Embarkation Day

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It was 67 and sunny when we left Seattle today. How’s the weather in Missouri? That’s probably a mean question. It feels like autumn outside here.

So… what happened today? I was awake before 4am Seattle time (which is before 6am MO time) so I took a shower and got ready while Kamie slept. I finally woke him at 8:45am while I walked across the street to Starbucks. I had already downed two iced coffees I made with the hotel supplies, so I don’t know what I was thinking. I was like a mouse on cocaine. We left our hotel in our jackets (Kamie has his full-on winter coat which he insisted on bringing and I am now questioning my choice of not doing so). We took a ferry from Bremerton, WA (a peninsula just west of Seattle) to downtown Seattle. This ferry is free and takes an hour. We boarded along with hundreds of Mariners fans (that’s baseball folks). The Seattle Mariners were playing the Angels. OF COURSE I’m hoping the Mariners won but you’d have to be a Cardinals fan to understand why. The ferry crossing was comfortable, clean, and beautiful views. We enjoyed the views of the homes along the waterfronts. Picture the 50 Shades of Grey house… tons of them… side by side… lined up along the waterfront. The ferry was full of interesting characters too. Lots of family groups. Probably lots of dads that chose the Mariners game for a Father’s Day gift. By the way dad… Happy Father’s Day again… I love you EVERY day. ? The ferry stops directly at downtown Seattle – next to Ivar’s chowder (best clam chowder you will ever have), the fish market, the entire pier experience. We have visited this area before and it’s great (during the day). It was packed with Mariners fans today. We took an Uber over to our cruise port.

We are on the Holland America Westerdamn ship. This is a 7-night cruise going to various ports in Alaska and one evening in Canada and returns to Seattle next Sunday. The cruise is sold out. The ship is full of younger family groups and lots of middle-aged folks….basically… it’s not a ship full of elderly people like it has been with HAL in the past. No offense because I love the oldies... it’s just surprising to see so many young people on this cruise. We met a lady tonight who reminds me of Dorothy from the Golden Girls. She’s 60, says whatever is on her mind, smokes like a freight train and apparently gambles A LOT. Most of her cruises are “free” because she gambles so much. Last week she was on a Celebrity cruise and she gambled so much she won two more free cruises. She and her husband got off that cruise, spent a few nights in Seattle (doing laundry she said) and got on this cruise today. She said they've been to Alaska nine times on a cruise. I feel like Dorothy is going to have stories to tell us on this cruise…



After we were onboard we sat on our balcony, I unpacked us, and we didn’t do too much before we decided to take a quick nap. We had 8:30pm reservations at the steakhouse for dinner. This isn’t something we’ll do again this cruise… it was a special deal we got when we booked the cruise. We both fell asleep around 6:30pm and woke-up around 8pm. Because it’s the first night of the cruise, you don’t have to dress-up so that’s why we made our reservation for tonight. We no longer pack dress-up clothes for vacation. Besides, it’s cold outside. Kamie had lobster bisque, medium rare filet mignon, and creamed spinach. I had an iceberg salad, medium well boneless ribeye, and asparagus. We both had a dry red wine. There was a selection of breads (damnit), special whipped butters (one with walnuts, one with red bell peppers), and lots of side hollandaise and bearnaise sauces so everything was rich-rich and creamy aka buttery. I had part of a piece of one of the breads with the walnut whipped butter. It was wonderful. I ate one-fourth of my steak and the rest is sitting in the refrigerator waiting for Kamie to eat it when he gets hungry (which is usually the middle of the night). I got a slice of key lime pie for dessert and ate almost half of it. I changed after dinner and went upstairs and walked a lap on the track (it’s probably ½ mile) but it was too windy and dark and probably not safe because the ship seems to be swaying and moving fairly fast tonight. I got a giant ice water and came down to our balcony to sit to type this blog… but it’s too cold to be out on our balcony!! ? I’m already fully aware that I’m going to need to wear my long sleeves and lots of layers and my scarf and gloves and all the other things I packed because I didn’t pack a real coat. It’s so odd that we are cold already and we just left Seattle today. For now, it’s late and we only have four hours of darkness in this part of the world so I’m going to sleep. We have our balcony door propped open and the cool ocean breeze is calling me to sleep…

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Photos

The ferry
Passengers board at the top, cars/motorcycles/bicyclists at the bottom. You can get out of your car and explore the boat during the crossing.

Ivar's Chowder
We had this years ago and we know it's won a lot of awards. They sold it on the ship so we split some. Best clam chowder ever. Also, WHY does he look crazy? Like a crazed Jack Nicholson.

Comments

[Stacy]

How does the food rate? Compared to other cruise lines?

[Eeda and Jahn]

Meh
The food is just okay. They didn't have real eggs on the Lido deck the first day so the second day we ordered them from the menu they leave in your room each night.... then later we got to the Lido deck and they had eggs benedict that day! It varies. One night the Alaskan char was so-so and tonight the salmon was amazing. I'm not overly impressed nor am I unhappy - there is always unsweet tea, salad, lots of low-carb options. I had an amazing homemade meatball for lunch the other day. You just never know. I'm not overly impressed with the dinner options so far.