Retired Thru the Lens is my blog detailing life's adventures in retirement. Here, I'll share vivid photographs of birds, wildlife and travel destinations, woven with stories from the road. Come along for the ride - explore nature and the world with me through every click and tale.
On the way to Alaska
We’re in Seattle, excited to board our ship tomorrow for our first cruise to Alaska. But today we had fun in this city as a precursor to the new experiences ahead.
Pikes Place may be famous, but I’d say it rakes the cake for crowds and being expensive. But it’s colorful, high energy, and great place to just look and people watch.Such beautiful cherries here, the PNW bounty was on full display Steph having fun at Pikes Place Holy mackerel, er mink fish!3.14159 . . . Oh whatever, just say tastyOur first totem poles!We took a harbor, cruise, part of our hotel stay, and saw pretty views along with new information The ports biggest shipping business is grain. Not grown in this moist climate, but rather shipped via train from the Midwest to be loaded on ships and transported to Asia. Seattle is the favored port because it is one day shorter ocean shipping to the east, vs other west coast ports They also have a robust cargo port, here’s shown in front of the Seahawks stadium, where good crane operator can offload a cargo container in 90 seconds They also have an active dry dock, here’s a navy ship up in the air, being repaired And one of the Coast Guard’s largest ice breakers preparing to patrol the far northern territorial waters this summer We also made the compulsory stop at the original Starbucks by Pikes Place.Steph happy at Starbucks number one A weird but cute shop specializing in sloths vs robots?? Anyway, they set a theme and stuck with it Rachel’s kind of place, knitting yarn and cats!Our light dinner at a place pace I’ve been wanting to try- Steph got potato and cheese, and I had beef w/potato and one with salmon and cream cheese. Good tasty stuff. Note-I’m holding out for Alaska chowder/fish and chips, so this was perfect By the time we were done the Pikes Market was all closed up-and the shops emptied out.We were back in our room before sunset, ready for a busy day of embarkation in the morning.
