Lost Lake Butte Trail is located near Lost Lake within Mount Hood forest. It is about 4 miles round trip in terms of distance and the elevation gain is gradual. Thus it is very family friendly. At the end of the trail, it has a gorgeous view on Mount Hood. It is one of the reason why the trail is very popular.
On this gorgeous weekend with sunny weather, we headed over to Lost Lake to enjoy the sunny day. We got to Lost Lake around 10:30 in the morning after 2 hours of drive. The day use permit was $9. The Northwest Forest Pass does not work here because the property is privately owned and not maintained by Oregon government.
There were already many people here in the lake and the parking lot was quite full. Luckily, we were able to find a parking space just beside the Lost Lake General Store. The general store sells many snacks and drinks, as well as necessary camping stuff. The only thing we did not like is the washroom. The washroom around Lost Lake seem poorly maintained and smelled very bad all the time.
The Lost Lake Butte Trail was a bit hard to spot, but we were able to find it. The trail head was near the entrance to the Lost Lake area. The first portion of the trail took us through some of the camp sites and people were setting up picnic table and grills for lunch.
The trail was quite easy with gradual climb. The elevation gain overall was about 1200ft. After about 50 minutes, we got to the top of the trail. Surprisingly, we did not see anyone here at the top. Perhaps everyone was enjoying their time at the lake. The view of Mount Hood was simply gorgeous and we really enjoyed our time up there with breeze of wind. The only thing that bothered us was the amount of flying bugs buzzing around. It was quite annoying.
The area at the top was not big either. If there were many groups of people up there, make sure you watch where you step and don't fall off the cliff. The surface was occupied by multiple large rocks, so watch your footing as well.
Overall, we enjoyed doing this hike at Lost Lake. After the hike, we enjoyed a nice lunch under the shade at the picnic table in front of the lake. Then we also enjoyed our time on the lake with small rowing boat. We recommend doing this hike in the morning and then enjoy a peaceful afternoon on the lake.
Stawamus Chief Trail is a very popular hiking trail located at Squamish, Canada, which is about an hour North of Vancouver. The trail is located within Stawamus Chief Provincial Park and the trail head is located right off the highway overlooking the bay surrounded by mountains. This trail is rated as a challenging trail due to the elevation gain and use of ladders and chains. However, the top of the trail provides a gorgeous view.
Since we are from Oregon, we definitely want to do this hike. The drive to trail head was very smooth and we got there around 8AM in the morning. As we started the hike, the trail started to climb sharply with wooden stairs and stones. We could feel that we were gaining elevation like crazy. The rocky steps made it a bit difficult to hike due to the wet and slippery surface in the early morning. There were also rocks on the side that could scratch your skin.
The early morning hike really felt good in the woods. We could see light rays shining through the woods and reflecting off the rock.
We got through the first section in about 45 minutes and got to the first detour to go to the first peak. As we hiked on the trail to first peak, we got to the first ladder. The first ladder was simple and easy. Just had to climb up. Then soon after, we got to the first chain. It was our first time hiking on the trail that has a chain. We were very excited. The chain really made it easy to climb, but this just meant that we gained elevation rapidly. The next part is the most challenging part for peak 1. It was ladder follow by chain. This second ladder was very narrow and we could only place 1 foot in the ladder at a time.
After about 30 minutes, we got to the final climb. The final climb was simply walking on the granite rock and just keep going upwards. It was not difficult here. Once we got to the top, the view was breath taking. It definitely felt like we accomplished a lot today. On the backside, we could see the second peak and the farm land as well.
While we were at the top enjoying our food, there were many chipmunks running around picking up dropped food. We saw few people feeding them as well which is not recommended. We also encountered a chocolate Labrador Retriever there. We did not know how he got through the chain and the ladder. Perhaps he found a side trail to get himself up.
We got back down the first peak and were very hungry and decided not to do the second and third peak. The second peak also has chain on the cliff side for people to hold onto. We definitely will want to finish the second peak and third peak next time.
Kirin Seafood Restaurant is a high end Cantonese restaurant located in metro Vancouver region in Canada. It has multiple locations just within metro Vancouver including Vancouver downtown and Richmond. The restaurant is known to provide amazing Cantonese Dim Sum dishes. Since we were visiting Vancouver, this was a must go place for us.
We went to the Kirin Seafood Restaurant located at Richmond. There is a parking garage right beside the restaurant but it is a paid parking. Since we were customers to Kirin Seafood Restaurant, we did not have to pay the parking ticket. We simply just had to register our vehicle at the front desk at the restaurant.
The restaurant opens at 10AM and when we got there at 9:45AM, there was already a long line in front of the door. The line was not formed properly with people cutting through from everywhere. It was very unorganized and we hope that the restaurant can do a better job on this in the future. When the restaurant opened, people were rushing in and the manager was telling people that they did not have any table for people who did not have reservation. We did not have reservation but we walked up and asked anyway. The manager told us that if we can finish within 1 hour, she could give us a table. We gladly took the table since we did not plan to stay for long because we still had to drive back to Portland.
We sat down and ordered a pot of Jasmine Tea. Then we placed our order with the server. In general, we ordered, Siu Mak, Shrimp Dumpling, Chicken Sticky Rice, Sweet Custard Bun, Crispy Rice Roll, and Orange Beef Rice Roll. This did not seem a lot but we were quite full at the end.
Siu Mak and Shrimp Dumpling came very quickly as they are popular dish. Kirin Seafood Restaurant did not disappoint. Both Siu Mak and Shrimp Dumplings were huge. Siu Mak came with many ingredients with even a little of caviar roe on top. The pork meat in Siu Mak was very juicy. Shrimp Dumplings were quite large and completely filled with shrimps in there. We really loved it.
Chicken Sticky Rice came right after. The size of Chicken Sticky Rice was smaller than what we were expecting. It was about half of the size of a regular Chicken Sticky Rice that other restaurants offer. Nevertheless, it still tasted really good and we appreciated that they did not put small shrimps in there.
The Sweet Custard Bun was quite special. The bun had block color with golden stripes on top of it. As we bite into the bun, the hot creamy custard was popping out. It was very amazing.
The Crispy Rice Roll and Orange Beef Rice Roll came last. These rice rolls also came with special sauce to put on top of the dish. We loved the crispiness of the Crispy Rice Roll. It has a lot of texture as we bit into it. We did not like the Orange Beef Rice Roll as much. It just did not fit our taste. It had a bit of pickled orange taste in the beef which we did not like.
Overall, Kirin Seafood Restaurant did not disappoint. We really enjoyed the food there. One thing that we will do next time is to make reservation before we go. So that we will not have to line up with all these people.
Shabusen Yakiniku House is an all you can eat buffet that offers Korean barbecue and Japanese dish. The restaurant is located on the busy Vancouver downtown Burrard Street and it is on the second floor. So it may be a bit difficult to spot but it does have a advertisement board on the first floor along the street.
Since we went for a tough hike early in the morning that day, we were so hungry when we got back to the city at 1PM. Thus we looked for an all you can eat buffet to fill our stomach. We found Shabusen as we walked down the street and decided to give it a try.
As we walked up the stairs we could smell the Korean barbecue. It smelled so good. It was very busy in the restaurant and we had to wait for 10 minutes before getting a table. As we sat down, we were given an order sheet to place our order. The number that we put on the order sheet is for per piece, even for sushi rolls. What this mean is the dish will come with just 1 piece of sushi roll. We find this to be very efficient since we could try a piece of every single roll.
So we ordered few places of beef and pork for barbecue, about 10 pieces of salmon Sashimi, 2 salmon Nigiris, tempura, tofu, and other stuff.
The food came very quickly and started grilling it. The salmon Sashimi was very fresh and each piece was very thick. We were surprised with how thick each Sashimi was. We really loved it. The salmon Nigiris was not bad either, but it did not feel as fresh as the Sashimi. The beef and pork barbecue meat was already marinated and had a lot of flavor. We really liked the way how we grilled it.
As we finish up the first round and wanted to order the second round, we were told it was the last call. We were surprised because it was not even 2PM and the restaurant closes at 2:30PM. We ordered more salmon Sashimi to enjoy the feast and few more plates of pork and beef for barbecue.
Overall, Shabusen Yakiniku House was quite good and offered a variety of food selection. One thing that they do note is that they make sure you do not waste food and order too much. We overheard a table wanted to order more and the owner asked if they could finish. The price is $21 per person, which we think is reasonable.
Japadog is a popular hot dog joint located in Vancouver Canada. It started with just a hot dog stand back in 2005 and has since expanded with multiple hot dog stands and even sit in restaurants. Japadog is unique compared to regular hot dog. It offers a variety of unique flavors that originate from Japan. Then it has also expanded into selling other type of fast food such as fries and Takoyaki. Nevertheless, Japadog is a place that people will definitely try when visiting Vancouver.
During the beautiful Memorial Day long weekend, we decided to visit Vancouver. We got to Vancouver and checked in to the hotel at around 3:30PM. We were hungry and found a Japadog sit in restaurant near by. The restaurant was only 10 minutes walk from the hotel and the cloud was clearing up, so we started walking over.
The Japadog restaurant was not big. There was probably around 20 stools with few tiny tables. Before we sat down, we placed our orders first. We ordered a classic Okonomi Japadog with mayonnaise and bonito flake, a Kobe beef Japadog that was made from the famous Kobe beef, and lastly a serving of poutine.
We waited for about 5 minutes to get our Japadog, which was quite fast. The Okonomi Japadog had a lot of flavors, especially with the bonito flakes. However, it still tasted very similar to regular hotdog, so it did not feel that special for some reason.
The Kobe beef Japadog was very aromatic. It smelled so good with Kobe beef smell and the seaweed on top of the hot dog was really amazing. We loved the combination of seaweed and hotdog. It was just awesome.
The reason we got the poutine was because we were in Canada and must order a poutine. However, as we expected, the poutine was not good here. We were told that the tossed fries at Japadog is very good, but we did not order it.
As we were about to finish, a horde of tourist just came in an pretty much occupied the entire restaurant. We were glad that we came 10 minutes early.
Overall, Japadog was an exciting place to try and the hot dog was quite good. We probably will not try again though, but if you have not tried it before, we recommend people to try it. In terms of price, Japadog was at least $7 or more, compared to $5 regular hot dog.
McCall Point trail is located within Tom McCall Reserve. It is about 1.5 hour East of Portland. McCall Point trail is a 2 miles long trail and very well known for its wildflowers during the sprint time and many Oregonians love to come here for a hike in Spring. On this very beautiful sunny Saturday, we drove out on I84 and headed to Tom McCall Reserve.
The drive to Tom McCall Reserve was very smooth. One we get to Mosier, we got off I84 and drove on historic highway 30. Highway 30 was very narrow with bridge that only allowed one car to go through. After driving about 4 miles on Highway 30, we got to Rowena Viewpoint, which is where the trail head is at.
We got to the trail head around 9:30AM and the parking lot is about half full. From the parking lot, which is at Rowena Viewpoint, we could see the windy highway 30 going down the mountain. It was quite interesting. Some people hopped over the wall and walked on the cliff side to get better selfie photos, but it was very dangerous.
We headed to the trail head and there was a lot of wildflower on the field, even at the start of trail head. We saw many girls wearing their beautiful dress to come out here for a photo shoot.
As we hiked towards the top, there were even more wildflower to be seen on the side of the trail. We just love it. As the trial gained elevation, we could also see Mount Adams on the North side and Mount Hood on the East. The scene was just amazing.
We also saw a Labrador Retriever, 2 Golden Retrievers, and a St Bernard on the hiking trail although the sign specifically said no pets allowed. The dogs were very well behaved however. There were also many people brought their new borns to this beautiful place.
The trail itself has about 1000ft in elevation gain over about 2 miles, so it is a relatively easy hiking trail. It took us about an hour to reach the top, but it was mainly due to spending so much time on taking pictures.
At the top of the trail, there was not really any seating areas. So most people just sat on the ground to enjoy the flower and the breeze of wind. There were also bees flying around.
When we got back down to the parking lot, the parking lot was entirely full of cars and so many people were there. There is another trail(Rowena Plateau Trail) on the East side of the parking lot, which is very easy with essentially no elevation gains and very suitable for young children and seniors. However, it did not have as much wildflower.
Overall, McCall Point trail is our favorite trail this year so far. There are many other trails around this area and we definitely want to explore this region to check out more wildflower.
Looking For Chai is a restaurant that offers Taiwanese cuisine. The restaurant is located at Bellevue, Washington, just off Highway 405. It is at Northup plaza and the plaza does offer enough parking space for all the customers. The name of the restaurant simply means "find tea", it is quite interesting.
The restaurant opens at 11AM in the morning and we got there around 12:30PM. When we got there, there were already people lining up at the door. There were 4 groups of people before us. Luckily, a table of 2 became available and we were the only party with 2 people and thus got our table right away.
As we sat down, we were given the menu and it does have a wide variety of Taiwanese dishes. The dishes in the menu varies from street food, to steaks, to hotpot. We were quite hungry, but could not try everything that we want. So we ordered a bowl of beef noodle, Taiwanese rib rice, side dish with egg, sea weed, and tofu curd, and popcorn chicken.
The food was delivered to us rather quickly. The beef noodle came with a large bowl, but we were hoping that it had more soup in it. Along with the beef noodle, it also came with pickled cabbage, which is the best thing to have along with the soup.
Then the side dish came. The dish had less food than what we expected. There were only around 6 pieces of sea weed, 4 pieces of egg cut from 1 single egg, and the tofu curd was quite thick. It could have been sliced thinner. There were not enough sauce on the dish either.
The Taiwanese rib rice was decent and just what we expected. The rib was juice and flavorful. So nothing wrong or special here.
The popcorn chicken came with basil on top. The popcorn chicken was decent. It was fried correctly with not much grease. It also came with quite a large portion.
Before we left the restaurant, we also ordered a braised pork rice as to go. A single serve of the braised pork rice was quite large with a lot of rice. However, there was not much sauce on the rice and it was a bit tasteless and not much flavor.
Overall, we think that Looking For Chai is not the best choice for Taiwanese cuisine. Facing East would be a better choice.
Roozengaarde is a well known and popular tulip far located in Washington state. It is about an hour North of Seattle in the Skagit Valley. Every year, tens of thousands of tourists visit the tulip festival at Skagit valley to enjoy the beautiful scene of tulip flowers. There is also another tulip farm called Tulip Town, but we chose to visit Roozengaarde this time since it is a tiny bit closer.
We got to Roozengaarde around 9:30AM in the morning on the Eastern weekend and there were already so very crowded. Unlike Woodburn Tulip Farm in Oregon, Roozengaarde did not collect the fee when we parked the car. Instead, the fee was collected at the entrance after the car was parked. The entrance fee per person was $10 during the weekend. The fee was $7 during the weekday and cheaper.
Roozengaarde had a rather decent size garden with various types and colors of tulip. The display of the tulips were amazing. We were overwhelmed by the color within the garden. Other than the tulip, there were also other types of flowers to provide even more contrast in color.
Just like Woodburn Tulip Farm, Roozengaarde also had a windmill located near the entrance and most people take photo there. The windmill was actually not as interesting as the garden however.
After taking several photos at the garden, we headed to the farm area. The tulip farm area was quite small compared to Woodburn Tulip Farm. We walked over the farm within like 5 minutes and the color of the tulips at the farm was not as amazing as the ones at the garden.
By comparing the tulip farm at Woodburn and Roozengaarde, the big difference is that Roozengaarde offers experience with both garden styled tulip and a tulip farm. Woodburn Tulip Farm is literally a tulip farm, but it is still a joyful walk around the large colorful tulip farm. In addition, Woodburn Tulip Farm has a lot of other activities such as carnival games, but Roozengaarde does not have. Furthermore, Woodburn Tulip Farm allows pets so there are many furry friends there.
We really quite enjoyed the garden at Roozengaarde as it provided a lot of opportunities for taking great photos. The tulip garden also does not require you to wear boots since it's mostly gravel walk path or on the grass. One thing to note is that you cannot walk within the rows of tulips at the farm, so make sure the rules are followed here.
