[ Living In The Fairytale ]

Sunday, January 01, 2006

New Year's Eve and Day

New Year's Eve

First we took bus 71 to downtown, then switched to 55 and 56 to get to Alki Beach, a "famous" nudist beach colony sitting on Elliot Bay. Of course there were no flashers at this time of the year; all we saw were lots of seagulls and a group of people playing rugby on the beach. The sand was wet and murky but surprisingly the water was crystal clear (well almost). The scenery was idyllic and it looked pretty much the perfect retirement location. Takers anyone? Haha.

Attracted by the delicious smell wafting from the local fish and chips shop, we had our lunch there. The fish was salty but the chips were good - they were sliced from the potato and fried with skin and all. On the way to our next location, we stopped at Krispy Kreme doughnuts because it was MY's "lifelong dream" to eat a Krispy Kreme doughnut. He bought 3 at one go and had finished 2 by the time we sat down to eat ours! I was simply amazed at the variety of doughnuts they had. These doughnuts are only for those with a sweet tooth though; they're extremely sweet and even I had trouble finishing my last few bites.

Next we went to Pike Place Market, which is THE famer's market in Seattle and also called the "Soul of Seattle". The seafood and produce sold there are really fresh but at an exorbitant price. =) Apart from that the market also sells flowers, souvenirs, accessories, books and even jewellery. This is also the location of the first Starbucks outlet (founded 1912), which was buzzing with hordes of photo-takers (including us!) and customers jostling for a cup of coffee. I've never tried Starbucks before because I generally don't drink coffee, but Rashidah let me try a little of her mocha and I was instantly a converted Starbucks mocha fan. Oh yes I must also mention the unique restrooms around Pike Place - they have automatic sliding doors! Just press a button, the doors slide open and you can go in. Someone wanted to use the toilet, so we pressed the button, everyone was gaped in awe at the contraption, nobody stepped in and the door closed shut and refused to open anymore because it was "occupied". And so we had to go find another toilet for the poor guy. Haha!

From Pike Place we walked back to the Seattle Art Museum to meet the rest. Had dinner at mac's because the rest of the restaurants/cafes/eating places were closed early for new year's eve. Actually even the manager at mac's was trying to chase us out so they could pack up and head home for the new year. Thereafter we took a monorail shuttle (monorail was off service because there was an accident on it) to the Seattle Center as we wanted to view the fireworks from the Space Needle. When we got there, however, we found out that we had to pay 60 USD each to get up there! So plans were dashed. I think I'll go up some other time to see the view from the Needle. We loitered a while at the Center House, where the Sonic Funk Band was jamming and lots of people were milling around and dancing. That place was quite packed. I didn't want to stay and wait a good 3 hours for the fireworks, so I went back to Acacia Court with some people and we watched it from the rooftop garden. The fireworks were a disappointment as I expected something of NDP scale since the New Year is supposed to be an important holiday to the Americans. My fingers were freezing in the cold as I tried to capture a video of the entire fireworks, which lasted 7 minutes. When I turned on the camera today, however, I noticed that the video was missing. Argh. I think my camera didn't save it when it froze again yesterday. =( Looks like I have to get the video from one of them.

We ushered in the new year with some wine from the airplane, and I was a little tipsy even though I drank only a little. I suppose my alcohol tolerance level is low...=P

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

In The Fairyland On|2:00 PM|