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Jacque & I woke up about 8:00 AM CDT (that would be 6 local time), so we finished watching the DVD in our laptop that we had started on one of our flights yesterday. Then we picked up & packed our things in our car, then went into the house to join Uncle Jim & Aunt Mary Lynn for a breakfast of bacon & sweet potato pancakes – neither of us has had sweet potato pancakes before, and Jacque’s not a sweet potato lover, but we both tried them and agreed it was a delicious breakfast. We then hung around for a couple more hours continuing our story telling, and then after taking a couple photos of each other, Jacque & I had to leave to make our way back to Seattle.
As we were heading off the island our arrival at Deception Pass was not as picturesque this morning as the fog had visibility down to a few dozen feet – you could not even see the water below the bridges, let alone trying to see some of the scenery of the surrounding area. We took a little stroll onto the bridge and snapped a few pictures.
A couple hours later we arrived in downtown Seattle. We easily found the Hertz facility in the convention center where we were scheduled to return the car, but also needed to find a gas station to fill-up the car or be charged the rental company’s surcharge. How many gas stations do you know of in the downtown area of your city? Well, we found one about 8-10 blocks away, then found our way back to the convention center to return the car.
We acquired a ‘car for hire’ – not a cab – to take us just over 3 miles to the pier. Turns out the driver is moved to the US from Liberia. We had a good talk about sports, mostly the world cup finals that was currently being played.
Upon arriving at the pier, we submitted our two main pieces of luggage to be delivered to our stateroom, as we then proceeded through the passenger check-in which includes a security search similar to what is done at airports. It was a couple more hours until the ship pulled away from the dock, so we spent time finding our room and exploring the many decks and facilities that would our home for the next 7 days.
The ship departure was delayed several minutes as the dock crews continued to work loading the luggage and food supplies. We continued our strolling around, watched the Sapphire Princes back away from its side of the terminal as a Norwegian Cruise ship was already underway. We then realized that the faint white cloud that continued to hang above the cranes in the distance was not a cloud at all but is snow covered Mount Rainer.
At our designated time Jacque & I made our way to the main dinning room where our table for the week is located by a window so we could watch the sights of Puget Sound disappear as we ate our dinner. We were seated at a table for six, but no one else showed up to share our table. After a delicious dinner which was topped of by some great baked Alaska for dessert, we headed over to the Vista Lounge for the Welcome Aboard Event to introduce the week’s special guest. Each guest had a few minutes on stage to share a song or two, or take a few minutes to share of their goal for being on the cruise for the lecturers & writers – basically a small taste of what would be experienced this week. This theater type lounge was fairly small, and could only accommodate half of the ship’s guests at a time. The guests were divided into two groups – red and blue – and each have specific times to attend these nightly events and a few other events through out the week. Within each group, we were subdivided into 4 color coded sub-groups, and at each event a different color was designated as priority seating – the front 8-10 rows were reserved for the priority seating group.
One special guest that was introduced was actually not someone on the advertised list of honored guest, but in fact was a regular cruise guest like Jacque & I, except this person was well know for his basketball skills, having played several years in the NBA, been on a few all-star teams along the way, even won the NBA championship one year with the San Antonio Spurs, and was recently selected into and honored at the Basketball Hall of Fame – David Robinson. After this evenings event he & his wife were very cordial and took pictures with many of the guests on the ship – including yours truly.
What a way to start off what is anticipated to be a wonderful week!
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