City Brew Coffee

 

City Brew Coffee is located at Butte in the state of Montana. It is like Starbucks and offers various coffee drinks and smoothies. It also has variety of pastries for customers to select from. City Brew Coffee usually has a standalone building by itself and offers drive through service for its customers.

We went to City Brew Coffee at 5:30AM in the morning when it just opened. Initially, we wanted to go into the store instead of drive through so that we can check out all the items it offered. As we walked towards the front entrance, we saw a pile of newspapers at the front of its door. The employees did not have time to bring it inside yet. As we tried to go in by pulling open the door, the door was still locked. Thus we could only do drive through.

As we approached the drive through, we were not sure what to order. The employee at City Brew Coffee recommend Ice Macciato as it was one of the most popular cold drinks on its menu. So we ordered a large Ice Macciato. The drink was ready rather quick. The drink was sweet with caramel drip inside the drink. The coffee taste was not as strong but it fit our taste.

City Brew Coffee offered good drink from our first experience. We wish we could go into the store to check it out more thoroughly and see how the drinks are made. We will definitely try it again next time.

Yards Bruncheon

 

Yards Bruncheon is one of the best brunch places in Spokane, Washington. It is said to have the best egg benedict in town! Yards Bruncheon has a very high rating among all the food rating web sites and the average wait time is said to be about 30 minutes. Thus it is recommended to go there early or be patient waiting for the table to be ready.

We got to Yards Bruncheon around 11:30PM since it was a long drive from Portland to Spokane. When we got there, the parking spaces in front of the restaurant was quite full. We had to park the car a bit further down the street. When we got into the restaurant, we were told that we have to wait for about an hour. We decided to wait since we already drove so far to get here.

While we were waiting, we walked around the street. We saw a giant dog sitting in front of the coffee shop across from Yards Bruncheon. The dog was huge with golden fur. The dog has a white stripe on its head between its eyes all the way down to its nose. Its paws were covered by white furs too. It was so cute.

After about 45 minutes, our names were called and we got a table outside. The outside seat was quite nice since there were no bugs flying around and the weather was amazing.

We ordered the Yards Benedict and Mushroom Omelet. The waitress was very proactively topping off our water. It was great service. After about 10 minutes, our food were served. The Mushroom Omelet has pumpkin seed at the top, which was refreshing. The fresh mushroom was wrapped inside the omelet. The omelet and the mushroom were a unique combination. The mushroom was quite fresh. It felt like the mushroom may just be stuffed in the omelet directly.

The Yards Benedict was amazing. Unlike many egg benedict we had before, this egg benedict was not really a circular round shape. It was not a big deal. When the egg was cut through, the fresh yog dripped down onto the English muffin. We really loved the taste. The potato served on the side was amazing as well.

Overall, we really loved the food at Yards Bruncheon. This place did not disappoint and we would definitely visit this place again.

John Day Fossil Monument

 

John Day Fossil Monument is a well known place for fossil enthusiast. It is well known to have fossils from about 50 million years ago.  Fossils of various mammals and trees can be found at various sites within John Day Fossil Monument, but people cannot take fossils away of course. Due to John Day Fossil Monument being located on the East side of central Oregon and far from major cities, not many people visit this place.

Within John Day Fossil Monument, the largest visitor center is Thomas Condon Paleontology Center. It is about 2 hours East of Bend. Thomas Condon Paleontology Center has many mammal fossils on the display. It also has a small theatre showing the formation of John Day Fossil bed and shows the process of fossilization and how to clean the fossils.

After visiting Thomas Condo Paleontology Center, we drove West to Painted Hill. Painted Hill is the most popular attraction within John Day Fossil Monument. Painted Hill is popular due to its colourful formation on the hill. The hill seemed to have been brushed with red colour.

There are several short hiking trails around Painted Hill. The Leaf Hill Trail is where people can find fossils of tree leafs. These fossils were all over the place on the ground. But keep in mind that people should only look at it and put it back. People should never take the fossils home.

Overall, the visit to John Day Fossil Monument was an interesting experience that took us through time and understand what Oregon was like 50 million years ago. We recommend to at least visit this place once.

Sparrow Bakery

 

Sparrow Bakery is a very famous bakery shop in Bend Oregon. It has a very cute name. Sparrow Bakery offers various kind of bakery ranging from croissant to bagels. It can also customize customers order by adding cream cheese, ham, egg, and other things. Other than the usual, it also sales dessert such as macaron and eclair.

We got to Sparrow Bakery around 8:10AM in the morning. We figured that since it only opens at 8:00AM, we were probably going to be one of the first customers. However, we found that we were wrong when we got there. There was a long line at Sparrow Bakery. It was very popular among the locals.

We ordered a regular croissant and an almond croissant. We also ordered macaron and eclair to try its dessert menu. The almond croissant has stuffing in it. The stuffing seems to be almond custard of some sort. We liked it since it has good chewy texture to it and sweet. The regular croissant was good too. It was quite soft. The macaron was quite big compared to the regular ones. But we didn't like its texture and we think that it had too much cream in the middle.

Overall, Sparrow Bakery offers amazing bakery good. We really liked the croissant. We would definitely try it bagels next time.

Dee Wright Observatory

 

Dee Wright Observatory is located at the top of Mckenzie Pass near Bend Oregon. It is about an hour East of Bend and the Mckenzie Pass road is only open during the summer when the snow is cleared. The Dee Wright Observatory is built with lava stones and has a panorama view over the entire Sisters Wilderness. It is also a perfect location for star gazing activities.

We got to Dee Wright Observatory around 9PM when the sun was just about to go below the horizon. The day was still bright and we could see Mount Washington on the North side and Sisters Mountains on the South side. The Dee Wright Observatory was very well built with lava stones. We walked up the stone stairs and there was a small chamber with windows as lookout. This small chamber reminded us those Medieval time stone castles.

At the top of Dee Wright Observatory, there was a compass showing the directions. We could see very far from here. It was also not windy and thus not cold. We went back down to the car and waited till 10:30PM until it was completely dark and the moon went below the horizon.

As we stepped out of the car, we were fascinated by the amount of stars that we could see above us in the sky. We could identify the Big Dipper easily and found Polaris. We turned on the flashlight and went to the top of Dee Wright Observatory. On the South side where Sisters Mountains were, we could see the milky way right above the mountain. It was amazing.

There were 2 other cars there with us and they were having fun doing star gazing as well. We really loved this place.

On the way back, we had to drive very carefully since the road was winding and narrow at certain places. We would definitely come back here again and enjoy star gazing.

Miyagi Ramen

 

Miyagi Ramen is a popular ramen restaurant in Bend, Oregon. When we looked up where to go for food in Bend, Miyagi Ramen always pop up in the top 10 list. By just looking at the name of the restaurant, it is a Japanese restaurant specialize in ramen of course. The restaurant is conveniently located by Old Mills District and across from many bars.

We got to Miyagi Ramen at around 4PM in the afternoon and the restaurant was quite empty. There was only 1 table being occupied. As we walked in, we order food first then find a table to sit. We ordered a Tonkotsu Ramen, a Chicken Karaage Rice Bowl, and a Chicken Yakitori as recommended by the restaurant. After we placed the order, we were given the utensils, 2 water cups, and a large jar of water. We found a table by the open balcony to enjoy the wind breeze.

The food got served quite quickly in about 5 minutes. The ramen was served with pork on top, chopped scallions, bamboo shoots and corn in the soup. The soup was quite tasty, we liked it. However, as we have few more sip, we noticed that there was a lot of oil in the soup. It also got quite salty later and not really what we like. The pork was good but a bit too greasy.

The rice bowl was a big disappointment. First, it only came with few pieces of chicken. We could count number of pieces by a single hand. Then the rice has spicy mayonnaise poured on top, but it wasn't that good. We were under the impression that it will have egg or fried onion.

The Chicken Yakitori was quite good. The chicken was tender and juicy. The scallion came with the skewer was amazing too. We loved it.

Overall, Miyagi Ramen was not as good as we hoped. Unless you are craving for ramen, there are other better choices to go to.

Dog Mountain 2022

 

Dog Mountain is an extreme popular hiking trail in Southern Washington state by the Columbia Gorge. The trail is about 3.8 miles long to get to the top with steep elevation gain. Even with the steep elevation gain, it does not stop people from coming to Dog Mountain. During the Spring season, the wildflower bloom at the top of Dog Mountain is magnificent. Thus it is usually very crowded from late April to early June. During this period, hiking permit is also required for hiking this trail.

The hiking permit was no longer required in the second week of June and thus we went for a hike at Dog Mountain. Dog Mountain trail is about 1.5 hours of drive time from Portland. When we got there around 8AM in the morning, the parking lot was about 50% full. Northwest Pass is being honored here as the parking permit. If you don't have Northwest Pass, National Park pass will work too or just have to pay $5.

The rest room at the trail was not at the parking lot. The rest room was actually located 100M further into the trail. So before getting to the restroom, people have to hike a little bit first.

The was cloudy but it was not that cold. The trail started to climb right from the beginning. There were some mud on the trail, but it was not that bad. We steadily climbed the trail and passed by several other groups of hikers. We got to the first look out point where we could see the Columbia River. It was beautiful but extremely windy.

We continued on and started to feel the water drop. We were worried that it was starting to rain, but only to realize that the water drop was coming from the top of the tree. The water on the tree leaves fell off when the wind blows.

After about 1.5 hours, we got to Puppy Dog Lookout. This is the best look out place at Dog Mountain. We were very high up and could see really far over Columbia River. The wildflowers on the side were beautiful. But then again, it was extremely windy.

We continued on to the summit, but it was really getting way to windy. Thus we decided to turn back. The summit was not that far away and only about 0.3 miles to go. On the way back down, we saw many hikers with their lovely fur friends. The dogs were very cute.

Dog Mountain was one of the best hike and we definitely would do it again. Just keep in mind that the parking lot gets full really fast so you have to get there early.

Florida Trip 2022

 

Florida is located on the Southeast corner of United States and it is well known for its warm weather and beautiful beaches. Since Florida could get extremely hot during the months of July and August, we decided to visit Florida in May when the temperature has not reached its highest temperature.

On Day 1, we took the direct flight from Portland to Orlando airport. The whole flight was 5.5 hours and it was very long. When we got to Orlando, it was already 5PM in the afternoon. As soon as we landed, we went to AVIS and got our rental car and toll route pass. The toll route pass was very important since many highways in Florida are toll routes.

On Day 2, we went to Kennedy Space Center. We have always wanted to visit this place and check out the real Saturn V rocket and Space Shuttle Atlantis. Afterwards, we went to Hawkers Asian Street Food for a late lunch.

On Day 3, we took a road trip down to Key West. Before we get to Key West, we had brunch at Little Hen. Then we continued on by driving over the oversea highway. Around lunch time, we stopped by Robbies and checked out the pelicans and tarpons. When we got to Key West, we had dinner at Conch Republic Seafood Company.

On Day 4, we woke up early and waited at the door as part of the Dry Tortuga ferry wait list. Unfortunately we didn't get on. Instead, we walked around Key West and had lunch at El Meson De Pepe. Then we went to the Southern most point of Key West.  During sunset, we went to Mallory Square and watched the sun setting below the ocean.

On Day 5, we went to Smathers Beach. The sun rise was beautiful there. We then headed to Fort Zachary Taylor State Park. Then we had lunch at DJ Clam Shack. In the afternoon, we went to Bahia Honda State Park.

On Day 6, we left Key West and head to Miami. On the way to Miami, we went to Vizcaya. We also dropped by Biscayne National Park but didn't do any excursion there. We then checked in to hotel and went to Bayside Marketplace for a walk. The traffic was crazy at Miami downtown.

On Day 7, we went to Little Havana. We walked for about 40 minutes to get there from downtown Miami. There was a lot of cigar shops at Little Havana and we bought one as a souvenir. We had authentic Cuban coffee at The House of Cuban Coffee. It was really good. We then had ice cream at Azucar Ice Cream. In the afternoon, we took Metromove and went to Wynwood Wall. While on the way there, we had donuts at Salty Donut.

On Day 8, we went to Everglades National Park early in the morning. We first went to Long Pine Key for the sun rise, then went to Royal Palm Visitor center to hike Anhinga Trail. Afterwards, we stopped by Robert Is Here and had amazing smoothie. Then we went to Shark Valley for the bus tour. In the late afternoon, we went to Versailles for a Cuban cuisine lunch.

On Day 9, we went to Miami South Beach in the early morning for the sun rise. Surprisingly there was a lot of people there. The beach was beautiful in the morning. We then drove back to Orland and had lunch at Bee Won Korean restaurant before we flew back to Portland.

This Florida trip was an amazing trip. The only downside was that it was very humid and hot. We were sweating after being outside for just 5 minutes. Also, there was a lot of mosquitos even on the beach. We were bitten pretty badly.