We looked at cruises for weeks before deciding on a one-way northbound cruise on the Coral Princess which leaves from Vancouver and ends in Whittier, Alaska. This would make it easy to spend a few more nights seeing Alaska on land after the cruise. We also decided to spend two nights in Seattle before the cruise and then take the Amtrak train to Vancouver and spend the night before the cruise in Vancouver. This would be a 13-night vacation, our longest ever, and we would arrive home on July 4. We spent last summer looking at itineraries and talking over options before booking our cruise and lodging in Alaska and booking our rental car. Then we were all set and all we had to do was wait!
Our cruise itinerary:
Our travel day would begin early since we had a 10:25 am flight. The airport shuttle would be picking us up at 8:00 am which meant Ben and I had to be at his parents' house in Plano by 7:45. Which meant we had to leave at 7:00 am which meant a 5:00 am alarm!
Gee, sure hope we didn't forget anything!
After driving to Ben's parents and taking the shuttle, it was finally go time!
I got a great shot of Mt. Rainier from the plane.
I watched LaLa Land on the plane. It was a good movie and I enjoyed it.
Our first class meal wasn't too good. Oh well, I'll just have to eat more in Seattle!
We landed around 12:30 and took a Lyft to our hotel, the Maxwell Hotel located in the Queen Anne section of Seattle, north of downtown near the Space Needle. Our rooms were ready so we checked in right away.
We unpacked and got settled and then took the hotel shuttle down to the waterfront so we could have dinner at Ivar's on the waterfront.
We were so hungry, I didn't even take pictures!
After dinner, we took a Lyft to the hotel and then walked the short distance to the Space Needle. I had this on the list because it's considered a must-see in Seattle, but honestly, we could have skipped it. It was expensive for all 4 of us, windy, crowded--it was kind of a mess. I took some pictures and can now say I've been there and done that I guess.
Our group picture from the Space Needle.
After the Space Needle, we said goodbye to Fran and Harvey and Ben and I made the 20-minute walk to Kerry Park so I could get my Seattle bucket-list item--a picture of the skyline at sunset. The walk was 20 minutes all uphill and was probably one of the hardest walks we did on the whole vacation!
Ben tried to take a picture of one of the hills but this does NOT do it justice!
But when we made it there, it was totally worth it!
Ben and I went back to the hotel and had a drink in the bar and then went to bed and day one of our vacation came to a close!
