Lady M

 

Lady M is a bakery store that specializes in Crepe Cake.  The Crepe Cake is a type of cake that is stacked with multiple layers of crepe with flavored creme filled between each layer of crepe.  Lady M originated from New York and has expanded across the entire country of US with many stores.  It has became one of the most popular cake store among the people.

Lady M has opened a stored a Bellevue Square and it was our first time visiting a Lady M store.  The store is very classy and has a dine in area as well.  The store is basically painted with only white colour with classy decoration along the walls.  The seat, the table, the plates and everything are all pure white.  Lady M has made its store a very high-end dining place.

Lady M offered variety of flavours for its crepe cake.  We ordered a tiramisu, matcha, and a purple yam flavour.  The 3 cakes were carefully placed in a purple Lady M box and we were given plastic silver utensils.  The cake was expensive however.  Each piece of cake was over $10, which was extremely pricy.

We sat down at a table at the food court to try out the cake.  The matcha crepe cake had strong matcha flavour as expected, but it was not very different from other matcha flavoured cake.  Similarly, the tiramisu cake was good but not very different from other tiramisu cake.  The purple yam cake was extraordinary.  Its flavour was out of this world.  It had a super strong yam taste similar to taro taste.  Among the 3 cake, we liked the purple yam crepe cake the most.

Overall, Lady M makes amazing crepe cake like no others.  The purple yam cake was the best cake we have had.  The only downside was that the cake was extremely pricy and we probably won't try this often.

Monga Cafe

 

Monga Cafe is a restaurant specializing in Taiwanese Cuisine.  The restaurant is located in a plaza in Bellevue.  The plaza is one of several available restaurants in the plaza.  Compared to a well known Taiwanese Restaurant Facing East, Monga Cafe is not as crowded and thus also more accessible to people to have lunch or dinner here.

We got to the plaza where Monga Cafe is located around 1PM.  The parking at this plaza was a nightmare.  There were just so many cars circling around looking for an available parking space.  We have not had to wait for a parking space for a long time.  After 15 minutes of circling around the parking lot, we finally found an available parking space beside the dumpster.

We got into Monga Cafe and the interior decoration of the restaurant was quite simplistic and clean.  We told the owner that we wanted to order take out and the owner was quite enthusiastic and came to help us right away.

We ordered a Sauteed Green Cabbage, Pork Trotters Lunch Box, Black Bean Paste Noodle, and an Appetizer Trio.  The order was ready within 15 minutes.  The Sauteed Green Cabbage was okay and fresh.  Pork Trotters Lunch Box was the best dish we ordered.  It came within a huge circular bowl container.  There were 2 trotters in there and cooked very thoroughly.  It also came with pickled cabbage and sauteed cabbage.  We loved it quite a lot.  The Black Bean Paste was amazing too.  The sauce was sweet and salty at the same time.  The Appetizer Trio was ordered with braised egg, bean curd, and seaweed.

We were very satisfied with the food from Monga Cafe.  The taste of the food has surpassed our expectation and the price was very reasonable as well.  The only issue we had was the plaza was way too busy and difficult to find parking space.  We probably have to find a time that is less crowded to come here next time.

Rainier Fremont Fire Lookout

 

Fremont Fire Lookout trail is one of the most popular trails within Mount Rainier National Park.  The trail is located North of Mount Rainier and it starts at Sunrise Visitor Center.  The trail is about 6 miles in roundtrip distance and goes through the meadows of Mount Rainier.  At the end of the trail, there is a fire lookout cabin that overlooks the beautiful forest down below.  Mount Rainier can also be seen very clearly from the overlook.

We got to Sunrise Visitor Center around 7AM in the morning and the parking lot was half full.  The sun has just rose above the mountain and the weather was getting warmer.  From the parking lot, we could see the beautiful Mount Rainier right above us.

The trail first took us to hike across a small ridge where we could see the meadows down below.  Then we got to Frozen Lake, which is the water source for Sunrise.  The Frozen Lake has shrunk significantly compared to the size that was shown on the map.

As we got to the intersection point where the trail breaks off into 5 different directions, we took the Northern trail to go to Fremont Fire Lookout.  The path to Fremont Fire Lookout took us onto another ridge and the trail was extremely rocky.  Although it was rocky, the trail was not difficult with little elevation gain.  After about 30 minutes, we got to Fremont Fire Lookout.

When we got there, we saw a married couple take wedding photos.  They even got a portable dress room established trying on various dresses, it was pretty cool.  There were people sitting by Fremont Fire Lookout and enjoying the view.  We saw a couple using the gas tank and made instant cup noodles.  It really made us really hungry.

Overall, we really enjoyed the hike to Fremont Fire Lookout.  It was very different than the Skyline trail at the South of Rainier.  The trail on the North side had more meadows and was a lot more dry.  Next time we could come back here before the sunrise to get a more beautiful view.