We had reservations for the Space Needle at 12 p.m., so we picked up lunch from Fresh Off the Boat Poke Bar on the way.
We ordered two large poke bowls, which ended up being plenty for the four of us. I like how poke bowls are so aesthetically pleasing.
We were the first ones there and no one else was in line, but the service was quite efficient to the point of being curt. As you can see, there are a lot of ingredients and toppings to choose from.
How hilarious is this choice of toilet paper in the restaurant’s bathroom? Someone actually busted out a label maker! I had to take a picture to share (after I washed my hands, of course).
We took our poke bowls to go and ate them on a bench near the Space Needle. We all agreed they were one of the best poke bowls we have consumed. The ingredients were fresh, the bowls were packed, and the flavors were on point.
Seattle Space Needle
Going to the top of the Space Needle is one of the activities D and I skipped when we visited pre-kids. I think we thought it was too pricey at the time. Looking back, I am glad that we were able to experience the Space Needle for the first time with our kids.
For this trip, we purchased City Passes, which includes admission to five different Seattle attractions. City Passes are available in several big cities, and their purpose is to save you money and time. In our case, there were no lines at any of the attractions we visited. However, I can see how having a City Pass would be helpful when it is crowded.
Once we reached the top, we were greeted with amazing 360 degree views of Seattle. It was a clear day, so there was excellent visibility.
There was a nice indoor seating area where we rested our legs and enjoyed the air conditioning. We also took advantage of the water-filling station to replenish our water bottles.
After you are done looking around the top floor, go down a flight of stairs to experience the revolving glass floor. As someone who experiences motion sickness, I could only stay for a little while before feeling dizzy.
This is also the floor where you catch the elevator down.
k wanted to see how far she could keep one foot on each side of the revolving floor.
The City Pass actually allowed us to visit the Space Needles twice in one day. The ticket said that the second trip should be after 6:00 p.m., but the ticket office said the second visit could be at any time that day since it was not crowded. Although it would have been nice to go up to the top during sunset, it would have been too late for us (since the sun did not set until around 9 p.m.!) Therefore, we made our return visit after completing our other stops for the day.
We had many places on our agenda for our first full day in Seattle. Our first stop was Top Pot Doughnuts.
This mini chain has several locations throughout Seattle. Unfortunately, the locations by our hotel were closed (I assume due to COVID) so we had to walk further to their flagship cafe on 5th Street.
I immediately felt welcomed by the library atmosphere courtesy of the floor to ceiling bookshelves.
The cafe did not allow dine-in customers, but I imagine this would be a lovely place to sit and enjoy a coffee and donut.
We ended up ordering a coffee for D and half a dozen donuts. Our intention was to buy four, but the cashier persuaded us to buy six since it was a better deal. (We were easily convinced). We ended up saving two for snacking later in the day. It was a tough decision, but we settled on a lemon, raspberry, maple bar, cookies and cream, apple fritter and a Boston Cream.
The next stop on our itinerary was The Spheres, which is a unique Amazon office space. Isn’t it a head-turner? It is located super close to Top Pot, so we ate our donuts on one of the outside benches. I assume not many people are back in the office, as it was pretty deserted for a weekday morning. How amazing would it be to work here?
The donuts were quite tasty, including this large apple fritter. My favorite was the Boston Cream, although we agreed it had a little too much chocolate on top (didn’t know that was possible!).
I would have loved to take a tour of the inside of The Spheres, but it was closed when we were there. From the outside, we could see that the inside is filled with tons of plants. It reminded me of a life-size terrarium.
Amazon just recently started up free public tours of The Spheres again on the first and third Saturdays of the month. Online reservations are available here.
There is also a cool little outdoor space to enjoy. I think one of the security guards had his eye on us, but we just snapped a few photos and did not cause any trouble.
Even though I did not plan this pairing of eating donuts and visiting The Spheres, it worked out well. It was nice to be able to rest our legs, as we had a full day of sightseeing still ahead of us.
After we checked into our hotel, we did an initial visit to Pike Place Market. I plan on writing one long post to combine all of our visits to this Seattle landmark (3 in total!). We walked back to our hotel and rested for an hour. D had reserved four $10 tickets for us to watch the Seattle Mariners play the Oakland A’s at T-Mobile Park for our first night.
Pre-Game Dinner At Paseo
The game started at 7:10, so I had us grab dinner beforehand at Paseo. Our walk ended up being longer than I had anticipated, and the weather was unusually warm for Seattle that day (mid to upper 80’s!).
We were able to find seating in their outside patio. It took a while for our food to be ready, but we had just eaten at Pike Place, so we were not that hungry. Our order consisted of two Paseo Caribbean Roast Sandwiches, one order of Famous Roasted Corn, and one order of Caribbean Fries. Their sandwiches have been voted one of the best in the country, so I was eager to try them. Here is their description:
The Paseo Caribbean Roast is a legendary & beloved Seattle sandwich. Bursting with intense flavors, the Caribbean Roast harmonizes juicy slow roasted pulled pork, garlic aioli, fresh cilantro, crisp romaine, pickled jalapeños, & caramelized onions.
It was, indeed, a delicious sandwich. Unfortunately, we were not hungry enough to fully appreciate it. I think the roasted corn was the best I have ever had, and the garlic aioli served with the fries was excellent. It was worth the walk!
Seattle Mariners Baseball Game
After dinner, we backtracked to the baseball stadium. Good thing we did not have to pay for parking! I think that attending a baseball game is a good way to get a feel of the local atmosphere.
I did not think that we would make it in time to receive the freebie they were handing out to the first 5,000 fans–PJ pants. However, we lucked out and they still had some left. Too bad they were all size XL! I’ll have to figure out how to do some tailoring.
n couldn’t wait to try them on. D and I also showed a picture of our vaccination card and received a free SEA Us Rise t-shirt (modeled here by D and n).
Our seats in right field were up high, but perfect for viewing the sun set over the Seattle skyline. I would recommend seats in right field just for that view. There was a lot of space between fans, which was nice.
Even though I was not familiar with any of the players, the game was pretty high-scoring and exciting.
It was still light out at 9 p.m.! We ended up leaving after the 7th inning stretch after the A’s went on a run streak (Mariners lost).
We went to sleep way past our usual bedtime, but it was fun to be out on the town for one night.
Now we have night clothes to remind us of our time in Seattle. Thank you, Mariners!
We originally planned a family trip to Seattle in March 2020. Unfortunately, we had to cancel (for obvious reasons) but we re-booked and went last week. D and I had visited the Emerald City once before, pre-kids. It was fun to introduce the kids to the sights we had been to and experience new ones as well. I did my usual thorough travel-planning and we had a packed 6 days/5 nights. If you are considering a visit to Seattle, I highly recommend it!
Flying Alaska Airlines During Covid
I know some people are still weary about air travel right now, but I felt comfortable. We brought sanitizing wipes for the airplane seats and sprayed our hands with hand sanitizer often. All of our fellow passengers dutifully wore their masks, and the flight attendants reminded people to cover their noses.
I thought everything was going smoothly and our plane would take off on time. However, after waiting on the runway for a while, the pilot made an announcement that we had to turn around and go back to our gate. Our plane had been re-routed due to heavy air traffic so we needed a fill-up of more than 1,000 pounds of additional fuel! The whole process delayed us by about an hour. I felt sorry for the passengers who had a connecting flight.
We flew on Alaska Airlines and this was our snack.
k noted that the message on the napkin made a lot more sense than the message on the pamphlet (haha).
The snack mix on our way home included plane-shaped pretzels. Cute, right?
Seattle Light Rail
Instead of renting a car, we relied on public transportation and walking. Lots of walking.
Seattle’s light rail system took us straight from SEA-TAC airport to a block away from our hotel.
The Courtyard by Marriott Seattle Downtown/Pioneer Square proved to be an excellent home base for our exploration of the city. I really appreciated being able to walk to many attractions and that the light rail station was so close by. Shout out to Raul, who was at the front desk and checked us in. His enthusiastic love for the city was quite evident and welcoming.
I am not sure if it is because we had a corner unit, but our room was larger than I expected.
One thing that we were not prepared for during this Covid time was that housekeeping needed to be requested. D was able to do this easily by texting the front desk through the Marriott app. (He was also able to reserve the fitness room and the pool through the app which was very convenient). We just requested our basic needs: fresh towels, emptying of trash bins and coffee.
It is always nice to have a refrigerator and microwave. This coffee machine also received a lot of use even though we had plenty of coffee-drinking opportunities elsewhere.
I don’t think we ever heard any noise from other hotel guests during our entire stay. However, the noise from the streets (trash trucks, alarms, random yelling) was pretty loud at times. That’s life in the big city, I guess.
Our view wasn’t the greatest, but I kind of liked this window facing a brick wall. k said it had character. I ended up taking a lot of food pics here, as you will see in future posts. More to come…
We continued on our spring break road trip by driving from Las Vegas to Zion National Park in Springdale, Utah. I want to write a separate post on parking and the shuttle system since it is a little tricky. We rode a shuttle to the Riverside Walk and ate our lunch from Hoodoo’s General Store on a low stone wall.
I am not sure why I placed the stray onions on the sandwich before taking a picture. We were actually pretty impressed with the Hoodoo’s sandwiches–the bread was fresh, and it had a good amount of meat. Our family has had our share of bad sandwiches during national park visits, and these freshly made sandwiches were much better than many of the others.
This was our second time going on the Riverside Walk (1.9 mi. out and back), but unlike our first time, we did not have to bring strollers-ha! I think this is one of the best paved trails that we have been on.
This is the entrance to the Narrows. We had to laugh at the group who was contemplating hiking into the Narrows without any preparation whatsoever. They were wondering if they should just take their shoes off and go in waist-deep. Um, no. There is a company that will rent you the special pants and boots along with a hiking pole, but it is located at the Visitor Center.
Dinner At Zion Pizza & Noodle
We ordered takeout from Zion Pizza & Noodle Co. I highly recommend takeout, as the wait to be seated was about an hour, even at 5 p.m.! I was a little weary of trying this place again since I thought the crust was too soggy last time.
I am happy to report that the pizza was much better this time around! There was one spot where the dough was a little doughy, but overall this was a good pizza experience. There are not many dining options in Springdale, so I am glad that Zion Pizza & Noodle has survived. (I am sorry to say that the same cannot be said about the Bumbleberry Gifts, where had Bumbleberry Pie during our first trip. They had a fire last year and are currently re-building. So sad).
The aptly named Cholesterol Hiker Pizza: Tomato sauce, pepperoni, Canadian bacon, Italian sausage, mushrooms, mozzarella & cheddar cheeses.
The White Sun Pizza: Garlic infused Olive Oil, Spinach, Pineapple, Fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, cheddar & parmesan cheeses. This was a hit!
Happy spring! Our school district’s spring break is relatively early, so we already completed our spring break road trip to Nevada and Utah.
Seven Magic Mountains
The first stop on our itinerary was Seven Magic Mountains, an art installation located just outside of Las Vegas.
The first time we visited, I thought that this place would not be around for much longer. Three years later, it still seems to attract a steady stream of visitors.
I took pictures of k for her newly established IG account. 🙂
My plan was for us to do the Calico Tanks hike first, but we ended up stopping at Calico Hills instead.
Looking around, it is quite apparent how this park received its name!
The variety of geological features along this hike is truly amazing.
There are rock climbing opportunities for kids (and adults!) everywhere you turn on this hike.
Lost Creek Children’s Discovery Trail
After exploring Calico Hills, we drove along the Scenic Loop to the Willow Creek picnic area. As usual, we ate sandwiches that we packed from home.
Our next stop was the Lost Creek Children’s Discovery Trail. This is a short hike, at only .80 miles and is rated easy-moderate.
One of the neat features of this hike is a small waterfall.
n looks so young in this picture. He is like a mountain goat and easily scrambles over rocks when we hike.
M Resort & Slater’s 50/50
I found a good deal at the M Resort in Henderson, so it was worth it do a little back-tracking.
The M Resort is now the official Raiders hotel. There was branding everywhere.
The standard rooms are quite spacious, especially the bathroom.
We took turns in the soaking tub and it felt quite luxurious. There is even a television embedded in the bathroom mirror-cool!
For dinner, we splurged (price-wise and calorie-wise) on burgers from Slater’s 50/50. Since I am still not completely comfortable eating at restaurants indoors, we brought our food back to our hotel room. I told n this was his birthday dinner since the food options later in our trip would be limited. It was a tasty dinner, especially after a day of hiking!
Here are some more details about our two-night stay at Pineknot Campground near Big Bear Lake. This campground is actually located at the base of Snow Summit ski resort. We made reservations online ahead of time. There is no one to check you in at the entrance, so we drove directly to our reserved site. At around 8:30 at night, we were all in the tent talking, and we heard a voice call out asking “Are you in there?” We thought the question was directed towards someone else, but n yelled back to be funny. Then a flashlight beamed on and off in our tent, so I sent D out to see what was going on. It turns out the camp host had been looking for us to officially check us in. He claimed we were not there, even when he saw our car at the site. Hmm…
As you can see, the sites are pretty large. This was site 31, which was nice because we only had neighbors on one side. The bathroom was just the right distance, too. Not too close, and not too far. (There are no shower facilities).
I had read multiple reviews that commented how well this campground was maintained. Unfortunately, that did not seem to be the case when we were there. The trash dumpster that was near us was at-capacity during our entire stay. I would say that the bathrooms were in the bottom third in terms of cleanliness/pleasantness of all the campgrounds we have stayed at. You know it is bad when you are seeking bathrooms in the grocery store just so you can avoid one trip to the one at your campground.
Breakfast at Dank Donuts
Our current car is a small sedan, so we did not have any room for camp cooking equipment. This meant eating out, which was fine with us! We stopped for breakfast at Dank Donuts. We ordered coffee for D, split two breakfast burritos, and three donuts.
You know how we love our breakfast burritos! It was premade, and kept in a warmer, but it was still very tasty. The accompanying salsa made it even better (not shown). Also, not sure why I did not take a picture of the donuts, but they were good as well. Someone needs to try the croissants and tell me how they are. They were HUGE! We ate our breakfast on the side of the road before our morning hike.
Castle Rock Trail
I wanted to hike Castle Rock Trail early in the morning, both to beat the crowds and to avoid the heat of the day. It is also best to go early because parking can be precarious. There is no lot, so you are parking on a busy curvy mountain road with no sidewalks. The trail itself is 2.4 miles round trip and is classified as intermediate/difficult. As we were returning to our car, someone asked D if the trail was suitable for strollers, and I would say definitely not! It is quite steep and rocky in places, and quite a workout.
This crazy guy had already woken up early and gone running before our strenuous hike.
Our arrival to Castle Rock was anti-climatic, as we did not even know we had reached it! We saw some rocks, but was not sure it was our final destination, so we kept on hiking. It was only after some time of not seeing many other hikers that we realized we had already passed it.
By this time, our energy and enthusiasm was running low, and the sun was warming up.
Woodland Interpretive Trail
Here’s a story for you: We recuperated with a picnic lunch at a local park, and then I convinced everyone to go on one last hike on the Woodland Interpretive Trail. We were trying to find parking, so I directed D to park on the side of the road where we saw a bunch of other cars parked. Unfortunately, we ended up getting stuck in sand! Our tires were spinning, but our car would not move-doh! I got out of the car to inspect the situation, and it felt like everyone was looking at our predicament, shaking their heads. Fortunately, two kind strangers (who were friends with each other) ended up helping D push our car while I put the car in reverse. I was so relieved that the situation did not end up being worse!! We ended up finding out that there was a whole parking lot dedicated to the trail, and parking was plentiful. (A national forest parking permit was required, but we had purchased one ahead of time for $5 at the nearby 7-11).
I would like to say that the 1.5 mi Woodland Trail was worth all of that, but in the end it was just too warm to be enjoyable. This was the only picture I took! I think it would be a good trail for younger kids in cooler weather, however. There are sixteen markers with an accompanying map that explains interesting natural features of the trail.
Dinner at Tropicali
For dinner, we treated ourselves to Tropicali. I heard about this place on Yelp, where they have a crazy amount of five star reviews.
We placed our order inside and ate on the back patio. I think the customer service is what sets this place apart. It is so over-the-top friendly, with a surfer dude vibe. Even though we had to stifle our laughter a bit at the corniness of it all, I can see why people appreciate the atmosphere.
The food was excellent, as well. We ordered three ahi tuna poke bowls and a chicken bowl for variety.
Post-Dinner Activities
We tend to eat dinner really early, and vacation is no exception. We had some time to kill back at our campsite, so we took a little walk around the neighborhood. D had seen some impressive homes on his morning run, so he showed some of them to us.
Pretty crazy, right?
n was bored, so he came up with a his own outdoor version of the game Mancala. I thought it was quite ingenious.
We tried to see Comet Neowise at night, but there were too many trees blocking our view, and I think it was too late in the month. Although the temperature dipped down to the 40’s, we stayed warm in our tent. We returned home the next morning in need of a shower. However, it’s these kinds of trips that I know will stay with our family forever.
One week ago, we went on a two-night camping trip in Big Bear Lake, CA. Since school starts in less than two weeks, this was our last hurrah of summer.
It takes about two hours to drive to Big Bear from Orange County. There are a lot of switchbacks up the mountain, but thankfully D drove and I did not get carsick this time.
Boulder Bay Park
Our first stop was Boulder Bay Park. This park, located on the south side of the lake, is quite popular. We arrived around 11 a.m. on Sunday morning and the small parking lot was full. There were cars parked all along the street, despite “No Parking” signs. Acting like lemmings, we took our chances and did the same. (We sat at a bench within viewing distance of our car in case we saw someone starting to issue tickets). Our picnic lunch on a bench consisted of sandwiches, chips, carrots and drinks. The weather was SO pleasant with a slight breeze coming off of the lake. There was fertilizer on the grass, so I would not recommend sitting on the ground right now. I would also note that there is also a well-maintained restroom near the parking lot.
Big Bear City Hall-Happy Hills Trail
Next on our agenda was to do the short (.2 mi each way) Happy Hills Trail hike behind Big Bear City Hall. Since it was the weekend, the large parking lot was empty.
The City Hall building looks nice and new and has beautiful landscaping.
The trail itself was not crowded at all. I think we saw one other party of two the whole time we were there.
This pile of boulders made for some good picture-taking opportunities.
n reminded me of a mountain goat scrambling up these rocks.
This Happy Hills “hike” is more of a walk, and could be done even with little ones in tow.
Big Bear Lake Village
It was still a little early to check into our campground, so we made a stop at Big Bear Lake Village. This cute shopping district has a lot of dining options as well.
Some of the streets were blocked off to cars, which I believe was due to Covid. This allowed some of the restaurants to offer expanded outdoor dining options. It made for a nice pedestrian experience. I was very impressed by the number of people who were wearing masks in the Village.
Since it was starting to warm up, we were yearning for a cool treat.
It was a difficult choice since there were so many options, but we settled on a mix of passionfruit and lemon gelato. The passionfruit was tart and creamy, while the lemon tasted more like sorbet.
D ordered a milk green tea with boba, half-sweet. This did not taste like the boba milk tea we are used to. D saw them brew the tea with a real tea bag, so they do not rely on powder mixes. It definitely had more of a tea taste, and was not very sweet at all. If we had been there when it was cold, I am sure n would have loved one of their outrageous hot chocolate creations.
We did not go into any of the stores, but just walked around and did a little window shopping.
Pineknot Campground
I will go into more specifics about the Pineknot Campground in my next Big Bear post. We found our campsite without any problem and set up our tent. Then we had some time of R & R.
Pizza in Big Bear
For dinner we ordered pizza at Saucy Mama’s back in The Village.
Unfortunately, we were not very impressed with this pizza. First of all, there was WAY too much cheese. Second of all, the dough was extremely uneven, paper-thin in the middle and a thick outer crust. This made the pizza impossible to eat, with all of the cheese and toppings sliding off. D was also displeased with the lackluster service that just seemed like a bunch of younger people who did not really care about their job. This place does have a lot of positive reviews, so maybe we just caught them during a mid-summer slump.
Stanfield Marsh Wildlife and Waterfowl Habitat Park
There is a nice boardwalk that lets you walk near the marsh. (Tip, once the first boardwalk ends, keep walking and you will find another boardwalk if you want to extend your walk).
We were able to see some birds off in the distance.
At the end of our walk, we also saw a large pelican take off from the water (no picture though).
We went back to the campground and had a good night’s sleep. I will write about our next day later this week.
After our morning at Alta Vista Botanical Gardens, we drove to nearby Carlsbad. We had been to Carlsbad several times before, but had never really walked around the city. We found a primo free parking spot and did a little exploring.
After our big breakfast burritos, we wanted something a little lighter for lunch. We walked to Beach City Smoothies and ordered a smoothie for the kids to share and an acai bowl for D and me.
The acai bowl was just “eh” but the kids liked their smoothie.
We also all shared one large poke bowl from Hooked on Poke. We had a nice picnic lunch at Carlsbad Beach.
The kids haven’t eaten poke too many times, but they liked it! (As you can see, n is hard at work in the background).
This beach is quite narrow, which makes it easy to transport everything. Maybe that is why there were a lot of families there. However, we were able to set up a safe distance from others. It was overcast, but still a little warm.
I always think it would be nice to live on the beach, but then I look at the parking and crowded streets and think better of it.
This cute dog seemed to be enjoying the view by himself!
I saw this scene while taking a walk along the shoreline.
After our second day at the beach it was time to go back and relax at the tiny house.
For dinner we did takeout from Big Bob’s Best Pizza. I really enjoy researching the local restaurants, figuring out what to order and supporting small businesses. I must say, I chose well during this trip!
We ordered the family meal online, which came with a salad, breadsticks and pizza.
We ended up eating some of the leftovers for breakfast the next morning!
We enjoyed another cozy night in the tiny house. It was not cold, but n wanted to try out the fireplace (without heat). Even though we were only away for two nights, our trip was definitely a much appreciated break from the routine.
Our stay in Vista, California felt like a real vacation even though we were only about an hour away from home. As I wrote in a previous post, we stayed in a tiny house. The next morning we picked up two El Grande breakfast burritos from Mi Asador Mexican and Seafood Restaurant.
Wow, these were the best breakfast burritos ever! The giant flour tortillas were stuffed with scrambled eggs, cheese, bacon and fries. One half a burrito per person was plenty. Be sure to ask for plenty of the red salsa, which we liked more than the green. We drove to Alta Vista Botanical Gardens and ate our burritos in the parking lot to avoid dining in.
Alta Vista Botanical Gardens
Admission is a requested donation of $5 for adults and $3 for kids (ages 3-12). There is a wooden box at the entrance.
There are several gardens with different themes that are connected by meandering paths.
Unique art sculptures are sprinkled throughout the gardens.
Something was REALLY funny!
We visited Alta Vista Botanical Gardens at 8:00 a.m. on a Monday morning and we pretty much had the entire place to ourselves. Wear comfortable walking shoes and have fun exploring!
