Foto Phriday - 2/22/13

This is my ninety-second Foto Phriday post. The pictures today are from the Lunar New Year festival in Chinatown and the Seattle Great Wheel. Full set with all 64 photos can be viewed here.

Well, I found a travel companion for my upcoming trip to Japan. This is a nendoroid figure of my beloved Yui-chan from the anime K-On. I have the regular figure on my desk at work. This chibi version will accompany me around Japan and make occasional appearances in pictures and what not.

Two Saturdays ago, we went up to the International District/Chinatown in downtown Seattle for their Lunar New Year celebration. It was packed with tons of people checking out the events, activities, and food.

Many restaurants were doing $2 tastes of some of their featured dishes. The lines were very long, so I'm sure many businesses had a successful day. We ended up eating at my favorite restaurant in the world, Szechuan Noodle Bowl. They also had $2 tastes going, but we opted to just have a full lunch there instead.

As far as shows go, there were costume contests, taiko drumming, and a dragon dance.

After lunch, we caught a lion dance blessing a restaurant next door with firecrackers and everything. It was cool. Loud, but cool.

Even the alleyways were decorated.

More lines for food.

We put Juliana in her purple Chinese dress and she got stopped for some pictures. Can you tell that she was cold?

I picked up a box of these cards at the Kinokuniya Bookstore to learn hiragana for my Japan trip. Easy at first until all the symbols start to look the same.

Our little bunny, Coral, behaved pretty well. There was plenty to look at.

For Valentine's Day this year, we got Juliana a betta fish. She mentioned wanting a fish a few weeks ago and we figured that now was a good time to do so. She named the male betta we got "Happy" and he's very colorful.

Julie and I went back to Chinatown last Saturday for a daddy/daughter day. This time, we checked out the Wing Luke Asian Museum, which is free on the third Saturday of every month.

It was nice inside, but really not the most exciting place for kids. I think the older folks would appreciate this place more. We did not stay long. This museum is also free on the first Thursday of every month.

We hopped on the light rail a couple stations to University Street and walked down to the waterfront to do what we really went to Seattle for...

...to ride the Seattle Great Wheel!

Julie loves Ferris wheels and was not scared at all even though it goes pretty high and it was quite windy this day.

The Great Wheel offers some pretty nice views of Seattle from the waterfront area, but nothing incredibly special. In fact, I would not particularly recommend the Great Wheel for the best views for tourists in Seattle.

Even though the ferry is lower than the Great Wheel, I would even say that a ride on that would provide better views of the city.

That's not to say that it's not worth riding the wheel. If you are a local or frequent visitor, it makes for a fun little event. It's just not something I would do very often. The price is also not the greatest.

From the waterfront, we walked up the many stairs to Pike Place Market. I forgot how crazy this place is on a Saturday. Especially on a pretty nice Saturday.

We squeezed our way through people to get out of the market, but not before picking up a chocolate éclair at the Pike Place Bakery. To see more pictures from the Seattle Great Wheel and the Lunar New Year celebration, view the full set.