Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

After passing the border of US and Canada

happy yipee yehey we're in Canada!

Downtown Vancouver

Statues of laughing people??

My son, trying to open the hand hehehe

At English Bay Beach

English Bay Beach

Another view of English Bay Beach

the trolley

At Kadoya Japanese Restaurant

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We've been to a road trip last week since it was my daughter's spring break. It was our first time to see Canada. It took us only 3 1/2 hour drive from our place to downtown Vancouver. Actually, we didn't plan on going there, we never booked a hotel and we didn't know where to go. Our initial plan was to go snowboarding since that was my daughter's request but plans changed and we just decided to drive to Canada. That always happens to us anyways hehehe.

Fortunately we were able to find a hotel to stay but only for one night because the following day the hotel was fully booked due to Bon Jovi's Concert. Our hotel place was close to English Bay Beach, which is the most popular in sunbathing, swimming and sunset watching beach in the downtown Vancouver area.

After checking-in we headed to a Japanese Restaurant which was also a stone's throw away from our hotel, we were hungry and my kids were craving for sushi. The restaurant was superb, we liked it!

Vancouver's climate is pretty much the same as Washington: rainy, cloudy and gloomy ;-) I guess it's just an extension of Seattle ;-)

I will post more pictures on my next post ;-)

Veedol Beach, Misawa

Huge rocks that serve as breakwater

Does this sign mean we have to bring the sand and not leave on the beach? hehehe

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I wonder what happened to Veedol Beach in Misawa after the tsunami hit the Northeastern part of Japan? Although Misawa is located in North of Japan I heard that the beach and the Misawa Fishing Port were also hit by the tsunami but not that as intense as what happened to Sendai.

The pictures above were all taken when we were still in Misawa, Japan. We were there summer, August 2010, that was the last time we went to that beach. We had a picnic under the cabana and the kids enjoyed swimming. I didn't swim though, I may get tanned ;-) and it's still cold.

Veedol Beach or Miss Veedol Beach is a 10 minute drive from where we used to live and I remember last year when we had a strong earthquake (I think 6+ magnitude) I was so scared that tsunami would hit us, we had a tsunami warning that time, my husband was deployed in Qatar and I was so scared and confused where to go, my husband's wife's boss called me making sure we are safe and far from the beach.....and so I decided to go to Misawa Base and spent few hours at the base exchange (bx) just to make sure we're all safe and far from tsunami. What more now that they had an 8.9 magnitude?? I'm glad I'm here now in Washington.......I don't want to think about it.......pretty scary. I had enough of earthquakes for 2 years ;-)

Space Needle, Seattle, Washington

Space Needle, Seattle Washington

Taken inside our car while our sunroof was open

Taken at the Observation Deck overlooking Seattle

Another view from the top

This was taken when we were heading to Space Needle, I was able to take a picture of the bird flying above us

Taken when we were in the elevator going down from the observatory deck, overlooking the Pacific Science Center




The base of the Space Needle Tower




Christmas Ball with Space Needle on the background


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Space Needle is a landmark and symbol of Seattle, Washington. It is a tower with 605ft in height (184m). It has an observation deck at 520ft (160m) which is pretty much shorter compared to Tokyo Tower which has an observation deck at 820ft (250m) .... we've been there to 2 years ago. Actually Tokyo tower is 1091ft (332.5m) when measured from the base to its peak.

The pictures I've posted here were taken last December 2010, my first time to see Space Needle. It took me 3 months to post these hehehe. Well, as usual I've been busy lately.

It was a bit windy and cloudy that day, so we didn't have the chance to see the view of Mt. Rainier and Mt. Baker which they say we can view them from the deck.

It took us only 43 seconds to go to observation deck through the elevator, with the speed of 10mph.

Few years ago, I was so excited and curious to see Space Needle but since we've been to Tokyo Tower and Roppongi Hills Mori Tower (both in Tokyo, Japan) you won't get the feeling of excitement anymore, Space Needle is pretty much shorter compared to them. My first reaction when I stepped on the observation deck was, "that's it??" hehehe

By the way, I pray for the safety of all the people in Japan who are very much devastated by the disasters they had last March 10, the earthquake and tsunami plus the nuclear plant explosion. I felt sad and very much affected when I saw the news, Japan has been a part of our military life. I have a lot of friends back there in Misawa. I hope they are ok now. We feel lucky that we moved out early from Japan to Washington although sometimes I miss Japan (but not the every week earthquake hehehe).