the contents of the conference... Coz not many people will understand the contents of the conference unless they are in the same area of specialization as me (hahaha.... working or researching into the microfluidics arena). But as what the chairperson said "we must have learnt a lot and benefitted alot from this conference. So now we got to return to our respective countries and start and try our new stuffs". This i totally agree.... hahaha.... Coz i'm also waiting to head home and try out new things.

Seattle Convention Center (where I spend the past 4 days of my 8am-5.30pm at)

uTAS 2011 banner

After the conference ended at 1230hrs, I met my parents and sister and head down to Pike Place market to try the best Clam Chowder. This is very well known in Seattle (perhaps world wide too). But my sister and parents had tried that on 1 of the days that I was attending the conference. I had the traditional New England Clam Chowder. I must say that it is very very tasty. Really nice. Pipping hot. Really good in cold weather. hahaha.... and they also serve us sour dough bread with the chowder.

Paramount Theater, Seattle

Electric Tram

Pike Place Market

Traditional New England Clam Chowder

If u do visit Seattle, take a stroll down to Pike Place market and look for Post Alley. The shop with lots of people eating outside the shop should be the Pike Place Chowder. If you can't find, you can look for it at: 1530 Post Alley, Seattle WA 98101.

Pike Place Chowder

After tasting the chowder, we walked futher down and saw the famous seafood stall, whose vendor sings and throws fish (the fish that the customers had chosen to buy). I know about this stall when I entered my company and they showed us this video... wanting us to learn the unity spirit. hahaha... its good that I can see the real shop and action with my eyes. Coz its really what was shown in the video.... and their actions are really fast.... =D

Pike Place Fish Company

Rows of Fresh Alaskan Crabs (they are really unbelievably tasty. Coz I got to try them when my mum bought it a couple days ago from another stall)

A couple buying peppers. This was a stall that had strings of colourful peppers on sale

Then as u walked down post alley... u'll be able to come across a very very interesting wall.... before u reach the wall.... u'll be able to smell some sort of bubble gum smell mixed with some sourish smell... hahaha... its the world's one and only 'Bubble Gum Wall'!

Bubble Gum Wall

Close up view of an 'artistic gum art'

I mean u'll be shocked at the amount of bubble gum that people had stuck to the wall. The wall was 'prettily' decorated with different colours and sorts and flavours of bubble gum. Its interesting... but at the same time its the worst unhygienic place in Seattle. hahaha. =P

We saw some people protesting something as we were walking back to our apartment. Not really sure what they were protesting I tried to zoom into the words written on the cardboard cards the people were holding. Think they were sort of asking drivers to horn their vehicles? Or something along the line of 'its ok to horn'. check out the picture attached.

People protesting 

after walking around, we headed back to our apartment to collect the car and drove to visit the Seattle Soka Cultural Center. The Soka Cultural Center was situated pretty near to Sea Tac airport. We managed to find it easily. Shaunn, the Kaikan staff was really friendly and warm. She showed us the whole center. And we also got to meet 1 of the part-time staff, Pabolo.

Seattle Soka Cultural Center

us & Shaunn

After the visit, we left and headed to a beach.... that was overlooking the Seattle city. hahaha... so we can catch a glimpse of the Seattle city skyline and also the Seattle Space Needle. (Coz I was not able to visit the Space Needle which is the icon of Seattle). It was pretty nice.... and windy... but also cloudy....

Seattle Skyline (the famous Seattle Space Needle)

After that we headed back to our apartment and did some packing up. Coz tomorrow we'll be starting our National Parks Adventure. And we'll be bringing a small backpack each and the bulk of the luggage will be left in the hotel which we'll be staying when we return to Seattle on 13th Oct.

salmon days!! (2nd Oct)

Today is fine weather! good! Coz its not often that you get to experience good and fine weather in Seattle.... Coz from autumn to winter, Seattle will experience rains. And they will have rains for 10months.... really surprising... =D

Anyway today we'll be trying out some good ole American Breakfast. And we'll be having breakfast at one of the famous eatery in Seattle 'Coastal Kitchen'. 429 15th Avenue E, Seattle, WA 98112

Coastal Kitchen

When u enter the eatery... it sort of give u a good feeling... and the kitchen is an open concept. Meaning that u can see what chefs cooking. 

Interior of the eatery

And we were pretty silly... hahaha... we did not know that we gotta wait for someone to seat us. When we enter, we head to an empty table... and the waitress came and told us that in future we should wait for the waitress to show us to a table. 

Mum and Dad 

My sister happened to check out what are the good food and places to visit in Seattle. And she chance across this eatery and also we'll be heading to Issaquah to view the Salmon Days carnival. This only happen once a year.

Anyway back to the breakfast... if u happen to visit Seattle, do check this eatery out. Coz I must say... the breakfast serving is really huge and they tasted fantastic. My parents, sister and me ordered 3 servings to share. Coz we can't really finish 4 servings. They start serving breakfast from 8am - 3pm daily. If u can't make it for the breakfast, you can always try out the lunch or dinner. But we only went there to try out the breakfast as they are pretty well-known for their pancakes! =D

I must say the pancakes were great! pretty different from the usual pancakes that we eat at MacDonals or those pre-heat frozen pancakes. Just different. Very good! Do try it out for yourself. =D

1st platter of breakfast

2nd platter of Breakfast

3rd Platter of Breakfast (Scrambled eggs, hambuger & pancakes with orange syrup)

After breakfast, we headed to Issaquah. Coz that is where the Salmon Days Carnival was taking place. Apparently Salmon Days is the annual celebration of returning salmon to the lakes, streams and downtown hatchery with a weekend of non-stop free activities. The Festival includes a Grande Parade, a marketplace of more than 250 artists, Foods of the World, the Field of Fun and five stages of live entertainment. The hatchery offers exhibits with knowledgeable docents. Apparently, this festival had taken place for 42years! =D

Welcome to Issaquah

Lots of people at the Salmon Days Carnival

Boxes of smoked salmon for sale

Hand crafted blown coloured glasses on sale

There was really a lot of people. Majority are families there to enjoy the run and the food and the fan fare. and to try and catch a glimpse of the salmons trying to make the jump over the 'wall' swim against the currents to lay their eggs. However, the 'poor' salmons were sort of being trapped in the river basin with a dam like structure (which is the mock wall that they were trying to jump over). 

Some wonderful art pieces on sale

An artist drawing on sweatshirts

People bringing the 'monster' fake salmon

the susposed 'wall' that the salmon need to jump across to try and swim up to alaska

Salmon swimming in the river

After that sunday, the people were going to sort of 'keep' the fish in a save enclosure to allow them to breed. We also got to see the different kinds of salmon and I must say that there are some breeds, they do not resemble salmon species... but rather they seem to me like shark.... but they belong to the salmon family. There was also a tiny museum that show case the life cycle of the salmon. The salmon are really really huge... i never expected them to be so humongous. 

1 of the monster salmon

me & one of the monster salmon

After spending time at the carnival, we headed back to Seattle. As i had to make it for the registration for the uTAS conference. I only went for the registration then after that I met my family for dinner. It as raining pretty heavily when we head out for dinner.... we had to brace the rain and wind... hiaz... the good weather of Seattle did not last for long.
We had a hard time looking for a restaurant for dinner. anyway finally we decided to have our dinner at Virginia Inn. Its situated at 1st Ave, Seattle WA 98101. The food was ok. I had fish and chips, whilst my sister had ribs. Dad had seafood rice and mum had a bit from all of us. hahaha... we can't really finish all 4 servings so we just ordered 3 and share.


After dinner, we headed to Pike place market. But because it was already evening and it was a sunday... so all the shops were all closed. Except for the 1st Starbucks Coffee outlet. Well it was not very amazing nor something unexpected. Instead it was just an ordinary coffee shop that sell some products. 

Pike Place market

Hardrock Cafe Seattle

After walking around, we headed back to our apartment and i crashed. Coz tomorrow is the 1st day of the conference. I've no idea what to expect. But one things for sure, I'm here to learn and absorb. =D

visiting the outlets in Seattle (1st Oct 2011)

Woke up at 4.45am (Seatttle Time). I could not sleep well. Coz I was pretty worried about my lost luggage. anyway after doing my daily prayers, i called the Alaskan Airlines and told them the change of my address. The lady told me that she would tell the delivery guy and the lost luggage will reach me around 10am-1pm today. After the call, I felt more relieved... coz my baggage is here is Seattle and its going to reach me soon! Hence went back to sleep (Coz somehow I felt I still have some jet-lag) and slept until around 9am.

Finally we woke up and left our apartment at around 11am for the outlet. It was about 1hrs drive away from the Seattle city center. If you want to visit the outlets... and I feel you gotta if you rent a car. Coz the shopping over there is just wonderful. Prices are being slashed at unbelievable prices.... Anyway, the shopping outlet is known as "Seattle Premium Outlet" its situated at Tulalip. Address: 10600 Quil Ceda Blvb. Tulalip, WA 98271. There are about 110 stores in the outlet. We went a little 'crazy'. Coz its just shopping and more shopping. You can check out its site: http://www.premiumoutlets.com 


I did not take any pictures as I still have not purchase any batteries for my camera. But u can check out the site that I've pasted above.


I also got to taste the most fantastic milk shake of all times! It was not cheap... But I guess its common for milk shakes to cost that price (USD 3.75) but the portion was really huge. My parents had an ice-cream cone (the ice-cream portion was also really huge). We left the place around 8.30pm. Goodness! We spent the entire day at the outlet! Then its onward to grocery shopping. Coz we need to get groceries (like water, fruits etc). visited the nearby Walmart. Luckily we did that. Coz I think I had some lactose intolerance. Must be the milkshake had too much milk and my stomach could not take it. I visited the toilet about 3 times. (Urgh) I finally got my batteries. Tomorrow onwards, I'll be able to take photos and show u some of the things happening over here. =D


Finally after the grocery shopping, we headed back to our service apartment. Finally I get to see my bag! I've got my stuff back. Pretty happy about it. After some simple food, we crashed. 


Till tomorrow! =D

Unexpected experience in Seattle (1st day - 30th Sept)

I've juz managed to get my luggage... after it had been missing for more than 24hrs (well in fact it was missing for about 14hrs). It was a little nightmare ever since i board the SQ flight bound for Los Angles (LA). It was not a good start of my conference cum leisure trip.

As you have gotten to know, I left s'pore on 30th Sept for Seattle for the conference that I'll be attending on 3rd Oct - 6th Oct (2nd Oct is registration). Once all the passengers were on board the SQ flight, the captain announced that there was some electronic technical faults with the aircraft and we gotta get off and board another aircraft. Hence we were all delayed for 3hrs! Totally horrendous.... coz there were quite a number of passengers who were rushing for our connecting flights when we touched down in LA. I was one of them. Luckily I had about 3hrs for getting onto my connecting flight on Alaskan Airlines. However, with the 3hrs delay... I was really skeptical if I'll be able to make it for the flight.

Anyway, for that 6hrs to Tokyo, there were 4 babies in our segment and 2 of them were screaming their heads off for the entire 6hrs. Could not get any peace. I don't understand why the babies parents did not try and do something to placate the babies. Or maybe they did but why did they not try other methods? It was totally horrible. Luckily, that family got off in Tokyo. Then it was another 10++ hours to LA. I managed to catch some sleep and switch my body clock to US (west coast) timing.

Finally reached LA and I had to run..... (2nd time running in the airport trying to catch the next flight) to the customs, get myself cleared, so i can pick up my baggage go through the customs and run to terminal 3 (international flights are in Terminal B) to catch my next flight to Seattle. I had practically 1.5hrs to get everything done. Its really worrying... coz I've heard of news that the US customs are really strict and they take really long to clear us. But because our flight was delayed, we had the privileged to get an orange express card. and get onto express lanes and customs etc. but..... it was quite a joke... coz the 'express lanes' was not that 'express'. Coz only 1 lane was opened - there was only custom officer. It was only much later that more lanes were opened. I happened to talk to 2 'uncles' whilst waiting for our turns.... and apparently we were all trying to meet our connecting flights... but they were in more difficulty coz 1 of them, his plane flew off whilst we were waiting whilst the other still had another 14min. and I had about 1 hr 5 min before the plane flew off. soon it was our turn.... and i cleared the customs pretty easily... the next was the custom checks of our baggage. Luckily... i had nothing to declare... so i went through the customs very easily.... and entered another hall where those pple who were trying to catch the connecting flights had to head to. One of the airport staff called me over and asked me for my flight and gave me the directions and instructions to run to the terminal to get my boarding pass whilst she helped me to bring my baggage to the airlines and put it up the plane.

Managed to find my way to terminal 3 (luckily it was pretty nearby) and waited for the plane. soon i was in the air (on board alaskan airlines - it was pretty much the same as the usual budget airlines. But it was my 1st time on this particular airlines) and reach Seattle Tacoma airport 2hr 30min later. I was really surprised that there were very few checked in bags from the plane. I was even more surprised when I do not see my luggage at all! I went to the airlines and reported my missing baggage. Was really irritated.... coz nothing has been going right for that entire day. Thinking about not being able to have clean clothes and soap for washing up really is a disgusting thought. But the airlines staff assured me that I would be able to get my bag by tomorrow morning.

Anyway I had to wait another 1 hr for my parents and sister to arrive on Eva Airlines. After that we took the shuttle service (Seattle Airport express) to our service apartment. And I must say.... another terrible blunder.... coz i did not read the instructions from the person whom i made the reservation with. Coz instead of giving the driver the service apartment address... i gave him the office address of the people whom i made the reservation. Hiaz! really terrible! hence, instead of 15-20min to get from the airport to the service apartment, we took about 1hr to reach there.

When we reached the apartment, Doug, one of the owners of the service apartment 'Seattle Suites', was there to show us the apartment and also some information. The only nice thing that day was the apartment. It look pretty grand! Anyway, I must say that I am pretty lucky that my parents and sister came with me. Coz they lent me their clothes for that night and the bathing stuffs, the apartment had some.

Anyway, after washing up, I crashed into bed. I had to wake up at 5am to call Alaskan Airlines as I've got to give them the address of my service apartment to send my baggage to. (Coz previously I gave them the address of the office)

(sorry no pics for this entry as my re-chargeable batteries did not have any energy. Apparently they were spoilt! Totally terrible start off of my conference trip. Juz hopping that it will get better as the days pass)