The Alaskan Jewel! Welcome Aboard….You don’t Exist!

[chilidog11]

Great trip review so far. Can't wait for more. The popcorn is called Chicago mix and around here, Garrett's is King.

[jenseib]

Great trip review so far. Can't wait for more. The popcorn is called Chicago mix and around here, Garrett's is King.

 

Good to know. Next time I am in the Chicago area I will have to look for Garretts!

[schwesterellibelli]

Great pictures. I love your review. Thanks.

[jenseib]

Great pictures. I love your review. Thanks.

 

 

Thanks! :D

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Awesome start to the review jensei. I'm subscribing also. :D

 

I know how long it takes to do these so I promise I will be patient but I can't wait to read right along with your adventure. Alaska is awesome.

[bonvoyagie]

Wow you were there during SeaFair - Seattle is bad enough during normal times but SeaFair adds the Navy and other military folks to the party.

 

You were lucky to find a hotel room (or should I say NCL was lucky).

 

I am still waiting for You Don't Exist :D

[cruisenfreak]

I am still waiting for You Don't Exist :D

 

Me too. Me too.

[jenseib]

Wow you were there during SeaFair - Seattle is bad enough during normal times but SeaFair adds the Navy and other military folks to the party.

 

You were lucky to find a hotel room (or should I say NCL was lucky).

 

I am still waiting for You Don't Exist :D

 

 

Yes, that is what was going on. We did find quite a few options of places to stay in the Downtown area when I looked in May, but they were all so high in price. I think NCL has blocks of rooms reserved for each cruise so that is how I got one there. They probably are reserved at a set price. I think typically NCL is probably more expensive to book through but it worked out better for us this time around.

 

It won't be long before we don't exist. hahaha.

 

Me too. Me too.

 

It's early in the trip.....Hopefully I can get this first day posted in the next week. Still working on those pictures, but close to done.

[twokids0204]

Great trip review so far. Can't wait for more. The popcorn is called Chicago mix and around here, Garrett's is King.

 

Good to know. Next time I am in the Chicago area I will have to look for Garretts!

 

I am not by any means an authority on Chicago... but I have tried both Garretts and Nuts on Clark... and I do know that Garretts is the popular one, but I much prefered Nuts on Clark!

[jenseib]

Awesome start to the review jensei. I'm subscribing also. :D

 

I know how long it takes to do these so I promise I will be patient but I can't wait to read right along with your adventure. Alaska is awesome.

 

Thanks for joining in.

It really does take a whil and life doesn't seem to stop and let me go as fast as i would like...plus I took over 3,000 pictures and I edit them all before I post. :rolleyes:

 

It does help pass the time till the next vacation, which currently should be with friends in Feb.

 

I am not by any means an authority on Chicago... but I have tried both Garretts and Nuts on Clark... and I do know that Garretts is the popular one, but I much prefered Nuts on Clark!

 

We thought it was darn good. And the smell was so good walking by. It was hard to pass. Claire is a popcorn freak. She preferred the cheese flavored while Skip and I preferred the caramel, but they really taste good mixed together.

[jenseib]

After settling the dinner bill we headed out and agreed we wanted to do some exploring. I had Skip hold the cheesecake bag and Claire hold the to go bag as I was going to taking pictures.

sea23 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

sea32 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

For those who don’t know, Seattle is the home to Starbucks and there seemed to be one everywhere.

sea33 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

I don’t know if I ever saw the original one. I am told it is down by Pikes Market area and I was down there a few times so there is a chance at one point I passed it without realizing it.

sea34 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

More sailors.

sea35 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

As we came to the cross walk I asked the sailors if we were going the right direction for the water and they said we sure hope so. LOL.

sea36 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

[jenseib]

sea37 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

Finally we saw the market up ahead…but this road was sooooo steep. We slowly walked down for fear of tumbling down and breaking our neck. Skip has a little more trouble with his bad hips and he said there was no way he was walking back this way up that hill! LOL.

sea38 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

So you may ask…What is Pike Place Market? Well it’s like a farmers market. It has produce, flowers, fish, crafts and all sorts of little businesses. I mainly wanted to go to take pictures and just see what it was like. What I didn’t know was that it closes at 6 PM and it was now after 5, so some of the places were already starting to take down their goods. But for the most part we got a good look at everything. I am glad we didn’t wait till later to come down here though.

pike1 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

I really wanted to see the fish displays.

pike2 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

pike3 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

pm1 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

[jenseib]

pm2 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

Aunt Mary had talked about how they throw fish around here and Skip was hoping to catch a glimpse of that.

pm7 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

pike4 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

pm9 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

It’s hard to tell in the picture, but this lobster tale was HUGE!

pike5 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

Someone wanted a fish weighed for pricing so we watched that.

pm10 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

[jenseib]

pm11 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

MMMMM! Crab legs.

pm12 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

I told Skip how one of my goals on this trip was to have some King crab in Alaska.

pm13 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

We kept walking and found a door to go outside and look at the water so we did just that.

eye6 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

I think I took these pictures through glass.

eye1 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

eye7 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

[jenseib]

pm4 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

eye8 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

I zoomed out to the sail boat as I thought it looked so cool.

eye3 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

I looked out the other side and snapped a picture.

eye9 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

I said to Skip that I think our ship will be docked over there….and then I realized that the Marriott was over there and knew it was where it would dock. I knew the Marriott was right next to the port and was the place I ideally wanted to stay.

Did you notice the ship in the background on that last picture. I didn’t either till I got home. I was too busy looking around.

eye5 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

Skip however did see a ship sailing so I tried to zoom in and get a better picture.

eye10 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

We couldn’t tell which line it was, but when I got home I zoomed in on the picture in photoshop and found out it was a Celebrity ship, probably the Solstice.

[jenseib]

A look back the other way at Mt. Rainier.

eye11 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

Though we entered the Market at ground level, the other side shows just how steep the area is as the back side has more levels to it.

pm3 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

pm14 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

And zooming in on the Marriott.

pm15 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

[seemoreroyals]

Looking forward to the cruise part of your trip report. We leave on the Jewel on Sept. 5th. Hope you have time to get to it between now and then. If the cruise portion is anywhere near as full of pictures and detailed as the preamble to the cruise has been so far it is sure to be amazing. Thanks for taking the time and energy to provide us a glimpse of this wonderful trip we are about to take.

[greatlakesgirl]

Loving your review and pics! I really want to do an Alaskan cruise someday! :)

[jenseib]

Looking forward to the cruise part of your trip report. We leave on the Jewel on Sept. 5th. Hope you have time to get to it between now and then. If the cruise portion is anywhere near as full of pictures and detailed as the preamble to the cruise has been so far it is sure to be amazing. Thanks for taking the time and energy to provide us a glimpse of this wonderful trip we are about to take.

 

I probably won't get in too far before you go. I edit all my pictures and I am still working on day 1 pics. I figured that when I started writing it will probably be more helpful for those going next year. I should hopefully get to my boarding by the time you go if I keep up at the pace I am at.

If you have any questions, though, ask away

 

Loving your review and pics! I really want to do an Alaskan cruise someday! :)

 

thanks!

[Cubechick]

An inflammatory title for certain. :rolleyes:

[OceanDreaming2]

An inflammatory title for certain. :rolleyes:

 

The title is very confusing. :confused: You don't exist????

[jenseib]

An inflammatory title for certain. :rolleyes:

 

The title is very confusing. :confused: You don't exist????

 

It will all eventually come to light! ;)

[xlxo]

As we passed this stadium I tried to read the name…SAFECO. Ok, that should be pretty easy to read right….

 

sea10 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

 

Not for me who does not watch any sports at all. I was calling it Sah Ef Co. Yep, I’m a dork. Skip then mentioned the name and I was totally laughing at myself. I guess I was trying to give it an Indian name or something.

It's pronounced "safe-co". Like "Safe Company".

• http://www.safeco.com/
  
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safeco_Field
  

[jenseib]

It's pronounced "safe-co". Like "Safe Company".

• http://www.safeco.com/
  
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safeco_Field
  

 

 

Yep! Skip said it and I was like OOOOOH! :D :confused: :rolleyes: It made perfect since then.

[jenseib]

As we stood outside taking in all the sites I was also interested in all the construction going on.

pm16 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

pm17 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

This banner was on a fence and I used to collect pig things (until I married a dairy farmer. LOL).

pm18 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

We went back inside to check more of the market out.

pm19 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

pm20 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr

This next flower picture would’ve been really neat had it been more in focus.

pm21 by Jennifer Dowling, on Flickr