Seattle & Home at Last!

Sorry about the delay - wanted to say we were all unpacked, and it took this long to do it! LOL!  Still have some laundry to do and we seem to be missing a few things...
However, previously in Seattle:  

At the train station we loaded up bags in a cab and rode 30 minutes south to our friend's house near the airport.  We got settled in and made friends with the cat, Jesse.  We had plans to meet up with another friend, Cat, for southwest food for dinner.  In the meantime, we relaxed and enjoyed this amazing view from Pam & Charlie's balcony.  The weather was gorgeous and the books were good reads...

Lake Washington viewed from Pam's balcony

The next day we all drove up to Cat's house to meet her dogs, Madison, Zoe and Tucker.  They were delightful and rambunctious and happy to meet new humans. 

B is petting Tucker Madison and I are snuggling and Zoe wants in on the action

 I think an old English bulldog fits B - don't you?

Zoe finally gets her licks in

Starbucks is always a necessity around Cat's house, so we leashed the dogs and went for a walk.  There were fairly well behaved, not pulling, but happy to go out on a lark...  

It didn't take long to reach our destination enjoying hot lattes and puppicinos for the dogs...  

We walked the 15 minutes back to the house and B and the girls decided to pose for a pic - sort of... The girls were keeping an eye on mom.  This view, btw, is just outside Cat's front door - she lives on a cul-de-sac and this is the neighbor's property.  Nice of them to make it pretty huh? 


Since the pups were set, we headed out for lunch.  This is The Attic at Snoqualmie Falls.  Meal was great, company was better!

Cat, Pam and B enjoying the marvelous weather

We must have had a pro taking this photo - it almost looks fake, but trust me, everything is as pictured...

Snoqualmie Falls - tons of water

Great pic of great gals - Cat, G, and Pam.  I am so lucky to have these ladies as friends.  Looking forward to meeting up soon in Vegas...

In order to convince Charlie, Pam's husband, to wear his elephant pants to the movies, we had to show him our camaraderie.  Blue is Pam, red is Cat, I am black with blue shoe and B is black with green tee.  They are the most comfortable pants in the world.

diiner at BJ's - we have added to our gang.  Just over B's head is Russ, our best man at our wedding and friend for 40 years; Charlie is to the right of Russ and our host; and to B's left is Kevin, Cat's friend..

Cat & I lounging in our recliner seats at the theater.  We are awaiting, The Avengers Infinity War - which was amazing!

"all our bags are packed, we're ready to go..."

I really enjoyed Seattle - if I weren't so eager to go home I could've stayed longer.  Thanks Charlie & Pam for your great hospitality - we really enjoyed spending time with you.  So one last Starbuck's coffee and off to the airport.  The photo is intentionally cut off to show Cat the coffees she was missing out on, as well as morning smiles...

Pam drove us to the airport - our flights were delayed then rerouted through Dallas - yuck!  We finally touched down in San Antonio at midnight, home by 1am and in our own bed at 2am!  An exhausting day but thankful we made it home safely and mostly well...  Iota and Zany were ecstatic to see us and bounded all over us and the house.  Pam, our house sitter was just as glad, as after 4 months she was ready to go home.  Her favorite color is purple so I had to find all her prezzies and chat with her some, because she and B were back to the airport the next morning for her flight...  Thanks ever so much Pam - our trip would not have been possible without you...hugs  

And to you, my readers - thanks for letting me know you were out there.  Just knowing some one was waiting for an update forced me to post this blog as often as possible.  I hope you have felt as if you were traveling along as I shared our experiences.  It was virtually a blast!  Nothing planned for the future so far - I want to experience home for awhile.  But I am sure we will get itchy traveling feet again in a year or two, so keep an eye out for BnG's Grand Adventures - enjoy the journey...

5 Sea Days and Vancouver

 We had a smooth crossing and some nice weather for 2.5 days.  After that the sun only managed to peek out a few minutes between the fog.  It was pea soup for several hours but not really cold until the last day then it got down in the 60's and was quite chilly walking laps.
 You would think with 5 sea days that HAL would have additional activities, but not really...  They had a few more lectures - but weird topics and B & I are not much for lectures anyways.  We played a little pickle ball, scattergories, trivia for me and slots for B.  Gambling was a major activity - between lcr, poker and blackjack, I actually brought home money this trip and B had a few winning jackpots, so the casino was fun...  Met some interesting folks at the poker table - if you think we travel, you should talk to Jack and Leslie! They don't even own a home - they ONLY travel!  Not sure I could do that...
 Additionally, someone infected B and he infected me, so we are both fighting the cough/cold thing Again!  I went to the Dr. since we've been home, got a shot and another z-pac.      We are both recuperating, but don't want pneumonia.
My trivia team this cruise kicked ass!  If we didn't win, we tied or came in 2nd most days.  5 Aussies and me in the day and 2 other Americans and Migan & Allan (the Aussies) at night. Oh one of the Aussies was Phil, the guest lecturer on the ship.  The question was some obscure date, movie item or geography and his response was "pha, that's easy"..lol!  I was a great verifier and scribe.  

Daytime trivia team - guess we didn't win today, Phil, Migan & Allen look mad
Ian & Margaret, to my left, were delightful...

Meals were fine but our replacement dinner companions did not live up to the previous couple.  Nice enough people but Canadians, eh?(j/k)  No one wanted to sit by him, so we kinda fought and jostled around - appreciate Marty taking one for the team 3 nights...lol!  We offered to buy him a drink on the last night but after the show the bars were all closed...
We did play Balderdash with our dinner gang on the last day - B kicked ass!  I regretted not encouraging a daily game time, cause it was so much fun. We could have made our own activities...lol
Our cabin this time was 709 and on the 7th floor, all the way to the front.  Still an inside cabin, no port hole, but a decent size.  We often slept till 10amish, because we had no outside light.  B bought me the BEST gift tho for Christmas - 2 tiny motion-light LED lights.  Worked super well for peeing in the middle of the night & when B got dressed without waking me.  Shower was not as nice because it was small and had a sticky shower curtain...  

from Amazon

We arrived in Vancouver and got off the ship easily with our 7 pieces of luggage.  

the 7th is the laptop carryon - not pictured

then had to wait over an hour for a taxi!  Come to find out 3 ships have all just arrived AND there is a marathon race downtown that has blocked all access to the port!  Finally got a van taxi (Uber does not operate in Vancouver) and got to the hotel 15 minutes away.  We stay at the YWCA Hotel in Vancouver and I highly recommend it. It is reasonably priced, beds are comfy and the location is great.  B and I walked around & ate a snack.  We joined our friends Ginny & Chris for dinner at 7pm.  They live in Kamloops and drove over just to meet-up with us. But they almost didn't because traffic was horrendous and a 3 hour drive turned into a 5 hour ride!  Dinner was amazing appetizers - B had a burger and we all shared calamari, chicken wings, sushi, & lettuce wraps.  Damn it that I forgot to take a photo of the food and us enjoying GREAT company...  I need training from my friend Cat - lol!
The next morning we awoke early to catch Amtrak to Seattle.  Unfortunately it was the Amtrak bus, not the train and when you cross the Canadian/USA border, you have to schlep your own luggage: out of the bus, thru passport check, into the scanner & back on the bus.  Can you imagine how much fun that was with all our bags?  Thank goodness the bus driver helped a bit...  The bus ride itself was pleasant enough and we arrived in Seattle around 1pm.  More about that and our journeys end tomorrow...