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Published: September 27th 2009
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Travelogue - Day 1
Seattle, Washington
Hello everyone!
Greetings from Vancouver! Our travel day yesterday could not have been better. We took off from San Diego at 10:30 a.m. and flew directly up the center of California, Oregon and Washington. After about an hour in the air, I could see Half Dome in Yosemite Valley and then directly below us appeared Lake Tahoe. The lake appeared to be full and was gorgeous colors of green, blue and turquoise all around the shore on the east side of the lake.
Flying north from Tahoe, we passed over several lakes in Nevada and Northern California that were dried up with no signs of any water at all. Even the rivers appeared to be dry. Once we got into Oregon, we flew over the Three Sisters peaks; and only one of them appeared to have a few small patches of snow, while the others were completely barren. Mt. St. Helens had no snow on it to speak of, but Mt. Rainier near Seattle did. It was mostly a beautiful blue, sunny day with a few fluffy clouds hear and there.
Once we landed in Seattle, we were greeted by the
Princess Cruise Lines representatives down at baggage claim and were immediately put into a taxi cab headed towards the Pacific Princess. The ship was up at Pier 91 in Seattle, almost directly across from the Space Needle. Rob and Christie were already on board when we got there.
We were both upgraded to mini-suites when we checked in; mostly because the ship was only about 2/3 full with only about 425 passengers of the 670 capacity. Our staterooms were spacious and very nicely appointed. We were on the port (left) side of the ship, while Rob and Christie were on the same deck but on the starboard (right) side of the ship.
We sat out on the pool deck and enjoyed a refreshing drink and then had to get ready for our “muster” drill - emergency life jacket drill. After that, we headed up to the upper deck where we stayed as we sailed away from Seattle and headed into the Puget Sound. It was just absolutely a perfect sail-away, with a few clouds in the distance, but otherwise perfect weather - about 75° and no wind. Every once in awhile a Washington State Ferry would pass in the distance; and there were only a few small sailboats out on the water enjoying the beautiful day. The sunset was beautiful looking towards the jagged peaks of the Olympic Peninsula and the Olympic Mountain Range.
Darkness set in about 7:30ish and we were off to dinner at 8:00 p.m. Jim enjoyed his veal scaloppini while I enjoyed my salmon. For dessert, the staff surprised us with an anniversary cake (a month early so not quite sure why they did that), but it was nice and we shared with Rob and Christie and the other couple at our table.
We have already started our Euchre tournament and the girls took the first game! We were the only people in the Card Room on the Pacific Princess playing cards before dinner.
After dinner we were all tired and so we turned in around 10:00 or so. This morning we had to disembark the ship at 8:15 a.m., so we met Rob and Christie for breakfast and went to the buffet on the upper deck and ate outside on the back deck where we had a nice view of Vancouver.
We got off the ship in relatively good time and each loaded our luggage and ourselves into a taxi cab and off we went to the Westin Bayshore Vancouver. Our rooms were not ready, so we checked our luggage in with the concierge and grabbed another taxi and headed off to Granville Island where we walked around the Granville Market and took in many of the art galleries that were over there. We were a bit disappointed with the selection of galleries this time, and so around noon we all decided to head to Gas Town for lunch and a little more shopping.
Directly across the street from the old steam clock on Water Street in Gas Town is a nice little restaurant and outdoor café called the Water Street Café where we had lunch outside and a nice table along Water Street and directly across from the Steam Clock. After lunch we walked up and down the street a little more going in a few shops and then we hailed a taxi and headed back here to the hotel where we were finally able to check in.
The weather in Vancouver is as beautiful as the weather was in Seattle yesterday. It is just gorgeous and so pleasant to walk around. The sky seems so blue. Our room at the Westin has a marine view and as I am sitting here typing this Travelogue a lone sailboat is motoring out of the harbor. There is a small marina down below us and what appears to be a nice walkway where many people are taking advantage of the nice weather and either roller blading or walking along the path.
We have the sliding window open in our room right now and there is a really nice breeze cooling us and Jim is sitting here reading his book while I am typing my Travelogue.
We will get together for more Euchre around 3:00 this afternoon and then this evening we are planning on going out for a nice dinner. Tomorrow we have reservations for a tour of the Capillanos Suspension Bridge and Park and if we have time, we may take in part of Stanley Park as well. Sunday we will get up leisurely and have breakfast and then will head off to board the Golden Princess around noon.
This area is starting to show its’ fall colors with several of the trees already turning gorgeous shades of deep orange and burgundy red. The marina and bay here in Vancouver are calm and just like a mirror.
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