trippingpara

Sunday, August 26th

Seattle, Washington

The Evil Rooster from Hell woke us up again, but it was so much easier getting up since it was a reasonable hour. We had another very busy day planned touring the Seattle Center area. Our first stop of the morning was at the infamous Pike Place Market on the waterfront. It was only 9 am but the place was already starting to get hopping. What a cool place!! And it’s huge! Far bigger than I ever thought it was. There are 6 levels that meander all over the place. You can find just about anything you can ever think of there.

Of course, we had to check out some of the standard staples like the throwing of the fish, the bronze pig and the beautiful flower stalls. The smells and sights there are incredible! We highly recommend a stop here. The original Starbucks is here if you’re a fan but if not, (we’re not) there were several other outstanding little coffee shops dotted around the place.

The infamous Pike Place Market. Please note, it is NOT Pike's Place Market. This apparently is a constant source of ire to the locals!

There is where the fish tosser are located at. Wait...that's doesn't sound quite right. Let's try, this is where the fishmongers are located at. (I can just imagine some of the Brits out there snickering at the term "fish tosser"!) The crowd to the left is where they are actually at. You can also see Rachel the Piggy Bank sticking her head out of the crowd at the far left.

Rachel the Piggy Bank - seriously, she is a piggy bank. The funds that she raises goes to a local charity.

Her brother, Billy the Piggy Bank.

The signs of Pike Place Market

The fresh produce of Pike Place Market

You could easily spend an entire day just at Pike Place Market. It is so easy to get completely lost in the maze of hallways and levels. This should absolutely be on your must visit list when you come to Seattle even if it's just for an hour or two. The sights, the sounds, the smells, the people watching...and of course, the shopping!!!

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Success! I can see them now and really enjoyed them. I've been to Grouse Mountain before so I enjoyed the view, but we didn't do anything that you did. :)

Heather

Oh good! Glad that you liked them. Although my main camera is very popular with vloggers, I've never delved too much into videos so mine tend to just be simple, pretty standard ones shot on my phone. Some things are just best seen as a video to truly capture the moment. Thanks for letting me know the videos worked.

I'm enjoying another of your wonderful reviews, Trip. Your pictures are beautiful and I can't wait to see the Alaska ones. And, I can't see the videos, either.

Heather

Hi Heather. Thank you so much for the kind words, I really appreciate it! And thank you for letting me know about the video as well. I'm wondering if it's because I had them listed as "private". I just made them public so please let me know if you can see them now.

I couldn't get your videos to work. Anyone? :(

Hi fyree39. Sorry about that. I logged into several different computers and am able to see them. Is anyone else having this issue? I have to admit, I'm not the brightest when it comes to posting videos and always have problems so I may have done something wrong.

I have to totally agree with you here. Being a first time cruiser I didn't know if I should be as annoyed as I was over the chair hogging in the Unicorn. Made it very difficult to find a place to sit down and eat. We took our food upstairs and outside a few times which was no small feat with a special needs seven year old in tow!!

And the day we cruised Glacier Bay it was totally ridiculous!!! Son and I were shocked to find there were hardly anyone out on the serenity deck. I know I am from the PNW but we didn't think it was that chilly outside.

My one big gripe here was not the café but the people. There were many times that people would camp out in the café and take all of the chairs and tables by the windows (where the vast majority of the seating was) and they weren’t eating. They were just sitting there with their binoculars and some were even sleeping. Really?? There are flipping thousands of chairs by windows all over Decks 2, 3 and 4 if you don’t want to be outside watching the beauty of Alaska sail by. I get that you want to see it but please don’t take all of the chairs and tables during the main feeding rushes. That’s just rude. People that were trying to eat had to juggle their plates and drinks as they searched all over for seating. Slam me if you think I’m wrong, I don’t care. The tables and chairs in the buffet area are for those eating. If you’ve done eating or have no intention of eating, please move and give your spot to those that are trying to eat. It’s called courtesy people. Rant over. Overall grade for the buffet (not the people)..."A"

 

Hi MominWA, glad to see I wasn't the only one that was frustrated with that. I did see quite a few people walking around with trays of food trying to find a seat with a rather "unhappy" look on their face as they paced around and around. I can only imagine the additional challenges you faced with a special needs child in tow too. I've seen this on other cruises but never to this extent. I did see that Carnival tried to alleviate this by bringing out additional chairs but it didn't seem to help much.

We visited Grouse Mountain before our cruise a few years ago...a fantastic time and definitely a must see in Vancouver. Great photos!

 

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Hi bunnyette. Thank you for the kind words. I absolutely agree, Grouse Mountain is a must see when in Vancouver!

Never stayed in a cove balcony thinking of upgrading, just for the fact of the balcony, does balcony get wet being closer to the water if so how much? Noise factors from pipes from this room 2409. Thank You janet

We had Cabin 2293 on the Vista for her inaugural run. We were much closer to the bow and sometimes got some spray when the captain had the pedal to the medal (which he did a couple times because we left port late). Other than that, no we never got any water spray from waves. Since you'll be much further back, you wouldn't even get any of the spray that we got when the ship was going excessively fast. We loved our cove balcony! It was the first time that we had it and will definitely look to book one again.

Saturday, August 25th

Seattle, Washington

Ahh, the comforts of home! A nice cozy bed, soft comfortable sheets, the wafting aroma of freshly brewed coffee, a gentle nudge from a wet snout…

…I slowly open an eye to see the small bulbous nose of an excited greyhound mere inches from my face.

Both eyes suddenly snap open. Wait…we don’t own a greyhound!!

Oh yeah, we’re in Seattle, staying with my sister. It’s all coming back to me now. I pull my arm out from under the covers and pat Rooney, the resident greyhound, on her head and climb out of bed. Today’s our first full day in Seattle and we have quite the day planned for us. Courtesy of a very wet and plump greyhound nose, I was now up and Adam!

First up on the agenda, was a reciprocal reservation for a 21’ cuddy cabin boat with Freedom Boat Club. We’re very active members with this organization back in New England and one of the great benefits from them is the ability to use their boats anywhere they have a location (there are currently 165+ locations across the U.S. and Canada).

Lady Trip, my sister (we’ll call her Lady Trip-sis), her hubby (Sir Tripalot) and me all piled into their cute little Mini Cooper (named Maggie) and headed up to the Queen Anne area of Seattle to the Freedom Boat Club which just happens to be located right next to the Smith Cove Cruise Terminal (aka Pier 91). Not being familiar with the marina, it took us a while to actually locate their boats. We found their offices very quickly, but their dock manager was already out prepping our boat, so we had to wander the docks to find him. But find him we did!

We all hopped aboard the boat, Moor Time, went through the pre-trip checklist, signed off on it, hauled in our bow and stern lines and pushed off from the pier. I slowly motored the boat out of the marina, past the towering bows of HAL’s Eurodam and Princess’ Ruby Princess and into the main harbor of Seattle. We tooled around downtown Seattle snapping photos and checking things out before we then headed out across Puget Sound to Blake Island.

The Norwegian Bliss sits at anchor at the downtown cruise terminal.

See? I told you I always have a camera in my hand!

We were lucky to find it! The low laying cloud cover masked most of the islands until you were almost on top of them. The weather was also very crisp and cool keeping most of the other boaters off the water which meant we had almost all of Puget Sound to ourselves (and the ferries). After cruising around Blake Island, we then headed back across the sound and up towards the Ballard Locks but were running out of time since we were scheduled for a crime tour in the afternoon. Plus, it was now raining so we headed back to the marina and docked the boat.

After checking back in at the dock, we then drove a couple miles further into the Capital Hill neighborhood for our crime tour with PrivateEye Tours. There were about 10 of us on the tour so we all piled into her van (the owner and tour guide’s name was Jake and yes, she was a female). The tour was focused on famous criminals (mainly murderers) in Seattle’s sordid history. The only one I really knew was Ted Bundy but she also talked about other famous Seattleites such as Jimi Hendrix (saw his statute and where he went to school) and Bruce and Brandon Lee (their gravesites) as well as Kurt Corbain (the house he committed suicide in). The tour was really interesting and got to see a lot of Seattle that is definitely not seen on most tours. However, Jake was a bit dry so to speak. She really knew her stuff but she seemed to operate on a script and was very monotone. Nobody was really engaged and we all just stared out the windows taking pictures.

The infamous Jimi Hendrix statue

The Space Needle captured in the middle of the Black Sun statue in Volunteer Park

The gravesite of father and son. Lady Trip and I both study martial arts (Krav Maga) so we really look up to what Bruce Lee was able to achieve. Both lives cut too short, too early.

Next up on the list was a quick stop at Ballard Locks. As soon as Jake dropped us off at the parking lot that she picked us up in, we were off to Lake Union and the nearby Fisherman’s Terminal and the Ballard Locks. This was really cool to see. There are a couple locks of different sizes that move boats from the Puget Sound into the higher waters of Lake Union and further down into Lake Washington. We also got to see where the ships from the famous show, Deadliest Catch are based out of and even got to see the Brenna A come out of the locks as she headed back into port.

The Breanna A returns back to Seattle from summer salmon tendering in Alaska

The rest of the night was just hanging out and enjoying each other’s company and catching up on lost times.

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Before we move on to Seattle, I just wanted to post a couple more shots and videos from Grouse Mountain...

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Vancouver (cont.)...

After breakfast we then went to an owl demonstration featuring a Barn Owl, a lumberjack show (quite funny) and a flying raptor show that featured Bald Eagles, Great Horned Owls, Peregrine Falcons, Red-Tailed Hawks and Turkey Vultures flying all around us. It was awesome!!

A Barn Owl watches Lady Trip post pictures of him on Facebook.

A Great Horned Owl screeches a warning cry seconds before it takes off

A Bald Eagle soars across a field

The Eagle has Landed. Oh wait, not quite yet.

We also took a quick jaunt up to the very top of the mountain for a couple pics before packing it up and heading back down the mountain to start our journey back to Seattle.

Here's a shot looking down from the ski lift back to the main area of Grouse Mountain. This ski lift goes to the very peak of the mountain where the Eye of the World is; a giant wind turbine that you can go to the top of for an an higher view of the whole Vancouver area. Unfortunately, the cloud layer was too low to make it worthwhile to go up it.

A pair of large bucks relaxing near the peak of the mountain.

The drive back to Seattle was pretty uneventful although the border crossing back into the U.S. was extremely lengthy but the traffic outside of that was pretty light for it now being rush hour.

From start to finish, it took us about 4 ½ hours to drive from Grouse Mountain to where my sister lives in Kent, WA (a suburb of Seattle). After unpacking our car, we hung around and visited for a while before exhaustion caught up with us and we passed out.

Next up: Seattle, Washington...

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thank you for sharing the Grouse Mountain information.

Hi singinalot, you are very welcome!

Oh wow, so that guy was way off. Ideally, we'd love to spot some from the ship, but would try to take a smaller whale watching tour somewhere. I don't know about the Mrs., but I don't think I'd mind the rainy weather if it meant seeing whales. I think our son would feel the same. Although, it would certainly put a damper on my photography. I just looked at another site and it says prime time for Orcas is early May to early June, but can be seen throughout the summer. As much as my boy loves Orcas, I want to give him the best chance possible. This would be a once in a lifetime experience for us.

 

We've never seen glaciers in person, so no matter where we see one, I'm sure it'd be amazing. We'll keep your advice in mind for sure. Thank you for the info.

Hi Organized Chaos,

I just got off the Legend's run to Alaska last week. Had a great time! We had an aft wraparound balcony on the starboard corner so we had better sight lines in that direction but could see to the port side as well. Glacier Bay is the best time to have a balcony since you will be outside the entire day and it's nice to be able to jump inside quickly to warm up and then go right back outside without really missing anything. A balcony is not mandatory for an Alaskan cruise but if you're considering to someday splurge for a balcony, that would be the cruise that I would pick to do it on. The views from your balcony on a Caribbean cruise are nothing compared to those same views in Alaska!

We were in Alaska at the beginning of Sept and the weather was bloody well near perfect. At least as perfect as you can get in the Inner Passage. We saw a lot of whales from our balcony but we hit the mother-lode when we did a whale watching excursion in Victoria. I've done a lot of whale watching here in New England but I have never in my life seen so many whales in one place at one time. It was breathtaking! It left me speechless which anybody would have told you is an impossibility with me! We also saw orcas in the same spot too. And the very rare to see, Dall Porpoises. You will probably have a better chance of seeing orcas around the Seattle/Victoria area as they have several resident pods there however transient orcas can be found anywhere on the cruise. Please keep in mind that orcas are a bit harder to track down than humpback whales so seeing them can be a bit hit or miss. I do agree that you will probably have a higher chance of spotting them earlier in the summer season but they can be found anytime during the cruising season. Check out my review that I'm currently writing about our Alaskan adventure here. You will be able to get a sense of what you'll see and some of your options for excursions too.

Cheers,

Trip

Vancouver (cont.)...

Notice the bear-proof garbage can to the right of the photo. These were seen everywhere in British Columbia, Yukon Territories and Alaska. Even in the middle of downtown Juneau, you would see these types of garbage cans. Proof that bears are everywhere in these areas.

Once we were at the top of the mountain, we dismounted and hiked over to where the grizzly bear habitat was. We oohed and ahhed at Coola and Grinder, the pair of resident grizzlies for a while before we were led into a round structure on the edge of the habitat. There was a huge breakfast spread laid out for us. The food was delicious, and the views were amazing!

Grinder relaxes with his head on a rock while Coola sits in the background watching us.

Coola saunters up to a nearby pond for a drink.

If you’re wondering (and you’re probably not, but I’m still going to tell you), Grinder and Coola are not on display like zoo animals. They were both rescued separately as orphaned cubs that would have died without their mom to protect them and to teach them how to survive. So, Grouse Mountain took them in as part of their wildlife refuge, where animals that would not or could not survive in the wild can live out the rest of their days in safety and comfort. Their space is only partially visible to the public with a very large portion of their area secluded away from people.

They are not fed on a regular schedule like a zoo but are fed intermittently with a wide variety of food, just like they would have in the wild. And the food is just thrown over the fence when the bears are not around, so the bears do not learn that the presence of humans mean food is coming which in turn would draw their attention to us and change their natural habits. Grouse Mountain wants to keep them as close as they can to their natural and wild habits as much as possible. Unfortunately, since they were raised without their mom, they still cannot survive in the wild since they do not know how to properly forage and hunt for food. It was great to be able to see them so close and watch them interact with each other.

After our delicious breakfast, we hiked over to a bee sanctuary where dozens of natural pollinating plants grow with little bee refuges placed about. It was beautiful to see, but thankfully it was too cold for the bees to be out considering I'm very allergic to those critters!

A pair of bee hotels in the Bee Sanctuary.

Grouse Mountain was beautiful. I loved how they allowed plants to grow naturally and kept the landscaping to a minimum. It felt so much more natural, that you were a part of nature not forcing a perfectly manicured landscape into a natural setting. Apparently, the deer felt pretty at home there too.

This guy was hanging out right by the Grizzly Habitat, slowly chewing on some grass watching the world go by. We were only about 20 yards away from him. He watched us for a bit then went back to eating.

This big boy was seen from our chair lift as we rode all the way to the peak of Grouse Mountain. That is the first time that I have ever seen a deer in his bedding spot. I've seen plenty of bedding spots but never one with a deer in it.

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Just go buy a reuseable straw for your wife as a cruise present. Goggle it and there are tons of options. Straws are bad and people let them blow away right into the ocean.

I have been scuba diving, boating and picking up trash in the oceans the vast majority of my life and not once, have I found a straw in the ocean. Or lakes. Or ponds. Or rivers. Tons of cigarette butts, plastic bags, soda and beer cans, tires, and even a few cars, but not one single straw. If you want to save the oceans, tell all the stores around the world to stop tossing everything you buy into a small plastic bag. Those wreck far more havoc on our oceans than straws ever will.

Nice pics! Did they announce it on the ship that there were other ships passing?

 

 

Jae[emoji624]

The captain did announce that the Splendor was passing us in Glacier Bay but did not announce the Princess ship passing us. I just happened to be out on the balcony when it passed us. Like many others have said, it is very easy to spot other cruise ships at night by their lights.

I've seen other cruise ships at sea a few times during my cruises. Here are a couple shots from our most recent Alaskan cruise. Both of these shots are not zoomed in so you can get an idea of the distance between our ship and theirs. On both of these, I was standing at the rail on our aft-wrap balcony (you can see the railing in both photos).

This is a Princess cruise ship that we passed on our starboard side during our last sea day. We were heading back to Seattle and they were heading up into the Inner Passage of Alaska.

Here's Carnival Splendor passing us on the port side as we both sailed inside Glacier Bay in Alaska. This was the closest that I have ever seen two cruise ships pass each other, however we were both going very slow and the bay is fairly narrow.

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Friday, August 24th

Vancouver, British Columbia

Thankfully, our evil rooster from hell was much nicer this morning and woke us up at a far more reasonable hour and had thankfully stopped smelling like a big pile of poo. Anyways, I was really looking forward to this day. I had booked an all-day pass to Grouse Mountain along with a surf ride up the mountain coupled with a Breakfast with the Bears. Grizzlies that is! Big, giant, furry brown ones!

Our drive across the channel over to the mountain was super easy and surprisingly only took us a little over 15 minutes to get there. Apparently, people don’t get up too early on their vacations since we were one of the first people arriving at the ski lodge. We pulled in right with all the employees checking in for work. That’s alright, the early bird gets the worm or, so they say.

We checked in, got a safety briefing and helmet for our ride on top of the gondola up the mountain. We met the rest of our group for the Breakfast with the Bears and immediately started getting questions about why we were wearing helmets (since we were the only two wearing them). After telling them that we were going to be riding on top of the gondola, a couple of them got all excited and signed up to join us. I mean, it’s not every day you get to stand on top of a gondola as it climbs a couple thousand feet up the side of a mountain! That’s completely covered in clouds. With temps reaching a high of 32 degrees Fahrenheit. And yes, if you’re wondering, we’re not all there! A few drops short of a full bucket; my mum would say.

Everybody loaded into the gondola while the crew dragged over a wheeled ladder to help us climb on top of the car. A couple minutes later, we began our slow climb 2,600 feet up the side of Grouse Mountain (and yes, it is pronounced like the bird, grouse – not “gross” or “groose”). The climb took about 10 minutes. The ride was very cool (literally!!) and amazing. The mountain was socked in pretty well in cloud cover so there were times, we couldn’t see anything around us. It was so cool! Creepy, but cool!

Here's Lady Trip waiting for the ladder to be put into place to climb up on top of the gondola.

I have determined that there is no way to possibly look cool in these helmets!

Passing another gondola as we head up into the clouds.

I have to admit, it was a little creepy standing on top of the gondola as it slowly slid into the clouds and everything went white. My imagination was going wild. Damn you Stephen King!!!

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Great start to another review! Love your writing style! Im always torn about an Alaskan cruise. Something about being on a cruise ship means warm, by the pool, shorts/tshirt. Not cool, pants/sweatshirt. I can get that right at home! Would love to head there someday though. The scenery and wildlife are amazing.

Welcome dltvermont! I wasn't too sure about how I'd like "cruising" to a cold weather port. I pretty quickly forgot about it once I saw the amazing vistas of Alaska. Plus, they main pool is covered and it was quite warm and toasty there. I did miss the swaying palm trees though!

Vancouver, B.C. (cont.)

We basically just threw our luggage into the room and headed out to explore Vancouver. We hopped back into our SUV and drove into Stanley Park. Even though we were right next to the park, it is actually larger than Central Park in NYC. There was no way that we were going to walk the entire park after traveling all the way from Boston and then driving up from Seattle. We were bushed but excited to see Vancouver. Since I mainly wanted to see things on the opposite side of the park (of course!), we opted to drive there.

Looking out into Vancouver Harbour. The cruise terminal can be seen to the far left (Silversea's Silver Shadow is docked there in this photo). The red building on the island in the center of the photo is a reserve naval base.

Looking in the opposite direction across Vancouver Harbour is a large marina and a small beach. We saw plenty of harbor seals playing around right by this beach as well as on the opposite side of the bridge.

We parked the SUV and started to stroll along the sea wall and the totem park area. Beautiful is all that I can say about Stanley Park. Absolutely beautiful! If you ever get a chance to visit Vancouver, this is a must see!!!

A grouping of totem poles in Stanley Park

A woodpecker certainly loves these totem poles!

The Woman in the Wetsuit statue.

The Brockton Point Lighthouse and Vancouver Harbour

After spending a couple hours strolling around the park, we headed back to our hotel, parked the car and grabbed some dinner at the hotel restaurant. Good food but not a particularly large menu, only a few options. Spectacular view though! Once we finished our dinner and excellent dessert, we strolled across the street and walked along the beach at English Bay. The views were spectacular as the sun set over the water. Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos here as my media card got corrupted as I was downloading the photos onto my computer. Oh, the torrent of foul language that flowed out of my mouth when that happened!!!

Life goes on. At least, that’s the mantra that I keep repeating to myself! We spent a couple hours walking up and down the beach until the sun was completely down before we called it a night and headed to our room. Needless to say, after our flight across country, a 3 ½ hour drive across the Canadian border and several hours of walking, we were utterly exhausted.

Next up: Grouse Mountain, Vancouver...

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Loving your review!

 

Stanley Park is amazing, Vancouver isn't too bad either!

 

Looking forward to reading more.

Thanks Hogladyrider! Stanley Park was incredible. We couldn't get over the trees there, they were huge!! The park itself was huge too, so glad we drove the park instead of walking it!

Yes, I also joined my daughter (Sharla, with the Purple hair) there a couple nights. We also closed the Piano Bar the night they sent us down to the Jam Session for lots of fun and good talent. My daughter loved the Red Frog Pub and Murphy's Law. It was her go to place. Adam and the singers and dancers joining in that final night really made the place start jumping! Loved both nights! Loved the entire cruise!

We were on this one with you. It was our favorite out of 28 Carnival cruises. We've been to Alaska before, but this one was special. The staff on the Legend were amazing. And the weather... very little rain!

Hi guys, thanks for joining!! This was a great cruise wasn't it?! I couldn't believe how much we lucked out with all the great weather! Those nights in the Red Frog Pub were great too!!

Seattle, Washington / Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (cont.)

Once we landed and fought through the crowds to get our luggage, we then strolled over to pick up our rental car. Even though we were planning on spending some time with my sister and brother-in-law, we actually flew in a day early so we could run up to Vancouver and spend a night there.

I think I mentioned in my review of our inaugural cruise of the Vista in the Mediterranean, if there is a border anywhere in close proximity to me, I will find a way to cross it. That was pretty much my mentality here. A little over an hour away by car was the Canadian border. Close enough, I needed to cross it!

So, we hopped in our rental car and headed north to Canada. The drive through Seattle was surprising smooth and easy. The biggest traffic jam that we ran into was at the Peace Arch border crossing between I-5 (U.S.) and Hwy 99 (Canada). Once we slowly made our way through the checkpoint, it was smooth sailing all the way to the Sylvia Hotel on Beach Street in Vancouver. The total trip took us about 3 ½ hours in total.

The Peace Arch on the U.S. side of the border.

The Canadian Flag flower garden on the Canadian side of the border. The actual border is the granite pillar seen in the foreground.

Welcome to British Columbia!

The quaint and historic Sylvia Hotel in Vancouver, BC

The Sylvia Hotel was a great old hotel sitting right on English Bay and nestled up next to Stanley Park. We parked the car and checked into the hotel. This is one of the oldest hotels in Vancouver and has tons of old photos scattered around of the famous guests that have stayed there over the years. They try to keep the old vibe going and still even use real keys!!

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Thursday, August 23rd

Boston, Massachusetts

0430 (also commonly referred to as “Zero Dark Thirty” or “What the hell am I doing up at this ungodly hour?”)…

…the evil rooster from hell suddenly comes to life…

I wipe the sleep from my eyes and launch myself out of bed like an 8-year old on Christmas morning. I’ve been waiting a long time for this trip and the day was finally here. After throwing the evil rooster from hell (aka my alarm clock - aka my phone) out the window to silence it, we started to get ready. Once I was showered and awake, I realized that I just tossed my phone out the window and I sheepishly went downstairs and outside to retrieve it. Of course, I had to get on my hands and knees and dig through the bushes four floors below our window to find my phone. Thankfully, the very smelly mulch (aka cow poop) made for a soft-landing spot for my very expensive phone (aka alarm clock – aka the evil rooster from hell). Amazingly, the alarm was still going off. Although it was rather muted from all the cow manure stuck in the speaker.

We finally made our way to the front desk and requested the shuttle to the airport. The very pleasant desk attendant muttered something about an odd stench of poop as she called for the shuttle. A few minutes later it arrived and magically whisked us to the Delta terminal for our non-stop flight to Seattle. Okay, so it didn’t “magically” whisk us there but since I wasn’t driving, getting honked at, the finger flipped at or screaming out the window at other Ma@@hole drivers, it certainly felt magical.

As I stated, we flew non-stop on Delta and had “Premier Seats”. Which is just a fancy way of saying that we got to sit near the even fancier first class seats. It was rather comfy there aside from the stewardess (or is it Flight Attendant now?) that would give you the look of death if you even thought of crossing that invisible barrier between the “Premier Seats” and “First Class” seats. Even though a restroom was 8 feet away from me, apparently my arse wasn’t nice enough to use that one since it resided on the “other” side of the line. Now I’ve flown first class before. There is nothing special about their restrooms. No golden toilet seat, no machine gently blowing bubbles of perfumed essence up your behind, nada. The same thing as all the other restrooms on the plane. But can I use it? Nooooo! I was pointed towards the one that was 75 feet away and had to crawl over 4 sleeping babies and 18 chickens to get there. And trust me, from sitting 8 feet away from it, I can absolutely certify to the fact that those peeps in first class…yeah, their poop does NOT smell any better than anyone else’s, including mine! But then again, they probably didn’t have their $1,000 phone covered in cow poop. P.S. can you believe phones actually cost that flippin’ much now?? Am I the only one that misses having the little flip up phone that fit perfectly in your front pockets, was not the size of a small laptop and was not able to provide the entire world of knowledge at your fingertips and was given to you for free?

Any ways, no offense is intended towards those peeps that sit in first class…I am clearly jealous of the fact that I did not. Mea culpa. Where was I? Oh yeah, flying to Seattle…

HDR photo of Glacier National Park in Montana as captured during our flight to Seattle.

HDR photo of Mount Rainier poking above the clouds outside Seattle, Washington.

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Wednesday, August 22nd

Boston, Massachusetts

Since we live in the sprawling state of Rhode Island (please note the official name of our lovely home is the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations – useless tidbit – check!), we often participate in the Park, Sleep and Fly program at the Four Points Sheraton near Boston’s Logan Airport. It’s cheaper than parking at the airport and we get to start our vacation a bit early. It also makes the morning commute to the airport sooooooo much easier. If you’ve never experienced morning rush hour in Boston, you don’t know what you’re missing! Envision a cacophony of horns blaring, tires screeching with Bostonian slang-filled tirades as a flurry of middle fingers wave at you from car windows blasting the rhythmic hometown sounds of Aerosmith or Godsmack. That should get you in the right frame of mind for a jaunt down to the corner store during rush hour in Boston.

I worked from home during the day and had the responsibility of finalizing our packing and securing the house. After I triple checked all the doors, windows, chimneys, vent pipes, keyholes and any other possible source of entry into our house, I was ready to go. The fact that we have a friend of ours house/dog sit at our place while we’re gone doesn’t seem to matter to me. My pre-trip OCD requires me to repeatedly check all our luggage, camera gear and then house security for every potential scenario before we can leave. My papa always told me to be prepared! You don’t want to get caught with your pants down when you’re away. I mean, what if a swarm of locusts come through and destroy all those crops in your garden that you never planted but really wished you did! Or that mass murderer/serial rapist/budding politician that just escaped from prison in California, steals a car and drives across the country just to break into your house. Man, you need to prepare for these things!!

Sigh. God bless Lady Trip for dealing with me!!

Once I was convinced that our house was locked down like Fort Knox, I manhandled all our luggage into our car and headed up I-95 to the loveliest airport built on a trash heap: Boston’s Logan Airport. Okay, so it wasn’t exactly a trash heap, but it was built entirely on a landfill. Back in the day, the entire area that now houses Logan Airport was in the middle of the harbor. Useless tidbit #5…Check.

Anyways, we eventually made our way through the crazy Boston traffic, parked our car and checked into the Four Points Sheraton. The rest of the evening was pretty casual. A simple meal next door at Uno’s and then off to bed for an early morning alarm.

Next up: Flight to Seattle and drive up to Vancouver, British Columbia...

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We had a great time in the piano bar but what was played was of course based upon what the crowd requested. There were a couple of times when other performers would drop in and Jam and things would get a bit more rowdy. My son closed down the place a few nights and said it was much more upbeat the later it got. Having a seven year old in tow I was always limited to Camp Ocean hours and seemed to miss those moments.

 

They did have the big Jam session with all the artists one night in the Red Frog Pub and that was a good time. The last night with Murphy's Law was a great time too. The playlist performers and Adam all hit the dance floor. The actually got my non-dancing son out there with them. Those pictures are priceless!!!!!!

 

I never did get a chance to try the Alchemy bar. I've read such good things about it and with your review added in I am a bit bummed. But hey, that gives me a reason to go back. :)

Hmm, maybe we just didn't stay long enough at the Piano Bar. We popped in a couple times and he was always playing slower songs and nobody was singing along. It was earlier in the evening so it sounds like it got a bit more entertaining later on. We did go to the jam session in the Red Frog as well as seeing Murphy's Law on the last night. Those were great!! That's the first time that I've seen a jam session of all the musicians at once. I really hope they do that on other ships too now. The crowd certainly seemed like they loved it, I know we really did!

P.S. You really need to try the Alchemy Bar on your next cruise! We've never been disappointed with either the drinks or the bartenders there and the people there always seem to be the most fun.