48 hours in Seattle before our Cruise
Our good friend John asked us nearly a year ago if we wanted to join them on a Sea Cruise to Alaska. (Notice how I had to qualify the type of Cruise? Cruise is ambiguous if you ride motorcycles allot).
Nan and I do allot of motorcycle trips with John and his wife Angela. The trips are for all of us, but the Motorcycle part is mainly for John and I. So when he suggested doing something that would make the wives happier, I figured that was probably a good thing.
John pushed most of the planning because he'd been on the cruise before and had definite ideas about what would make the trip good or bad. And because you can't get enough of a good thing, he also invited another couple, Eric and Shawna, that we've also traveled with in the past. 4 of us can get a little silly, but 6 of us can become down right juvenile, and that's when we have the most fun.
We exchanged allot of emails and text messages for the next 8 months as we figured out cost, rooms, meeting times and places, and a host of other things, And after all that planning and figuring, it was finally time to leave. It's very surreal after so much planning to have the date finally arrive.
We all arrived in Seattle at about the same time and took the shuttle bus to rent a car for a couple of days. We wound up with a Kia Sadona which fit all 6 of us an our 10 bags. We checked into a hotel in Renton, then headed up to Seattle to find something to eat. We walked through allot of piers trying to find something good and reasonably priced. That's pretty hard that close to the water. We wound up at the Crab Pot. It was pretty good.
After dinner we kept wandering until we wandered over to the Seattle Great Wheel. Shawna and Angela had no desire to ride the Wheel (big ferris wheel) but Nan really wanted to, so she and I bought tickets.
I took some video of the ride. I didn't notice until I reviewed the video tonight that the people in the car behind us were making faces during some of the video. It's pretty funny. We enjoyed the ride and had a good view of the surrounding water and islands.
The video can be seen here - https://youtu.be/DzCJ9R101hc
The video can be seen here - https://youtu.be/DzCJ9R101hc
On the way back to the hotel, we decided to get some frozen yogurt. After a bad GPS destination, Angela spotted a frozen yogurt sign, but when we got back it turned out to be closed. Angela had gotten out to double check that it was closed, but the owner happened to next door and offered to open up just for us. We enjoyed our FroYo around his outdoor seating area and cracked jokes till our sides ached from laughing.
Friday morning we met for breakfast in the Hotel dining room. We hadn't really planned exactly what to do today other than "See Seattle". After a brief discussion we thought we'd start with the Pike Market. It took nearly an hour to go the 20 miles and another 10 minutes to find somewhere to park.
The market was completely packed and we had to shuffle our way through hundreds of people. We wandered for a couple of hours and tried not to buy much. Nan and I bought a cinnamon and apple fritter stick that we shared around, then some cinnamon coated almonds.
We listened to some buskers as we wandered through. The first couple was a girl with thimbles on her fingers playing a washboard and a guy tunelessly strumming a guitar and screaming words to a song we couldn't understand. We also saw an elderly man in a white sailor uniform singing gospel hymns, a guy playing a ukulele, and a very enthusiastic piano player. There was quite a selection and a bit of entertainment.
Eric was approached by an elderly chinese man asking for money to build a new temple of some sort. He gave Eric a bead bracelet, wrote his name in his journal, then wrote $20 beside his name. Eric actually gave him $10. This turned out to be a bit thing because we were approached by 5 or 6 others through the course of the day using variations on the same tactic.
We couldn't find anywhere we wanted to eat in the market and wound up driving over to the Space Needle. We found a food court. Nan got pizza and I got shrimp and noodles. The others got mexican food (which they can have all the time). The mexican wasn't very good. I think Nan's pizza was the best option of the lot.
We thought about going up the needle, but the line wrapped around a couple times and none of us felt like standing out there for an hour. We also didn't feel like spending $25 to see the glass garden or another 24 for the EMS museum. Maybe we'll do that when we come back from the cruise.
Back in the car we were driving around when I suggested taking the ferry over to an island and back. Everyone thought it was a good idea except Angela who didn't want to get sick. So she and Nan hopped out of the car as we pulled into the ferry terminal.
John told the guy we wanted tickets to Bainbridge (30 minute ride). We followed the sign to the right side of the terminal and the lady sent us to the front of a new line. They were loading the ferry, but stopped before they got to us. By this time we'd been in line for 20 minutes and didn't think we wanted to wait 45 minutes for the next one. Eric (who's like Mikey and will do nearly anything) went over to ask if we could get a refund. It turns out you can if it's within 60 minutes of buying the ticket, so we pulled out and Eric (again) went to get us a refund.
We called Nan and Angela to pick them up. We told them we'd already been on the ride and come back. We also told them we'd seen whales on the way, and dolphins, and some famous rock stars on the Ferry to sing for us, and even gotten to ride the whales. I don't think they believed us.
We went back to the hotel for a bit, then went to Jimmy Macs for dinner. It's some sort of Texas Roadhouse clone. Nan and I split a steak and shrimp dinner which was great.
Back at the hotel I began work on this blog. Nan decided to do a load of laundry, so she had me change into my swimming suit so she could wash what I'd worn today. Just after she got back from loading the washer, John and Angela knocked on our door, and I answer it in my swimming suit. There were a few jokes made at my expense, but they wanted to play some card games. So I threw on more clothes and met up with everyone down in the breakfast room.
We played Skip Bo for a couple of hours, laughing, joking, and eating snacks. What a fun night with good friends.
We listened to some buskers as we wandered through. The first couple was a girl with thimbles on her fingers playing a washboard and a guy tunelessly strumming a guitar and screaming words to a song we couldn't understand. We also saw an elderly man in a white sailor uniform singing gospel hymns, a guy playing a ukulele, and a very enthusiastic piano player. There was quite a selection and a bit of entertainment.
Eric was approached by an elderly chinese man asking for money to build a new temple of some sort. He gave Eric a bead bracelet, wrote his name in his journal, then wrote $20 beside his name. Eric actually gave him $10. This turned out to be a bit thing because we were approached by 5 or 6 others through the course of the day using variations on the same tactic.
We couldn't find anywhere we wanted to eat in the market and wound up driving over to the Space Needle. We found a food court. Nan got pizza and I got shrimp and noodles. The others got mexican food (which they can have all the time). The mexican wasn't very good. I think Nan's pizza was the best option of the lot.
We thought about going up the needle, but the line wrapped around a couple times and none of us felt like standing out there for an hour. We also didn't feel like spending $25 to see the glass garden or another 24 for the EMS museum. Maybe we'll do that when we come back from the cruise.
Back in the car we were driving around when I suggested taking the ferry over to an island and back. Everyone thought it was a good idea except Angela who didn't want to get sick. So she and Nan hopped out of the car as we pulled into the ferry terminal.
John told the guy we wanted tickets to Bainbridge (30 minute ride). We followed the sign to the right side of the terminal and the lady sent us to the front of a new line. They were loading the ferry, but stopped before they got to us. By this time we'd been in line for 20 minutes and didn't think we wanted to wait 45 minutes for the next one. Eric (who's like Mikey and will do nearly anything) went over to ask if we could get a refund. It turns out you can if it's within 60 minutes of buying the ticket, so we pulled out and Eric (again) went to get us a refund.
We called Nan and Angela to pick them up. We told them we'd already been on the ride and come back. We also told them we'd seen whales on the way, and dolphins, and some famous rock stars on the Ferry to sing for us, and even gotten to ride the whales. I don't think they believed us.
We went back to the hotel for a bit, then went to Jimmy Macs for dinner. It's some sort of Texas Roadhouse clone. Nan and I split a steak and shrimp dinner which was great.
Back at the hotel I began work on this blog. Nan decided to do a load of laundry, so she had me change into my swimming suit so she could wash what I'd worn today. Just after she got back from loading the washer, John and Angela knocked on our door, and I answer it in my swimming suit. There were a few jokes made at my expense, but they wanted to play some card games. So I threw on more clothes and met up with everyone down in the breakfast room.
We played Skip Bo for a couple of hours, laughing, joking, and eating snacks. What a fun night with good friends.
Bright Eyed and Bushy Tailed, ready to party with our friends
Posing on the Seattle Docks
Ladies posing at the Crab Pot
Looking at the Seattle Great Wheel
Flowers in Pike Market
Flowers and a Thorn in the Flowers
The Famous fish market and one of the fish throwers
Nan and I in front of the Sign
Nan and I with the Great Wheel behind us
My Statuesque wife
See what you started Nan
The Space Needle
Nan and I in front of the Space Needle
Playing Cards at the hotel
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