Winter Vacation 12/18-12/31
We used our Worldmark by Wyndham Time Share credits for our 2-week long vacation in Seattle, Vancouver and Victoria, BC. About 6000 credits came from the Friends Referral Program when our friends attended the presentation in Nov. 2006. Each couple was given a $30 gas card, a 3 days resort stay (choice of Las Vegas, Reno Nevada or Orlando) and a round trip air fare just for attending (none of them made a purchase). Thanks to that we are able to have 15100 credits for all the 11 nights stay. Then we used Marriott Rewards to exchange 2 nights stay in Seattle.
We arrived at Seattle and headed to the Avis to get our rental car. We reserved a midsize car but was given a Ford Mustang, and later given a Chevy Uplander van without additional charges. The girls were happy to hop on that van. That was a pretty good start! The first stop is the Pike Place Market. It's like a "pasar" in Malaysia, where you can find seafood, fresh produce, hand crafts, and more. Athena and Nelia were very excited to see the big salmons and dungeness crabs piling high on ice. After lunch at an Athenian Inn restaurant (where part of Sleepless In Seattle was filmed), we headed to the Space Needle. It started to drizzle a little and temperature dropped quickly. So we took a quick walk around the Space Needle and checked into TownPlace Marriott.
We spent the next 2 nights in Discovery Bay, one of the Worldmark resort at waterfront. We visited places like the Olympic Game Farm, Lake Crescent, totem at S'Klallam Tribe, Port Townsend, shopping at a lavender farm, and took an Olympic mountains scenic drive.
Then we drove to Birch Bay for another 2 nights. On our way, we stopped at Tacoma and visited the Museum of Glass, and had dinner at Freighthouse Square. At Birch Bay, it was cold and we couldn't spent too long on the beach. We just took pictures and drove around to admire the scenery and variety of birds. After the morning drive around the area, we went to Lynden, a Dutch town. There we tasted very delicious Dutch Pannekoeken aka pancake, it's about 15" in diameter. Although the temperature at night was close to 3oF, we still headed to the swimming pool and spa for a dip after dinner. The swimming pool was warm and half covered. The spa is much warmer although it's located outdoor. So, all 4 of us soaked in the spa and enjoy the round bright moon that night.
The next 4 days we stayed at Worldmark Resort in downtown Vancouver. Beautiful 2 bedroom condo on the 20th floor with stunning view of the downtown especially at night. During our stay we visited Grouse Mountain, Vancouver Aquarium, Capilano Suspension Bridge, China Town, Canada Place and a short walk around downtown. One thing we noticed is that there is a Starbucks Coffee Shop every block. The best food we had there was Shao Lin Noodle (Thanks to Jim for recommending that) and fresh "tofu fah".
On 12/27, we took the BC ferry to the Vancouver Island and drove to Victoria. 2 out of 3 days in Victoria was raining and cold. So we could only took a short walked at the Inner Harbor and visited the Empress Hotel and Craigdarroch Castle. It was actually quite relaxing towards the end of the vacation.
On 12/30, we headed back to Seattle and stayed at TownPlace Marriott again. Then we flew back to KC on 12/31. Jamie's mom, Carol and Lena had prepared steam boat dinner for everyone. We sure were glad to be back. The vacation was fun but we missed the "free" parking with no hassle, no traffic jam and cheap food.
Here's a photobook from our trip: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AbNmbJw4cM2P6 Enjoy!
