Tag: I-5

Bellingham International Airport

20160214_165114(1)20160214_165124

Good Price Hunting landed me to visit Bellingham Airport (aka South Vancouver.. 🙂 http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/todayinthesky/2016/02/08/buffalo-bellingham-us-airports-court-canadian-fliers/79842960/ ) – a perfect Southwest model airport – small & less-crowded airport. 2 pics above shows all the airport – single floor departure and arrival. So this airport maybe the smallest airport – with only 5 gates- I have ever been to (even smaller than Long Beach airport in LA)

But, very clean and “looks like recently renovated” airport and smooth (thanks to no crowd) check-in & security process and quick boarding (there is no ramp at the gate – you just walk up) no wait during any process 🙂 Definitely worth of 2 hours drive if you have price bargain when compared to departing from Seattle.

아이들 학교 mid winter break를 맞이하여 가는 여행일정을 짜면서, 비행기 표값 아낄려고 모험하듯 예약한 벨링헴 공항 출발 – 대박 성공이다.. 비록 집에서 2시간 운전해서 가야하지만 (집에서 Seattle 공항까지는 25분) ZERO waiting on everything.. 🙂 진짜로 하나도 안기다렸다.. 발권부터 검색대 그리고 탑승까지.. 표값이 괜찮다면 시애틀에 사는 사람에겐 물론이거니와 (세상에 주차도 공항내나 외나 엄청 싸다..-_-) 벤쿠버에선 must로 고려해야하는 공항으로 강추..

2016.2

 

 

The Starbucks Reserve Roastery & Tasting Room @ Seattle

WP_20150227_001

WP_20150227_002

Starbuck’s response to it being too generic. As a business man, I highly regard their effort to keep the market position and making the pie bigger, but it hurts my wallet 🙂

1124 Pike Street, Seattle, WA 98101

소문난 가게인 시애틀의 Starbucks Reserve Roastery & Tasting Room을 우연한 계기로 드디어 직접 방문..

나름 Starbucks의 차별화된 brand(aka Toyota의 Nexus), 특이한 setting과 고급화된 coffee로 Flagship Store를 지향한것 같은데, 여러 생각이 들었다.

– 그냥 커피 미니 공장을 도심에 차렸구나, 가내 수공업으로의 귀환인가?

– 스타벅스도 먹고 살기 힘들구나 근데 이 비싼동네에 공장을 겸비한 가게를 운영하려면 가게 P&L은 나올까?

한편 너무 일반화되어가는 – 그래서 동네의 중소규모 roastery에 시장을 잃어가는-  현상에 대한 Starbucks의 전략인듯 싶다. (요즘 Starbucks는 재미난걸 많이 하는듯 한참전의 mini espresso 머신 장사, 얼마전부터 promotion하는 Flat White부터해서(맛은 괜찮다만 Latte보다 1불을 더받으면?) 오늘 email을 보니 coffee subscription까지 시작해주셨다)

암튼 서설이 너무 길었고 뭐 값은 비싼데 coffee맛은 별 차이를 잘 모르겠다.. 🙂

2015.2

Daytrip to Beaverton, OR – Good Open-Box Dishwasher Hunting

WP_20140829_003 WP_20140829_005 WP_20140829_008 WP_20140829_011 WP_20140830_001

Embarked a trip to Oregon to hunt for a “hard to find” Bosch Dishwasher at Washington

– There was no ideal dishwasher within our budget in Washington – only found out Sears outlet at Portland and Best Buy at Beaverton has it…

– Wondered for 1 hour during midnight to attempt or not and decided to check it out by going there: risk was returnning without any gains after hours of driving back and forth.

– Extra cost: $50-$60 Fuel+car mileage dep. plus some time and effort to drive for round trip for unknown results. (but my time is cheap). Also this means I have to haul-away the old one by myself since it is outside of “delivery & pickup”range. Also, I cannot get installation service or need to hire someone to get installed. (Thank you youtube!!…)

– Savings: $250 from buying an open box- though it has little dent, about $100 for “forced” DIY Installation – because of the reaon stated above, also around some savings for sales tax (Thank you state of Oregon!)

Extra gain is seeing/bypassing Nike’s HQ.. 🙂 hearing quite dishwasher running after 7 hours of round trip driving and 1 hour of uninstall & install DIY – priceless..

 

2014.9