... so good to catch up with an old friend in Vancouver

Vancouver was the final port of call for the cruise and we decided to stay a couple of days to explore the city but mainly to catch up with Walter Chiu. Walter is a business partner turned friend. He was IFS's distributor in Taiwan and we became good friends together with Jackson and Jeff.

It is so gratifying to know that one can do business but still make friends with the people you deal with. You don't have to be successful by making use of people and making enemies. 

.. so good to knock another item off the bucket list

We finally ticked off the Alaska cruise. Connie has been wanting to do this for the longest time (even before our first cruise). So we travelled to Anchorage (via Seattle), went to Mt McKinley lodge and finally board the Coral Princess to view the glaciers. Too many good shots to show here ... (can view the whole trip by the PhotoBook). Here are just some of the highlights.

We are also saw lots of wild life on the trip

... so good to visit the Pike Place Markets again

In Dec 2006 Kenneth, Connie and I went to Seattle so that Kenneth could take part in the US Junior Open championship and to meet the coaches from the different colleges in US with the hope of entering one of them. It was a memorable trip as the area was hit by one of the worse storms in the history of the city.

Almost the entire city was down with power outages ... traffic lights were not working, there was not heating in the hotel and they had to give out food from the freezer before the food went bad. Even the gas stations were not working as the gas pumps could not operate. The tournament had to change location as the original squash center did not have power to light up the courts. So most of the matches were played at the Seattle Athletic Center right next to the Pike Place Markets.

Fortunately, this second visit is under much better conditions. There is so much history and stories around the markets; best to do a tour to know it all but here are some highlights - the original Starbuck coffee shop with the long queue of tourists trying to get in. The locals  knows better.

Check out the original logo which is quite different from the current one.

Of course, we cannot miss the most photographed sign in Seattle.

Seattle also supports a very artistic environment, so even the streets are full of art works around the markets. Here are a couple of them - laundry line and drainage pipes!

... so many interesting places to see in Seattle

But we had to decide and we chose the Space Needle and Pike Place market.

Built in 1962, the Space Needle has since become the symbol of Seattle, and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The view of the city from on top was amazing. 

View from the top 

Next to the Space Needle was the Chihuly Garden that displayed blown glass flowers by Dale Chihuly but we decided that it was not worth the entry fee and like cheap Singaporeans we took photos from outside.

.. so good to visit Snoqualmie again

Back in Dec 1993, we spend a week around Christmas in Seattle whilst I was training at FourGen. I worked in the day and the evening we would drive To Snoqualmie to ski. First time that Kenneth skied.

So it was amazing to see Snoqualmie this time in summer. Looks of lovely flowers and Snoqualmie Falls was amazing. The falls are higher than the Niagara Falls though it is not as wide. It also generates lots of hydro power for the state of Washington.

On the way to the falls, we visited a chocolate factory. The chocolates were really yummy but we could not buy any as they are fresh chocolates with no preservatives and would not last our trip.

On this tour, we also visited a couple of wineries and did wine tasting at the Chateau St Michelle. Had lunch at the Columbia winery with a glass of their merlot. It was a lovely day of sunshine, great nature and wine!

... so good to be off ticking off another item from bucket list

We are in Narita airport on the way to Seattle, Anchorage - Alaksa for the Alaska cruise. This has been on Connie's want-to-do for a long while. So when we found that she had 2 weeks that she could take leave and a suitable cruise was available - we jumped at the chance. The flights and cruise were expensive but we guess it was better now then never.

We had originally planned to spend a few days with Yew Kong and Tiak Cher in Seattle but they will be away in Ireland to visit Victor. We should have asked before we decided. We just have to spend some time on our own in Seattle - lots to do anyway; Factory Outlet, Space Needle, Pike Place market ....

We had just 2 hours there but Connie managed to do some shopping ... bought moochi for snack!

... so good to continue to remember father's death anniversary

We continue to meet on father's death anniversary. Hopefully this will become another family tradition that would be continue in years to come. 

Jon came back for the dinner late from office as he had to work but we are hoping that he get the message that we want to remember our loved ones even after they are gone.