Phoenix to Seattle

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Phoenix to Seattle



The flight to Seattle was quiet and uneventful as it should be. Amazingly, the mountains were “out” for us… we flew by Mt. St. Helens with the sun shining it was awesome. Then into Seattle with another spectacular view… Mt. Rainier. As I always have an aisle seat, my very nice seatmates leaned back so I could have a view of these beautiful mountains.



On into Seattle where we grabbed the bus to the rental car and picked up a snazzy red job. Hey, we’re on vacation ;-) A quick overnight at the Fairfield Inn by SeaTac and we were off to breakfast with our step-daughter and her friend Danny at the Portage Café in Downtown, Washington. After spending 10 minutes trying to figure out where to put the parking sticker on our car, we noticed that others had stuck them to the inside of the drivers side window…ok great, we stuck it on and headed to Portage.



It’s cold here in Seattle. At least to us. Coming from 104 degrees everyday to 53 seems cold but wonderful!!!! No more heat for awhile. Phoenix has had a year and a half of summer; we’re thrilled to be in Seattle.



Great French toast and fresh fruit as we visited with Emily and Danny. Next stop, my long time girlfriend Judy and her husband Reid. We are going to spend the night with them. They have a beautiful “green” home on Lake Union with two of the most amazing cats ever! Beautiful cats from France. Judy and Reid were gracious enough to take us on their boat to Ballard for dinner at Bastille, a wonderful French Restaurant. A little walk after dinner topped off with gelato before returning to the boat and home.



Sunday was great, visiting all morning over coffee and breakfast. The sun shining, the cats playing, a wonderful prelude to boarding the MS Amsterdam. Thanks to Judy and Reid we arrived safely at the ship around noon and began making our way through the boarding process. There were lots of folks to point us in the right direction…”Go in that door, not this one”, “Wait, that’s for 5 star elite guests” (clearly not us with one star), “Fill out this medical form”, “Where is your Chinese VISA?”, “Hold on a minute, don’t you want a boarding picture so we can charge you $4799.50 for it later on the voyage?” LOL NO!



Actually boarding is pretty simple, just tedious. Finally we are onboard and being offered champagne. I’d take it except I don’t have any free hands. Maybe later. We find our stateroom. It’s on Deck 1, any lower and we’d be in the sea. But we are happy here. There will be less rocking and rolling as we head up to Kodiak.



Onboard, we check out the library, dining room where we are trying to get moved from 8pm dining to 5:30. Those of you who know me, know that I get up early and head to bed early… 8pm dining is over around 10- 10:30pm…yikes. Guess we’ll eat on the Lido deck (buffet style) until we get an earlier seating.



The afternoon is spent unpacking, checking out the pool, spa, gym and generally visiting with new folks from all over the world. Dinner time rolls around and we head for the buffet and grab a window seat to watch us leave beautiful Seattle. The skyline is spectacular. The weather is amazing, around 70. It will take us until 1am to reach open water in the North Pacific.



Next Stop: Kodiak, Alaska

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Comments

[Elaine Gaertner]

Your blog
You are such an interesting writer that even if I weren't interested in your travels, I would read it! Hope your voyage to Alaska is going well. Hugs, Elaine

[Adventureduo]

You are so kind!
Thanks Elaine, Glad you're enjoying them. Sometimes we get to running so apologies in advance for grammatical and spelling errors... hopefully the content makes up for it! ;-)

[Jenn]

Fun!
It sounds amazing already. I wish I was with you!