Earlier this month we returned from an Alaskan cruise with my in-laws John and Norma. Neither Todd nor his parents had ever been on a cruise before. I had been on a cruise to the Bahamas in high school, but that was so long ago that this was like a first cruise for all of us. Alaska turned out to be the perfect destination since it was much needed break from the Texas heat.
We sailed with
Royal Caribbean on the
Explorer of the Seas. The cruise departed from and returned to Seattle, Washington, so to ease travel fatigue and stress we bookended the trip with an overnight stay there at each end of the trip. We'll definitely be going back for a dedicated Seattle vacation in the future - what a fun place!
We flew out on July 6th, so John and Norma drove up to spend the night with us on the 5th. We got up the morning of the 6th and they went to breakfast while Todd and I took the cats to be boarded - so hard to leave them! All of us met back at the house then made our way to the airport.
We made it through security and down to the gate with plenty of time to spare so we grabbed a bite at Einstein Bros. Bagels. I had a turkey sausage, egg and cheese bagel. As we were finishing we received alerts that our gate had changed to another terminal. Pressed for time now, we made our way to the Skyline train that connects the terminals and had just boarded when...it broke down. Luckily, it was up and running again within 10 minutes and we made it to our new terminal and gate with just enough time to stop at the restroom before boarding. Whew.
The flight was uneventful. We received a meal on this flight so I had a veggie enchilada, corn salad, romaine lettuce, wheat roll and glass of red mystery wine. Dessert was a really good lemon coconut cake and a cup of coffee.
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| Love taking photos of clouds from above |
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| Norma and John |
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| Snow! |
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| Green circular crops in a dry dirt landscape |
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| Nearing our destination |
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| Mt. Rainier. Get ready for a few of these. |
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| Among the clouds |
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| So green |
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| Zoom |
We landed in Seattle 10 min early at 2:11 PT and collected our luggage. The driver we had arranged in advance was waiting for us at the luggage carousel so we piled into the car and took off for the
W Hotel downtown.
The W was nice, but we were supposed to have 2 "Wow" suites. The W had called (the wrong number) earlier that morning and we only just got word before we boarded the plane that only 1 Wow suite would be available. The reason given was that a current guest had decided to stay an extra day, making the room unavailable. The W offered a smaller room in it's place (admittedly at a nice discounted rate, plus a tray of wine, cheese and fruit was waiting in the room) but it was still disappointing. After staying at the Ws in D.C, New York, Hollywood and Los Angeles, this was the first time we'd have to give a negative review.
John and Norma graciously insisted that they take the new room (which wasn't ready yet at arrival). We all stowed our stuff in the suite that was ready and went to an early dinner.
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| Wow suite living room and entry |
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| Bedroom |
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| Really comfortable bed |
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| Bedroom view |
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| Bedroom/living room view |
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| Bathroom |
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| Again |
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| The W |
We walked a block north to eat at
purple Cafe & Wine Bar. It was a cool space with good food; I'd love to see it at night. For dinner I had a
Tieton Cider Works apple cider, and a free-range chicken sandwich with sweet potato fries. Everything tasted great.
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| purple |
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| purple on the inside |
After dinner we walked John and Norma back to the hotel where the other room was now ready. They settled in while Todd and I went for a walk down to the pier then up through the Pike Place market and back to the hotel. We may or may not have also stopped for ice cream along the way.
Ok, we definitely did stop for ice cream. We were on vacation after all.
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| The view from the in-laws room includes the Space Needle |
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Down at the pier. There's ice cream here to be had here too, but we didn't buy it - it's definitely not hand-made and clearly has never known love. We didn't buy it and neither should you.
I'll call it tourist cream. |
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| A million steps up from the pier is Pike Place Market, home to fish-flinging fishmongers (in the mornings), the original Starbucks store (with a constant line down the block), and... |
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...you guessed it: The Giant Shoe Museum! This is it.
I mean, all of it, as in this one wall is the whole museum. You put in your quarter(s) and get to peep huge shoes.
We didn't peep. |
On our way out of Pike Place Market we stopped at
Shugs Soda Fountain & Ice Cream where I had a scoop of "Clearly Coconut" in a sugar cone. It tasted great.
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