Downtown in Chinatown

Today was supposed to be a serious business day. Pearl had passed her written drivers test, and I was supposed to do the same. But the convenient wait time information on the web site said there was at least a 30 minute wait at the licensing office. So this gave me a good excuse to put it off until Monday, but oh Monday is a holiday, and this particular office only opens from Tuesday to Saturday, and when there is a holiday on Monday, they take Tuesdays off. So I have until Wednesday to sit my test.

So off we went to find the Toyota dealer using the trusty GPS. Unfortunately the GPS information was out of date, as Pearl and Mum discovered last week when they tried to find a small toyshop, only to discover it had probably closed about 5 years ago. Never mind, we'll just pop into work and lookup where it is on Google. Oh no, my new swipe card doesn't work. So no GPS and no Internet. What do we do? We'll go to plan B. Lets check out Chinatown and Downtown Seattle.

Off we went, found the first carpark in an area that looked like Chinatown and wandered off. Just as we were walking down the street I heard the familiar drums of the lion dance. Oh yeah, it's Chinese New Years. We came across the lions parading around Chinatown. They happened to stop at a travel agency and lit the firecrackers. Xander was remarkably calm when they went off. I think he was so enchanted by the Lion dancers.

After grabbing some Yum Cha (they call is Dim Sum over here), we drove further into town to find a park near Pike Place Markets. The area was crazy busy. People wandering all over the place and you are stuck in a 4 way stop intersection trying to make a move like all the drivers. Once you get out of there you are fine. We drove up and down the car park trying to find a park big enough for this big American car we are driving. We gave up and squeezed into a "compact" car park, just like all the other SUV and Minivan owners before us.

The markets were crowded. Bus loads of tourists gawking at the seafood sellers, who were hamming it up for the crowds. Mum had a monk fish slide off the shelf toward her. It was just the store owners playing games. The markets were not just seafood, there was other fresh produce and crafts. The street outside had lots of food stores, cheeses, bakeries, the original Starbucks coffee shop etc... But the biggest draw in this area were two kitchenware shops. Pearl and Mum spent a good while poking their way through them. Xander and I had to find something else to occupy ourselves since we couldn't fit into the tightly packed shops. So we entertained ourselves by walking around the buskers who frequent the markets, a guy with a guitar, mouth organ and a hoolahoop, a blue grass group, a gospel trio, a guy with a piano and a guy with playing a saw with a violin bow.

On the way home we stopped by Uwajimaya, the big Japanese supermarket. This one was the one downtown, it is bigger and better stocked than the Ranch99. Their trollies had this weird metal cap on one of the back wheels. At first I thought it was a brake, then I saw the black plastic cover on the front wheel on the opposite side. Still confused I happened to spot a sign saying not to take the trollies past the yellow line. Now it all fell into place. The front wheel will lock up outside of the yellow area and the cap on the back wheel is there so you can't push the trolley on the back wheels.

Oh well, I suppose I should get back to studying the road rules so I can remember what the fine is for parking on a disabled car park without a permit, and whether I should stop, slow down or just run the kids over when I see a school bus.

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