Tiger Sugar

 

Tiger Sugar is a bubble tea place at downtown Seattle serving specialized drinks. It was basically a block away from Pike Market place. Its specialty drink is the milk drink with dark brown sugar. With brown sugar dripping through the milk, the drink looks like the fur pattern of a tiger.

We came across Tiger Sugar after we saw its advertisement on the street. We were walking down the street at Seattle downtown after visiting Pike Market. Then we saw the Tiger Sugar sign at the corner of the street with an arrow pointing East. The picture of the drinks on the advertisement looked really good, thus we decided to follow the sign and check it out.

The store front of Tiger Sugar was quite small. We actually stood outside and checked out its menu for a very long time. There were no one in the store either and it actually felt awkward because the store owner could see us standing outside for a while.

We were hesitating because we were not sure what to get because we didn't want to get any milk drinks. Thus we decided to get the mango fruit drink with lychee jelly and mango pop in there. The drink itself was not cheap. It was about $8.50. The drink was served quite quickly however since the drink was probably pre-made and just have to put in the toppings.

The drink was no doubt tasty with strong mango flavor. However, there were too many chipped ice in the drink. We could barely suck up the jellies at the bottom of the drink. At the end we had to open up the drink to separate the jelly and ice.

Overall, Tiger Sugar had good choices of drinks but just not what we would enjoy since most of the drink were milk related drinks.

Mochinut

 

Mochinut is a special type of donut that is made with rice instead of flour. Mochinut was still a round circular donut but the donut was shaped with small spherical shaped ball along the donut wall. Mochinut offered variety of flavors such as matcha, sesame, coffee, and Oreo.

When we got to Mochinut, we were confused what to do because no one was at the front desk. Then we were told that we just place our orders on the touch pad in front of us. It was a self order flow. We ordered 3 Mochinuts which include sesame, Vietnam coffee, and passion fruit flavor.

After about 5 minutes, our order was ready and a small nice box was delivered to us. The Mochinut was placed beautifully in the box and looked really nice. We took a bite and were surprised by the texture. It was definitely more chewy than regular donut because it was made with rice, but we enjoyed the texture. The flavor of each Mochinut was also extremely strong, especially the sesame flavor. Mochinut was also very easy to eat. We could just twist the donut and take down each individual ball and eat it.

We really liked Mochinut, both the texture and flavor were great. The only downside was that the number of flavors were limited and not a lot of choices were available. There were also several super market selling Mochinut as well, but also with limited flavors.

Little Cheerful Cafe

 

Little Cheerful Cafe is a very popular brunch place located at Bellingham, Washington. Little Cheerful Cafe is located at the central downtown location of Bellingham. The parking fee on the street was $3 per hour. The payment system was through those old school parking meters with a timer counting down after the payment was made. There were plenty of parking spaces there and even more parking spaces further down the street.

We got there around 11AM and there were already people waiting at the front desk. We asked the owner and she told me it would be around 25 minutes wait. The wait time was less than what we expected and we put our name on the sign up sheet.  While we were waiting, more and more people came in. Some came in for takeout and some came in to make reservation in person. The atmosphere at the restaurant was quite great with a local vibe. The owner and the servers were all seemed so happy and sing along with the song playing in the background.

As we sat down on the table, we ordered the Farmer's Omelet and California Omelet. We also got a cup of Mocha. After 1 minute or 2, the mocha was delivered to us. The mocha was delivered in a cute little cup with whip cream on top. We find this really cool because everyone's coffee cup was different.

After about 10 minutes, the omelets are here. The omelet at Little Cheerful Cafe was different than the omelet at other places. The omelet folded over and covered all the ingredient inside. The harsh brown was covered by fried onion, which was extremely aromatic and tasty. Although the omelet looks different, it was actually very tasty. The ingredient inside was a lot too. We really enjoyed it. The omelet also came with specially made biscuit, but we think that the Red Lobster biscuit is better.

Overall, we really loved the local vibe atmosphere at Little Cheerful Cafe. We enjoyed the food as well. It was really unique and tasty. We would definitely visit the place again in the future.

Mirror Lake 2022

 

Mirror Lake has always been one of the most popular hiking trails at Mount Hood forest. The trail itself is only about 1.9 miles long with 700 feet of elevation gain. The trail itself is rather easy. In the past few years, the trail head has been moved right beside Ski Bowl to make more parking spaces available to the hikers. This had made the trail more accessible to people since the original trail head was just off the highway.

We got to Mirror Lake trail head around 8:30AM in the morning. The weather was great on this day and was quite warm. The trail started off with paved path heading downwards into the forest. The trail first headed West and crossed many wooden bridges. After about 50% into the trail, the trail started to ascend at a reasonable pace.

After about 40 minutes, we got to Mirror Lake. As we went to the lake shore, we saw few dogs enjoying the swim in the water. There were people fishing there too.

Since it was still early in the day, we decided to go further on the trail and head to the top of Tom Dick and Harry Mountain. It was another 1.7 miles upwards. This part of the trail was rockier and narrower than the previous portion of the trail, but it was totally doable for anyone.

After about 40 minutes, we got to the top of the mountain. From the top we could see Mount Hood clearly in front of us. It was an amazing scenery. We saw down and enjoy some snack at the top and there were several dogs up there enjoying the sun. After a while, it started to get quite windy however.

As we headed back down the trail, we saw even more hikers with their lovely dogs. We didn't think that this trail was popular for dogs too.

Overall, Mirrow Lake was a beautiful trail and family friendly. This trail is definitely on the highly recommended list for Oregon hikers.

South Dakota Trip

 

South Dakota is one of the state located in the mid west of United States. It is located on the East side of Montana. It is well known for Mount Rushmore with 4 most influential president carved on the mountain. There are also 2 national parks located within South Dakota and these are Badlands National Park and Wind Cave National Park. These national parks may not be as famous as Yellowstone National Park in the neighbouring state, but it still attracts tourists across the country.

To get to South Dakota, the drive time is quite long. We decided to take 2 days to drive to there. On day 1, we first drove to Spokane and had brunch as Yards Bruncheon. It was a great brunch after a long drive. After the brunch. we continue to drive East and stayed at Butte for a night.

On day 2, we left the hotel early at 5AM in the morning. Before we started the long drive, we got some drinks from City Brew Coffee. Then we drove 8 hours to get to Devil's Tower. Devil's Tower was an interesting place and we learnt a lot about the native tribes. Afterwards, we drove 2 more hours to finally get to Rapid City. While we were on the way, it was pouring heavy rain like crazy. Many cars actually pulled over to the side to wait for the rain to stop.

On day 3, we woke up early to go to Badlands National Park to see the sun rise. It was a beautiful and amazing national park. We then went for a hike at Notch Trail. We really had a great time there. After we drove back to Rapid City, we went to Longhorn Steakhouse for a good steak dinner.

On day 4, we first went to the famous Mount Rushmore. It was a great place to learn the history of United States. Afterwards, we went to Custer State Park and had a good hike at Sylvan Lake. Later in the afternoon, we went to Wind Cave National Park and did the Natural Entrance tour. It was an amazing experience.

On day 5, we went to Badlands National Park again to see the sunrise. I was just beautiful. Then we went back to Wind Cave National Park for the Candlelight Tour. This tour is even better than before because we walked in the dark with just candlelight.

On day 6, we left the hotel early and drove to Jackson. After 4 hours of drive, we first got to Casper and had brunch at Egginton's. Then after 4 more hours of drive, we finally got to Jackson. After settling down at the hotel, we went into the town and had an amazing ice cream at Gourmet Moo's Ice Cream.

On day 7, we went to Grand Teton National Park. We had a hike around Jenny's Lake and ran into the moose on the trail. In the beginning, we only saw a big black furry animal and we were worried that it was a bear!

On day 8, we woke up very early and drove 12 hours all the way back to Portland. It was a tiring drive, but we were glad to be home.

This was the longest drive we have ever done and our first time driving so far East. It was a great experience we learnt a lot about history!

Gourmet Moo's Ice Cream

 

Gourmet Moo's Ice Cream is famous ice cream shop located at Jackson. Although it is located at the corner of the street, but it was one of the most popular ice cream shop in town. It offer variety of ice cream flavors, including beer flavor as well. The smell of waffle cone can be smelled from blocks away.

We got to Gourmet Moo's Ice cream in the afternoon about 5PM. Luckily there was no long line at the shop. As we walked in, there was a big menu of different ice cream flavor. It was difficult for us to figure out what we wanted to have. We saw the beer flavor at the corner and asked if it is any good. The server said she never tried because she was still underage and cannot have alcohol yet. It seemed like the ice cream is made with real alcohol. We asked for a sample and it did taste like alcohol but sweet. The taste was like a cocktail taste.

We got the most popular huckleberry flavor with almond honey ice cream. The huckleberry is like a specialty in Montana. Most ice cream shops serve ice cream with huckleberry flavor. The huckleberry ice cream at Moo's Ice Cream was quite good. It actually did have big chunks of huckleberry in there. We really enjoyed it. As we left the shop, the line started to form outside of the shop when people are done with dinner.

We recommend to try Gourmet Moo's Ice cream when visiting Jackson. Even if the line up is long, it is still worth it to try the ice cream.

Wind Cave Natural Entrance Tour

 

Natural Entrance Tour is one of the most recommended tour for most people at Wind Cave National Park. The tour itself is about 45 minutes long. The ranger takes a group of 40 people through the underground cave and walk through the paved path to see all the special rock formations in the cave.

We made reservation for Natural Entrance Tour on recreation.gov, but tickets can be purchased on the day of at the visitor center as well. The ticket for Natural Entrance tour is blue colour. The meet up place is under the hut just right outside of the visitor center.

The ranger first took us to the Natural Entrance. Natural Entrance is a hole above the ground that connects to the cave beneath the ground. Natural Entrance is fairly small though and no one can fit in there. The Natural Entrance is a sacred place for the native people and thus we have to be respectful to their traditions. The native people believe that Natural Entrance is the gateway between our world and the spirit world.

To enter the cave, there is a separate entrance on the side. We first took the stairs to go all the way down into the cave. On the way down, there were light on the side so we did not have to bring any flashlight. Some part of the cave was a bit low and tall people would need to lower their head.

Inside the cave, we could see some strange cave structures. One of the most famous thing to see here is the box work. It is called box work just because it looks like boxes and most of these box work in the world can only be found at Wind Cave National Park.

Towards the end of the tour, we got into this big room and we were allowed to walk around freely in there. The ranger also turned off all the light source just to give people a feel of complete darkness. It was pretty interesting.

At the end of the tour, we took the elevator back up. The elevator could only take 10 people at the time, so it was a long process to get everyone back up.

Natural Entrance tour at Wind Cave National Park was definitely an interesting tour. Even for people who are afraid of darkness, they would be able to enjoy Natural Entrance tour as well since there are light sources along the path all the time.

Sylvan Lake

 

Sylvan Lake is one of the most popular lake in Custer State Park within South Dakota. Sylvan Lake has beautiful scenery with clear blue water and grey rock surrounding it. The trail around the lake was also easy for people to hike on and the cold lake water can help to cool off the summer heat.

We got to Sylvan Lake around 10:30AM in the morning. Before getting there, we had to enter Custer State Park first. The entrance fee for Custer State Park was $20, which is a lot even though it is valid for 7 days. When we got to Sylvan Lake, we were glad that there were still several parking spaces available. However, as we parked the car, it started to rain heavily. We had to wait in the car for 30 minutes for the rain to stop.

When it stopped raining, we stepped outside and the air was so refreshing. When we got to the lake side, we saw many people fishing along the lake shore. We went on to the lake side trail and followed it towards the rock. When we got to the end of the lake shore, there was a small dam, but it looks like it had not been used for a long time.

.

Then we went through a narrow slot canyon. There was a large boulder right above us and stuck between the canyon wall. It was quite cool.

As we continue on the trail. we started walking on top of the rock. Since it was running just 30 minutes ago, the rock was a little slippery. We had to pay extra attention to avoid slipping and fall. The view from the top of the rock was simply amazing. The lake and the rock formed a perfect picture.

Sylvan Lake was definitely one of our favourite lake we have visited so far. Unfortunately, it was a bit cloudy when we went. We would definitely love to visit Sylvan Lake again in the future.