Ahhh Seattle!

 

 Honestly, I love living in Japan. It has become my home and it will be my home for the rest of my life, but Seattle will always feel like home when I visit.

 Seattle is one of those cities that you can relax and see the sights without rushing to each one to make sure you fit in 10 sights in one day. That's what I felt like I had to do when I visited New York. It is a great city and I definitely want to visit again, but there is sooooooo much to do there! I had 5 days there and I was exhausted afterwards.  Everyday we fit at least 3 sights in, of course the Metropolitan Museum of Art took a whole day and it still wasn't enough.

 This is around the Space Needle. You can find the EMP (Experience Music Project) and the Dale Chihuly Exhibition here as well. I visited the Dale Chihuly Exhibition and it was amazing! If you haven't gone yet, you should make plans to! If you enjoy art or color or darkened spaces, you will like the exhibition.

On the edge

Let's go for a drive

We kept wanting to stop along the road, but it was hard to find places wide enough for a car. Also, it was difficult to drive 5 minutes without another view that you would want to stop and admire.

Which directions would you go in?

 Perfect day, perfect view....just perfect.

What's a harbor without boats?

Every harbor needs boats, and places to dock them.

Museum Hill Botanical Garden of Santa Fe

 This botanical garden was beautiful and the weather in Santa Fe helped to increase the visual effects. During my stay I kept saying "Wow, these are some amazing cloud formations!" My friends probably thought I had been living under a rock or something. I mean who is blown away by clouds, but that is what happened. The clouds in Santa Fe were massive! These are the type of clouds that people would stare at and see different animals floating in the sky. Also, I should mention that there was a lightning storm dancing in the mountains during my night drive from Albuquerque airport to Santa Fe. That was a pretty spectacular show. It wasn't scary since it was off in the distance, but I had to keep reminding myself to look at the road and to stop gaping.

Yamanashi, Japan: If Only It Wasn't Cloudy

My mother came to visit me and we went to Yamanashi prefecture. Normally, you can see Mt. Fuji. Unfortunately for me it was too cloudy to see Mt. Fuji. There was only one brief moment when the clouds parted and I got a glimpse of Mt. Fuji. Of course, this didn't give me enough time to take a photograph. I'm hoping the next time I visit I will be able to see Mt. Fuji.

 On the bright side there were some amazing cloud formations throughout the day!

There are many lakes in the area. Fishing seems to be very popular here.

Prime example of clouds and people fishing.

I have to say the moment I saw these swan boats..... I wanted to ride one!

We were on a bus tour, so after eating lunch we only had a limited time. I had enough time to take these photos, buy some souvenirs and eat ice cream. I will show you the souvenirs and ice cream in another post.

These swans were definitely the aim for many families and couples. I'm not sure which was more popular, the swans or the ice cream...

Across from the Funatsuya Rest House.