Federal Way, Montesano, and Astoria

Eclipse Road Trip - August, 2017

Day 3 - August 16, 2017 (Wednesday)

We all slept in this morning and woke up to a beautiful day. AT/ET brought us to this buffet restaurant in Tukwila for lunch. This place kind of reminded me of Luxe in Ontario, not as good but close enough. A huge spread of food from sushi to desserts with lots of seafood offerings. The restaurants here in the greater Seattle area are getting better every time we visit.

Federal Way Community Center

AT/ET wanted to show us where they spend some of their time now that they are both retired from their work. The Community Center/Senior Center in Federal Way is one of those places where they enjoy occasional Korean senior lunches. This is a beautiful complex with many activities inside. I was totally impressed with the indoor swimming pool completed with water slides and floating stream. They even have a rock wall for those who are up to the challenge.

Rock Wall

Pacific Bonsai Museum, Federal Way

We have never been to this bonsai museum even though this is the #1 things to do in Federal Way on Tripadvisor. This is on the premises of the Weyerhaeuser Corporate Campus with wide open space. It was very quiet when we were there and the display was certainly impressive! No, bonsai is not a Japanese thing. It's a Chinese form of art originated in China and, like many other things, adopted by the Japanese and claimed it their own. There are many native miniature shrubs and trees that are from California and other states in the US. One unique feature is that they put some background pictures behind these bonsai to make it more dramatic. Worth to spend an hour or two here, especially it's free admission.

Entrance to the bonsai garden

Path leading back to the parking lot.

An empty parking lot.

World Vision International Headquarters, Federal Way

The headquarters of World Vision is not far from the Bonsai Museum so it was natural that we took a visit there on our way home. Both AT and ET retired from this non-profit organization and I worked at their Monrovia office in 1980 for a few months before switching professions, it was nice to come back for a short visit.

Main building

"Jesus Loves the Little Children"

There is a path behind the WV building that leads to Lake Killarney.

Lake Killarney

Beautiful!

It must be nice to be able to spend break time here, just a few minutes walk from the office.

After this, we went to the Super Mall (now called the Outlet Collection) and did some shopping before going home for the evening.

Day 4 - August 17, 2017 (Thursday)

Today our plan was to drive down to Montesano to visit AP and JP's new home. They have moved here from north of Seattle and settled here in this small town near Aberdeen. It was a long drive from Auburn but we were very excited to see them and the new baby whom we have not met before. We really did not want to disturb them that much but AP canceled one of his appointments with his clients to spend time with us that day. Bless his heart! 

What a nice spacious house! We are so happy for them!

A deck looking out to the swimming pool and huge backyard.

AP just finished mowing that big lawn.

Astoria, Oregon

One thing that I regret was that we were not going to Astoria on this trip since we will be going down Fwy 5 on our way to Albany for the eclipse before turning west to the coast. Now that we were in Montesano, which is about 80 miles from Astoria, I thought this could be a good time to drive down for our favorite fish and chips for lunch. AP/JP and the kids also joined us on this long drive down to Oregon. 

Oh mine, the long line at Bowpicker fish and chips. It took us a little over an hour standing in that line before we were able to get our hands on the delicious fish and chips.

Almost there!

Yay! It's our turn! We purchased 11 whole orders and boy, what a wonderful meal!

Still my favorite fish and chips! These huge chunks of delicious fried tuna made up for the long wait in line.

Unfortunately, it was windy and cold sitting outside that day, so our fish turned cold rather quickly.

After our late lunch, we went up to the column where the 'kids' had a great time flying their $1 planes from the top. Us 'old folks' just stayed down and enjoyed the magnificent view of Columbia River and the surrounding area. Parking is now $5 a year.

So much fun!

Saying 'goodbye' before we went our separate ways.

By the time we got back to Auburn, it was a little after 8:30 and we made it to the Vietnamese restaurant for a bowl of pho for dinner.

Los Angeles to Seattle

Eclipse Road Trip to Seattle-August 2017

Day 1- August 14, 2017 (Monday)

With the rare occasion of the total eclipse in Oregon, MOR decided that we should make our way up north to experience this once in a life-time spectacular. He also invited his sister and brother-in-law from Taiwan to join us on this adventure. This turned out to be a 2-week road trip with a drive up north through Freeway 5, spend a few days in Seattle visiting family members, then back down to watch the eclipse near Salem, Oregon. To avoid the expected heavy traffic after the eclipse, we would turn west to the Oregon coast and drive south back to L.A. visiting the beautiful coastal towns, Redwood National Park, San Francisco, and Monterey along Hwy 101.

With the five of us, we needed a bigger car than the RAV-4 in order to travel comfortably. After much search, we found the only place where we could get a good rate for a mini-van on the dates we wanted was out at the LAX Alamo. It was quite a long way from where we live to pick up the van but it all worked out at the end. We were very lucky to have rented an almost brand-new Chrysler Pacifica with only about 3,000 miles on it. With the unlimited mileage, we were ready to get on the road!

Chrysler Pacifica

We left the house at around 8:15, after picking up some donuts for breakfast, we were on our way to Corning. Traffic was not as bad as I have expected at that hour in the morning, possibly because the schools were still on summer vacation. We hit some traffic jam near Santa Clarita but eventually it was trouble-free from there on. Just so we could reach Corning in northern California for the night, we did not want to waste much time in between and only made a few stops for gas, lunch at a rest area, and bathroom breaks. With MOR, ChC, and I taking turns driving, we arrived at The Inn at Rolling Hills in Corning a little after 6pm. We have been here a few times and it was like coming home to a familiar place. After checking-in to our clean and spacious rooms, we went across the parking lot to the casino where we enjoyed a buffet prime-rib dinner. Too bad it wasn't a Tuesday or Thursday when they have senior nights for half price. We called it a day after dinner because we were all very tired.

Lobby, Inn at Rolling Hills.

Casino and restaurants on the other side of the parking lot.

Day 2 - August 15, 2017 (Tuesday)

After a huge complimentary buffet breakfast at the casino restaurant, we checked out at around 9:00 am and ready for our long drive up to Seattle. The gas station right next to the hotel made it convenient to fill up our gas tank before the long drive. 

Sundial Bridge, Redding

We have drove through this area many times up and down Fwy 5 and even stayed in Redding a couple of times but we have never visited the Sundial Bridge. I should say we have never heard of such place until recently when we saw it on a TV commercial and then a trip report in the Chinese newspaper. The author did not mention where it is located so I googled it and found that it's actually in Redding. It's not far from Fwy 5 so we decided to go there and check it out. It was right near the city hall area with plenty of parking. I suppose they called it Turtle Bay. We spent less than an hour there but really enjoyed our visit at this unusual bridge. Free admission unless you go into the Museum/Aquarium area.

Sign at the park entrance

Nicely kept

The building that holds many activities.

Sundial Bridge

This is a glass bottom pedestrian bridge.

I wish the glass was a little clearer so we could look down at the river.

Across the Sacramento River.

Hiking trails on the other side of the bridge.

Quite a few tourists/visitors on this day but not crowded.

Mt. Shasta

After Redding, the scenic drive begins as we drove through Shasta Lake and Mt. Shasta. We did not make any stop at the Lake, which was quite beautiful, because we had to watch our time. We managed to stop for a photo op of Mt. Shasta at a roadside view point which was quite incredible.

Mt. Shasta 

Some interesting information imprinted on the cement walkway at the view point.

View of Mt. Shasta as we continued our drive north. Soon we would be in Oregon.

At one of the rest stops in Oregon. Real nice park-like place.

There is no sales tax in Oregon, so we made it a point to stop at the Costco in Roseburg where we got some gas and did some big item purchases. We also checked out the rest area (Santiam River Rest Area) between Albany and Salem where we planned on coming back to spend the night before the day of the eclipse. All the hotel rooms were booked solid for miles around for that one night. This seemed to be an ideal place to be but not sure how crowded it would get. We also had back-up plans if this doesn't work out, like the parking lot at Wal-mart in Albany. We'll see how it goes.

By the time we reached Portland, Oregon it was getting dark and traffic was horrible even at 7:00 pm.

We were stuck in traffic and inching along until we crossed the bridge into Washington state.

Portland, Oregon

Still stuck in traffic.

It was a little after 9:00 pm when we reached AT/ET's house in Auburn that evening. ET graciously made dinner and waiting for our arrival. It was so nice to have a hot meal after a long day on the road! Of course, the best part was getting together with people we love, at least for a few days.