#GPinCanada: Road Trip to Seattle, USA

Surprise! Yes, I’m still alive ☺

I’m sorry for being quiet here for more than a month, but I guess the only reasons I can give are a mix of blogger’s block and laziness. Yes, I know that I still have the rest of our Canada vacation pending and everything else that happened since then until now so I can’t say that I didn’t have anything to blog about… but whenever I was in front of the computer, I just couldn’t think of any words to type or how to construct a post. I would type a few sentences and lines, delete, re-type, and delete again (repeat 10 times!), and then finally just give up with the hopes that I would be able to organize my thoughts later. It was frustrating, I tell you. But last night as I lay awake until 4am (augh, insomnia!), I decided that whatever happens, I have to start blogging again.

To tell you the truth, I missed blogging. This has been my online diary for the past few years, and I’ve been keeping it to store all my memories in. So if I stopped, if I kept procrastinating, if I let my blogger’s block win, I would forget all the special moments I wanted to remember. And of course, I wouldn’t want that to happen.

Which is why I’m back. Not with a bang, though. I’ll try to blog regularly, but what with the holidays coming up and so many activities, events, and celebrations to attend to (plus spending quality time with the family), I can’t promise. With any luck, I’m hoping to update this blog at least every week. Fingers crossed!

So, let’s continue with our trip to the north, shall we? ☺

On Wednesday, we all woke up as usual for another day of touring. This time, though, the next place to visit was not in Canada, but the US of A! We were all going to Seattle for the day! Woohoo!

Crossing the Blaine Washington border was a breeze this time; no more Secondary investigation was required. The officer just checked and scanned our passports, called our names, and asked why we were going to the US. Our answer? To eat at Jollibee! Yes, seriously, that’s what my brother answered. Well, that was one of the main reasons anyway, so why lie about it?! ☺

Once we had crossed the border, Kuya stopped the car at a shoulder and he and Hubby exchanged seats. Now I’m confident of his driving skills and he did drive the car over the weekend to and from Alouette Lake, but since we were on foreign territory, I was still nervous that Hubby was behind the wheel. I needn’t have worried, though. It was a smooth ride and we all enjoyed the road trip; most of us managing to catch up with some snooze.

Sometime later, my brother told Hubby to go inside a small road, where we stopped at this rest area to stretch our legs, go to the bathroom and…well, rest.

Jump shot! ☺

After a few minutes, we were on our way again to the Emerald City.

Seattle's famous Space Needle in the background!

And an hour and a half later, we were in Tukwila, getting out of the car and standing in front of Westfield Southcenter Mall. Of course we had to take pictures and my brother excitedly took the camera from me; but because they had been sleeping and woke up when the car stopped, Caila and Sophie were not in the mood to smile. Oh well.

We ordered everything that we missed eating from the big bee! Needless to say, I savoured every bite I ate!

Just in case you're wondering, the mall had other restaurants inside: Chowking, Red Ribbon, Grill City, and Tokyo Tokyo. There was even a supermarket named Seafood City. Yup, most (if not all) were from the Philippines.  Maybe that's why we saw many Pinoys there.

Part of what we saw when we looked up at the ceiling

Valerio's...a famous Filipino bakeshop at Westfield

Red Ribbon cakes!!!!

After Jollibee, Hubby took the driver’s seat again and we all headed back to where we came from. Unfortunately we weren’t able to visit the Space Needle because we wanted to avoid the traffic. However, we made sure to go to Seattle Premium Outlet where we went in and out of the stores, buying several things at bargain prices, including a pair of Heelys for Caila which have been her favourite pair of shoes ever since. In fact, she put it on as soon as we paid for it! That’s how excited she was ☺

Caila's beloved Heelys

By the time we left, it was already late afternoon. Kuya Boy enjoyed being the passenger, so he just let Hubby continue driving… through the border again and back home to Langley.

Don't worry, I still have more stories and photos to share of our Canada trip.  Wait for it! ☺