Exploring Seattle

So I am now back from a short trip to Seattle, WA.

To sum it up, very beautiful place.

Where should I start... I guess the rent-a-car.

The Enterprise rep asked me where I work and after he heard where I work, he asked if I wanted to buy his condo (seriously) and that I should be taking out the Infiniti G35 because I "am a balla" (his exact words). I guess the first thing that comes to people's mind when they hear Google Employee is.. "rich". I am not rich!

Anyways, I asked to take the lowest class car, but he offered me the Nissan Altima for $7 more a day.. I took it! Oh.. and I did use a coupon for a free day from our favorite Entertainment book.

My review : feels cheap inside and quite noisy, but felt nice and strong.

Also rented a Garmin GPS. I was totally impressed with the goodies they had on here and how fast it was. Many casinos, food places, every hotel around the area. Great great..


BUT! It kept moving around on it's own, changing the street I was on, losing signal. Not recommended if you are planning to use it in an area with a lot of streets close together.

This is a view from downtown Seattle. Almost every intersection, you can see the ocean. Very nice.


The Pike Place Market. It was okay... these people are all waiting for the guys there to throw a fish. Apparently when anyone makes an order, they throw around the fish and everyone's waiting for them with a camera to do that.


Ordered Fish & Chips, crab meat, and fried scallops. Total came to $21+ and I was quite... upset at how small it was.
Scallops - mm so juicy A+
Fish - ... this is.. good B-
Crab - C+
Fries - soggy fries F

I apparently walked by the first Starbucks. Missed it though DOH!


The space needle was okay. There are cafes and gift shops and just 360 degree sight seeing areas up at the top.

So for the heck of it, we typed "Nintendo" on the GPS and it showed us where the headquarters was! Having a long history with Nintendo products, we had to check it out.


It was a Sunday so no one was in.


I think this was the coolest thing we found in Seattle



I'd drive one. The license plate was Pika 2 and Pika 4.

Then we sniffed around Microsoft.


Very pretty campus. On a weekend, people were still hanging out.


Guess where we headed to next.


We looked up.. Bill Gates (the richest man in the world)'s home on the internet and see how close we could get to it.


He lives in a VERY VERY nice area. Many huge homes and all have lake view. Very quiet green area.


So..... this is what we saw and.. pretty much ends our tour to Bill Gates' home.

We also stopped by the Starbucks headquarters




People inside were dressed VERY nicely. Now I see why people refer to bay area people as badly dressed.

We attempted to go to the main office, but didn't make it passed the lobby.

The mistake we made in this trip was discovering the Indian Casino. It was so close by.. we decided to stop by to waste some time.. wow.. the first night. we ended up staying until 6am. I mean.. no break. Just continously playing Blackjack / Craps
We went back the next day.


and the night after..


I ended up losing about $400. Sad times.. I tried to make myself feel better by watching the high rollers lose $1000s. It's sooo bad. I need to learn how to stop.
If I am winning money, I continue to play thinking I'm playing with their money.
If I am even, I contnue to play thinking I need to win something.
If I am losing, I continue to play trying to get my money back.
Sigh....

Drove by this in Bellevue. I'm not sure if this was the headquarters. A lot of Coca Cola trucks.


Went on a dinner train ride that took us around Seattle/Bellevue area.


Don't know why but it dropped us off at a Winery. Maybe they were paid by the winery to do this. I didn't read / hear anything about this =P


I also stopped by Amazon and was able to browse inside because I had a friend working there. Sorry no pictures. The office was very normal though. You have to pay for your sodas, 19"ish dual LCDs, and cubicle style offices.

Some cars parked in the parking lot were nice though.


I fell in love with this place. It's an asian grocery market, but with EVERY possible asian food there. Pho, korean BBQ, Udon, Pad Thai, Pearl Tea... wow.. they have it all. I can really come here everyday.


The library.. was THE best library I have ever seen. This was the.. 5th floor, supposedly a floor where everyone can use the internet. So what you see on the right is everyone quietly using free internet. The elevators / escalators were neon green. Very futuristic. Love the architecture.


Airport so beautiful... =*)


... this was a long post.