Day 1: Seattle!

Well, we made it! We are here in the rainy Pacific Northwest, only it's not rainy. It was cloudy earlier, but it is now sunny and actually nicer than it was at our house, haha!

Anyway... It's been a long day. We left last night, actually, to go to Gus' parents' house. The kids are staying there while we're gone, so we got them all settled. Then we had a 4:15am wake-up call so that we could make our 7am flight out of Long Beach. MAN, that is early! It was rough, too, because the flight ended up sitting on the tarmac for over an hour while we waited for one of the flight crew people to arrive. Still, we made it!! We took the light rail from the airport to downtown, and walked about two blocks from the station to our hotel. That worked out pretty well!

We were able to check in early (yay), so we put our stuff down, freshened up a bit, and then headed down toward the water to check out Pike Place Market. What a cool place! We grabbed a quick lunch at one of the eateries, but mostly spent time walking around and taking in all the hustle and bustle. Oh, and seeing the Very First Starbucks (oooh! ahhh!). I actually wanted to go inside and order something, just because I love my Starbucks, but I think the rest of the world had the same idea. So I was content to peek in the door. :)

Anyway, here are a bunch of pics from our Pike Place Market trip... The last one is the wall of gum in Post Alley (I think that's what it's called)-- EW!!





After a brief return to the hotel for some rest (it's been a loooong day), we decided to walk over to the Space Needle to check that out. The walk was actually very scenic and flat, which was nice. We didn't go inside the Needle because a) it was on the pricey side, b) there was a long line, and c) we really weren't that interested. But we did see it up close and personal! And we decided to take the monorail back, which was fun.

Now we are sitting in Starbucks (which one, right? I literally stood on a street corner earlier and could see two at the same time) so I can use their wifi, but we are off to dinner soon. Tomorrow, we board our ship for Alaska! I doubt we will have internet access on the ship, but I may bring my laptop off the boat a few times to find a Starbucks or something while we're in port. It's a good excuse for some coffee, anyway. :)