Rattlesnake Ledge (2009.08.08)

Since coming here, CH's jeans had been giving up on him, starting from a small tear to a significant hole, just below the right bottom. Ok, near the butt. Could you imagine wearing out 2 jeans in a year? I wonder if he's grown more rough-like (like me) or the weather's too dry for clothes...

Anyway, we decided to make a trip to one of the factory outlets to get him new pair of jeans. So we settled on a hike nearby which should be just sufficient to give us half a day's shopping pleasure - Rattlesnake Ledge.

However, there are more people than snakes you'd find. How this mountain earned its name was somehow due to the sound it made similar to this viper. A mountain full of foliage, not difficult to conquer.


Round-trip: 3miles
Elevation Gain: 1,100ft

As you can see, there were INDEED more people (and dogs) up there. We didn't find any snakes.

To shopping time! We finally had a chance to check out Malay Satay Hut at Redmond. If you remember, we had visited this restaurant in Chinatown, but were so disappointed. This Redmond branch is the original, and said to be better. Well, it IS better, BUT the penang char kway teow (fried rice noodles) still wasn't authentic enough. I'm beginning to suspect its due to the quality of the noodles sold here. Anyway, we had a very satisfied meal, with my long craving for chicken rice finally satisfied!


This also marked our 1st year anniversary here in Seattle. Yes, a year had passed. Looking back, we were worried about being able to survive winter, and now we've experienced the 4 seasons, wonderful in their own ways. How time flies!

Mt Olympics National Park (2009.07.26)

After spending a good night at a hostel in Port Angeles, we were up and kicking on Sunday morning as we hurriedly prepared our sandwiches for both breakfast and lunch in the kitchen. The best part of staying in a hostel is getting to meet and talk to various people under the same roof. There were an elderly and young couple from Canada, and a group of backpackers who just hiked from Montana all the way to Washington. They took a whole month to reach here, and will be taking off (by foot!) trekking Mt Olympics from East to West! My full admiration for them! *Applause*

Friendly hostel:

Bidding our kind host farewell, we stopped by Dungeness Spit, which is a long stretch of land off the coast of Port Angeles town. It was pretty early, around 9am. A couple was loading their yacht onto the pickup, several seagulls chirping as they flew and landed. Its all very peaceful and quiet. We could also see Port Angeles town from here.


At 9am, we began making our way to Hoh National Rainforest, which is about 70miles drive. We came across a big cedar tree on the way.

Slightly before noon, we reached Hoh rainforest.



We then proceeded to our last stop of the day - Marymere Falls.



It was time to go home. Traffic was pretty smooth, we reached the ferry terminal at Bainbridge Island around 7:30pm. We patiently waited in our car for the ferry, while other drivers walked around, chit chatted with one another to pass the time.


Came the ferry... arh... home sweet home, at last!

My first ...

Blueberry muffins!

Yum yum, the texture is so soft and fluffy. Its super easy, just mix everything and pour into the muffin pan, or whatever pan you have. The recipe makes 6 medium size muffins.

You can get the recipe here. Just substitute the black sesame with half a cup (120ml) of fillings, in my case I use blueberries.