Washington is world-famous for three things originating from this state – Starbucks, Boeing and Microsoft. It’s probably no big deal to some people, but since we found ourselves in this state, we decided to visit the Microsoft HQ in Redmond. In particular One Microsoft Way, which we learnt from the Microsoft website is where it is situated.
At the entrance of the compound.
For some reason or another, it was extremely cold there in Redmond, to the extent that I was opting to wear my gloves all the way. Both Peter and Desmond were lamenting over how they had forgotten their gloves again. Unfortunately there was absolutely no way I was giving up my gloves to share with them. Not that I’m selfish, but I’d probably end up even colder than they were, without my gloves. Furthermore I really didn’t think they could fit into my kids’ sized gloves.
The numerous buildings within the compound.
The whole place is just huge! It was so vast that we got quite hopelessly lost. We simply didn’t know where to go and where to start. So we decided we should just start with Building 1 and then proceed to Building 44 for some photo-taking. We thought there were 44 buildings in total, but apparently we were wrong since on our drive out of the massive campus, we noticed a Building 50. To hazard a guess we think there could be a total of 50 Buildings in Microsoft HQ in Redmond.
For those aspiring to work for Microsoft, please proceed to Building 19. Well, yes they have a building dedicated to the purpose of recruitment. Out of sheer curiosity, we decided to check out the positions available. Microsoft was looking for cleaners. Any takers?
Where is One Microsoft Way?
We found Building 1 as well, but we simply could not locate the street One Microsoft Way. The closest we found was the street sign that said MICROSOFT WAY. Close enough, I reckon.
After satisfying our curiosity on how the campus of Microsoft corporate headquarters looked like, we left for Bellevue Square for a spot of shopping. Apparently men shop too, but mainly for their wives and girlfriends.
Our day started early since it was the day Y was returning to Singapore and needed to be at the airport at 8.30am. Two other colleagues from a sister company decided to join us today and we wasted no time after depositing Y and his luggage, to proceed to Olympia the capital of Washington State.
The imposing City Hall building.
It was turning cold and the leaves were changing hues.
The first place we went to was the City Hall. We signed up for a tour around the building and had a rather concise history lesson about the State of Washington.
The state Washington, otherwise know as the Evergreen State, was the 42nd state to join the United States of America. All the chandeliers and lights in the building are from Tiffany’s and they are now priceless although they only cost USD5,000 and USD10,000 respectively in the 1920s.
The Olympia Highlanders.
We were very fortunate to have met the Olympia Highlanders, who were at the City Hall to take their official band pictures (note: Highlanders are Scottish descendants whose clans originated from the highlands in Scotland).
Now, on normal days under normal situations, I would most certainly appreciate the music from the bagpipes… but playing indoors in a building shaped like a dome was simply a recipe for disaster. I suppose I learnt something from this scenario, that bagpipes are meant to be played in the open air, like the highlands.
I hate to admit this, but I couldn’t wait to escape from the building.
Following our walk through the numerous rooms and given a brief history of Washington, we were off to the Farmers’ Market nearby. Given that it was the weekend, the local produce market was lively and bustling with activity. It wasn’t too big though, and we managed to cover the whole place in less than thirty minutes.
Build-A-Bear is definitely kids’ paradise.
We lingered around a bit more before deciding that we’d seen enough of what there was, and proceeded to Tacoma Mall. While window-shopping, I came to this very interesting shop called Build-A-Bear where shoppers can customise their own teddy bears. Ooh…. I would have loved to queue with the kids and get a teddy bear stitched up the way I wanted if I were with H (and not with 4 guys totally unrelated to me). And it’s relatively inexpensive to get a bespoke bear. On average, it costs about USD20.00 to get one done. The expensive items though, are the dresses and clothes for the bears.
Standing on one of those legendary steep slopes in downtown Seattle.
After a quick lunch at Tacoma Mall, we drove on to Seattle downtown since both our new colleagues haven’t had the chance to visit it. By then, I was already nursing a headache. Not too sure if it was due to the heavy bag I was carrying or the cold climate. A definite dampener to my mood. It took us quite a while to find a parking lot, and finally, we found one on the steep slope characteristic of Seattle (since it was rebuilt above the ruins of the old Seattle which was destroyed by the earthquake). I reckoned the angle of elevation to be about 30 degrees. If you miss a footing while walking down, you can be rest assured you would be tumbling all the way down. No joke!
Pike Place Market was really busy and packed with weekend shoppers; I’ve never quite seen it like this before since it was always closed when we headed that way. We took the opportunity to explore the market. It’s really like one of our local wet markets in Singapore, the western version. And I spotted a frightening-looking fish. Upon closer inspection, we learnt that it was called a monkfish. If the fishmonger was trying to attract more shoppers to his stall, he had totally succeeded. Effective marketing at its best.
Dinner that night was settled in downtown Seattle, following which we embarked on the long drive back to Everett before it got too late. P had more activities planned for the next day so we wanted to have ample rest.
In more ways than one, this was a trip that kept giving. Being in the aviation industry for both my first and now, second job meant that a planned trip to the private non-profit Museum of Flight in Seattle was such a treat. The fact that I had nothing to do with the decision-making process indicated that I was in the company of like-minded colleagues. Being employees of an aviation-related company meant that we also scored discounted entrance tickets. What a treat!
I really enjoyed strolling through the museum at my own pace, not being hurried at all. Guess it helped that my companions were also fellow aviation enthusiasts. On top of that, they were much more shutter-happy than I was, so that made up for the extra time I took to read the exhibits in detail.
We finally made it to the outdoor exhibit area, where we got to see retired aircraft/prototypes. The first B747-400 was just standing right there, in front of me. We also saw the very first Air Force One and the feeling was decidedly different from seeing the radar blip of its current incarnation flying in my airspace but that’s an entirely different story to tell.
When we were finally done with the museum, we drove down to Seattle for dinner. In specific, a Taiwanese cuisine restaurant. Having been away from home for almost half a month, I was starting to miss authentic Asian food and the guys decided to bring me to their favourite haunt.
It was my first weekend in Everett but I soon learned that amongst three of my male colleagues – D, P and Y – P was usually the one researching and suggesting places we visited during our weekends. Since the rest of us were easygoing and had no inkling where to go, we gladly relinquished the right to him.
For my inaugural sightseeing trip, P decided on visiting a farm called ‘The Farm‘! That’s really the name, I kid you not! I was told we were going to take a look at the pumpkins available for sale, and the main attraction, the corn maze. I went along without any expectations since I wasn’t involved in the planning and decision process.
These were some of the pictures I captured while on the road when P was behind wheels. Loved how wide their highways are. Take a closer look at the 2nd picture if you will – those black dots on the grass… cows! Alright, I have seen cows in the wild but that was in Malaysia years ago as a child. I had to capture that shot fast since P literally stopped in the middle of the road to oblige me. Pays to be the only female in the group. 😆
We arrived at The Farm rather early, around 11am and the carpark was already quite packed! The picture above only captured half the width of the carpark so you could imagine the impressive size in its entirety.
The first place we stopped by was the Petting Station, where they had all types of farm animals from pigs, sheep, kittens to donkeys for the children to have close contact with. I wasn’t too keen to go look for a washroom to wash my hands after that, hence refrained from the activity. Immediately following, we walked over to the nearby hay maze meant for children and were all wondering why the maze was free for adults. It wasn’t until we walked in that we found out why.
As it turned out, even petite me was taller than the hay stack. It was still nice of the farm not to charge adults knowing it would not pose as any kind of challenge to anyone above 5 ft tall.
Next, we unanimously decided to pay the small fee of USD5 for entry into the corn maze. The adult version this round. After receiving an ink stamp (in the form of a picture of a cow) on our hands and a map each, we got up the wagons that would transport us to the entrance of the maze.
Admittedly P and Y aka ‘Mr Pumpkin’ (who was wearing an orange shirt resembling the colour of pumpkins) seemed much less enthusiastic about the corn maze than I was. Or perhaps it was the glare annoying them.
Soon enough, we arrived at the entrance of the corn maze where we were dropped off and left on our own, equipped with a map provided to navigate our way.
Such a huge pumpkin!
Standing at the entrance of the corn maze and completely dwarfed by them.
The corn maze reminded me so much of the movie ‘The Signs’. Was it by Bruce Willis or Mel Gibson? While I don’t remember the actors, I sure recall vividly the freaky crop signs and aliens running about in the tall crop fields. My imagination was running wild as we cautiously began our walk through the maze.
More pictures were taken within the crop maze, and I realised that my male colleagues were taking more pictures of themselves than I was of myself haha. There were 3 ‘bridges’ within the maze where we could take in views of the whole maze at a vantage point. It was on one of these bridges that Y took a picture for me. I reckoned I could have enjoyed the maze better if not for the muddy ground. Eeks! Of all days, I chose that day to wear my Hush Puppies and not my boots.
When we finally found our way out of the corn maze, the sight that greeted us was pumpkins in all shapes and sizes. Some of them were really quite huge, nothing like what we’ve ever seen in Singapore. Pumpkins, pumpkins and more pumpkins! We just kind of went crazy and starting shooting off (our cameras, i mean) like madmen at the pumpkin fields.
Shortly after, I learnt that they have an exceedingly interesting way of deciding how much each customer were to pay for the pumpkin they were buying. Arranged neatly in a row were about 10 pumpkins of various sizes. What you probably can’t see from the picture above were the prices written with a marker pen on every pumpkin. The little boy carrying the pumpkin in the picture just finished comparing his ‘treasure’ against the standard and came to the conclusion that his little pumpkin cost USD2.00. Seeing how cheap it really was, we decided to select a small pumpkin to bring back to our hotel totry cooking it. In the end we selected a very nice one for USD1.00.
Delicious pumpkin pie.
We ended out trip with a pumpkin pie we bought at the bakery within the compounds of The Farm. Cost us USD10.00 for the whole pie of 6 slices. It was really yummy! Truth is, I didn’t used to be a fan of pumpkin, thinking it’s too sweet for my palate, but my opinion changed after tasting the fresh pumpkin pie. I need this pie recipe!
Wayfaring: Still 