- Length: 1.2 miles one way
- Elev. Gain: none
- Rating: 2/5 stars
This is more of a ‘walk’ than a ‘hike’, but it wasn’t the worse place to be on a sunny afternoon. There’s nothing to see when you are going along this trail - just dirt and bushes and bugs. It’s really sunny and there’s no shade, so bring a hat and lots of water.
A plus side - there is a wide beach with some shady bushes available on the trail side of the Wenatchee River, which makes it an awesome spot to lay out and/or go swimming. Nice wide and deep part of the river to swim in, with a great view of the climbers and falcons on Castle Rock.
Don’t go here expecting hiking, but do bring sunscreen and your swimsuit on a warm summer day. Our group headed out in the early part of the afternoon, I think it was probably before noon even. We managed to snag the beach before anyone else. I noticed, though, that as we were leaving (2pm or so) there was a significant increase in people.
attack of the gallery pics
- Length: 0.75 mile one way
- Elev. Gain: 230 feet
- Rating: 3/5 stars
Kind of a family hike, but still a good hike to go and relax by some water and take in pretty views of forest, mountain, and water. Just a small, not to steep hike up the hill and it opens up to the middle of one side of the lake.
There are trails all over the place to follow, but make sure you use the same trail you came up to go back to your car - there was one trail that started to lead sharply downhill and several families made the mistake of going down and trudging back up. I heard someone say something about it leading down to Lake Wenatchee, but I don’t really know.
If you don’t have a family this may be a little annoying - plenty of small gremlin-like children running back and forth at the lake’s shore. I’m sure you could find a more secluded lake spot to sit at, however.
Northwest Forest Pass required to park here.
attack of the gallery pics
- Length: 0.5 mile loop
- Elev. Gain: 140 feet
- Rating: 3/5 stars
Maybe it’s a little touristy, but I really enjoy small nature hikes if there is lots of water to marvel at. This small interpretive trail goes through nice cool forest and follows the Tye River and Deception Creek. Nice little informative signs and quotes along the way. Worth the stop if you are driving through on Hwy 2, and definitely a good place to eat lunch in the forest.
My book says that a Northwest Forest Pass is required to park here, but I didn’t see any signs while I was there that indicated such a thing, and there are enough tourists stopping through that it just wouldn’t be feasible anyway.
attack of the gallery pics
- Length: 1.0 mile one way
- Elev. Gain: 970 feet
- Rating: 5/5 stars
Forest Service Entry
It’s a nice climb through cool dark dense forest. lots of knobby tree roots in the path, rock formations here and there. Passing one particularly large group of rocks, my hiking mate said “if I were a cave man, I’d live there.”
The hike is all up, up, and more up, but it’s very short and I think it took us about 45 minutes to get to the top (with quite a few stops). Be sure to bring a good camera with adequate zoom - there are all kinds of good things to see from the lookout deck (six stories tall with a cabin on top).
All in all I think this is one of my favorite hikes so far. A really simple hike with obvious rewards at the end. Also, a big plus, there was no other hikers to be found - we only briefly passed a woman on her way up when we were headed back to the parking lot. Don’t know if this is typical or not, for reference, we went on a partially cloudy Sunday afternoon.
One important tip, there is no real ’sign’ to tell you where this trail actually is. It’s hidden and maybe that is why there are so few people on the trail itself. When you are driving along Hwy 2, you’ll see a wide gravel space on the north side of the road (it’s easier to see when you are driving west on Hwy 2). You’ll know you’re at the right place if there is a small trail at the west end of the gravel lot, and up a little ways on the trail there is a typical forest service trailhead sign that says “Heybrook L.O.” - but you’ll only see it after going into the forest a little.
Parking here requires a Northwest Forest Pass - you must purchase it beforehand since it’s not sold at the trailhead.
attack of the gallery pics
- Address: 2301 5th Ave, Seattle, WA (Belltown)
- Type: Vietnamese, Thai, East Indian? eclectic spread…
- Pricing: $13/person (lunch)
- Rating: 3/5 stars
Spice Home Page
was walking to our usual Thai place today and we noticed the signs for this new restaurant. we decided to give it a try, and it wasn’t so bad. a small lunch menu, but enough variety to suit my tastes. i like how there are so many different kinds of food on one menu. the atmosphere was very nice and the staff was normal. seemed like it was more a place you go for evening drinks, though.
i had the ‘havana’ sandwich ($8) - orange chipotle pork with garlic aioli and tomato relish. it was very good except for the bread part. there was a lot of flavor and a lot of sauce - i felt it made the bread too soggy and hard to handle. the pork would have been excellent over some basmati rice or complemented by steamed vegetables.
my co-worker had the ‘taj mahal’ chicken - yogurt marinated chicken oven roasted and served with rice and ginger tomato sauce. i tried a bite and detemined it to be too dry for me.
in short, it’s good, but not great, and if you want to eat in a pretty place (and pay for it) then this will be what you are looking for.
spring rolls (from Spice on left, Golden Singha on right):
- Address: 15045 Bel-Red Rd., Bellevue, WA
- Type: Vietnamese & Bubble Tea
- Pricing: $10/person
- Rating: 4/5 stars
i finally found my favorite bubble tea place on the eastside. this place uses a combination of powder and fresh fruit that comes out really well and they have quite a few options available. i thought that it was pretty funny and interesting that the woman believed she made the best bubble tea around and wanted to make sure i was pleased with the outcome. she even made a bit and brought it to me in a spoon to taste and see if i wanted to add more to it.
i’m sure the tasting part is just part of the benefit of being there at 4pm in the middle of a weekday (there was only one guy there), but it’s probably still a nice place to be at anytime.
i have never eaten food there so i can’t really comment on the quality of that. i had a little bit of beef fried rice today, it was standard - nothing great, nothing bad.
the hours listed on the business card that i picked up are:
monday - saturday 9:30am to 9pm
- Address: 4343 University Way, Seattle, WA
- Type: Cafe - Tea/Coffee
- Pricing: $4/person
- Rating: 3.5/5 stars
add another one to the bubble tea obsession of mine. i tried this place after my regular place was closed (weird, a religious bubble tea place is closed on sunday?). i was pleasantly surprised, and may consider this to be my new regular bubble tea fix.
some background on what makes bubble tea so awesome for me: i love smoothies. i love fruit, and i love that you can blend it in a blender with some juice or maybe some ice cream or yogurt and you can just drink your fruit. honestly, there isn’t much better than that. well, maybe ice cream is better than that. don’t make me choose!
anyway, i have discovered that finding a place that makes bubble tea with real fruit smoothies is very hard. and maybe a smoothie type bubble tea is not what bubble tea really is, but that’s what I qualify it as. most places want to make you a smoothie type thing with some milk, ice and a powdery substance. it’s alright, but it’s not what i want.
i like this place, but i only went once, and will have to go back for some more, um, testing, to see if it lives up to my standards 
i am also excited to go back to this place and try out their large collection of teas for winter coffeehouse lounging.
- Address:1420 5th Ave, Seattle, Wa
- Type: ummm… Soup?
- Pricing: $6/person
- Rating: 4/5 stars
nothing better on a cold rainy afternoon than some warm wholesome soup. for lunch in the winter, going to Soups! is a regular thing for me. they usually have about 10 varieties, and it comes in three sizes. all soups come with bread and a piece of fruit (never seen it be anything but apple, banana, or orange). they usually have at least 1 or 2 vegetarian, and sometimes vegan, options. there is a daily special that is a medium size soup for a small price deal.
Soups! is in the US Bank Centre near Star(f)ucks, and you’ll notice it because there is probably a gimongous line in front of it. the only probably with Soups! is that it is so popular that if you don’t go close to lunchtime rush (noon-1pm) then you might not get the soup you want, and they start closing/cleaning up at around 2pm-ish on some days. (technically i think they are supposed to close at 3pm).
- Address: 37 103rd Ave NE, Bellevue, WA
- Type: Cafe - Tea/Coffee
- Pricing: $3/person
- Rating: 0/5 stars (i.e. STAY AWAY!)
i love bubble tea, i’ll admit it. it’s borderline bubble tea obsession. aside from the fact that their bubble tea was not very good (watery, very little fruit and not even some powdery stuff to back it up) - i found hair in my drink. wait, let me clarify - i found THREE HAIRS in my drink.
i’ve only been that one time (it was during the so-called Bellevue Strawberry Festival…where were the strawberries?) so maybe i’m being over-judgemental. i don’t think i want to risk going back though. they weren’t even that busy, and how do you manage to get three hairs in a drink? it’s not like a giant plate of food with lots of surface area for stuff to fall on…it’s a small 3-inch diameter drink cup.
so, maybe someone else has gone there and found their experience to be pleasant and awesome. please let us know. if you are compelling enough, i may reconsider. maybe.
oh, in case anyone is wondering, i kinda grabbed my drink and ran back out to the festival. by the time i noticed weird black shit floating around in my cup, i was too far away to go back and ask for a refund or remake. judging from the staff, i’m sure they would have done whatever i wanted to make me feel better about it.
- Address: 1501 4th Ave, Seattle, WA (next to Borders)
- Type: Sushi/Japanese - lunch
- Pricing: $8/person
- Rating: 3/5 stars
on Sushi Finder
not the best sushi around (although, i’m not sure if i can qualify any place as the ‘best’). very fast, professional people, tastes pretty good for being a little kiosk between borders and washington mutual.
small menu but what they make is good. i don’t go anywhere else for sushi when i’m downtown for lunch. i like to get the ‘zen garden’ combo - it’s a small salad with sesame dressing and 6 pieces of california roll for $5.95.
they also have this little card system equivalent to a punch card - the bottom of it says ‘i-reward’. basically, everytime you buy something there they record the amount of purchase on the card and give you a percentage in ‘credit’. i haven’t used my credit yet, but with 11 purchases averaging $14, i have $7.27 saved up to use.
one big tip: i love bubble tea, and you really don’t want to get it from here, which is totally disappointing. i gave them a couple tries, but they are usually too busy to pay attention to making it for you and both times the tapioca balls were very undercooked.