We started our trip to Seattle by leaving from the airport and actually leaving on time and not having any traffic, a first for our family I believe. We went through security and their were no problems and in fact I got the whole row to myself on the plane. What a treat! Dad ended up sharing it with me but I had takeoff all to myself. We landed in Seattle around 11:15 pm local time. I love Seattle, well at least the downtown area that I saw. It was fairly sunny all 4 days we were there and to boot the temperature was perfect. The first night we just went back to the hotel and went straight to bed. We checked into the Maxwell Hotel, aka the pineapple express. It was a very nice hotel, but some of its accents were a little too much. We woke up the next morning and went to "the 5 spot" for breakfast and decided to order sandwiches to take with us for hike that we had planned. We then drove out to Snowqualmie about an hour away from Seattle and we took a little day hike. It was very beautiful and there was a lot of snow. The snow was all hard by that point but still up to my knees in some parts. There is a stream that runs along side the trail and the whole time there are rapids. It really was very picturesque. There were a few people but not a disturbing amount that ruined the experience. I enjoyed it very much and we even had to make a bridge to cross one of the steams. I was a little skeptical at first that we were going to be able to cross it because it was moving so fast, but we made it work. We were warned by a guide that we shouldn't continue, and in fact he thought we didn’t know where the trail was. We ended up going to a little waterfall but we had to turn around. We ate our sandwiches at the lake coming back and then made it back to the cars by 7 pm. We made it back to Seattle and we were very hungry but nothing was open, even in downtown Seattle. We tried to stop by 5 spot to see if it was open and sure enough it was. We ate at the same place 3 times in one day! A record I think. Then the next day we met the Facer family at the Pacific Science Center and enjoyed the day, but as science museums usually, quite lame. We did a ton of stuff over the next two days including: a boat ride around the bay, an imax movie, visit the space needle twice, play wiffle ball in front of the space needle, and the aquarium. It was fun to do all these things, but I learned that where we go doesn't really matter, but rather who we do things with. We can do many things see movies, watch games, play games, but really what stays is the memory of what you did or do with someone.
We boarded the cruise ship the day after we picked up Lauren, Aaron and Larry. It is an interesting experienceto be on a cruise. I guess Larry has been looking forward to this cruise for a long time. I am rooming with him and I get to see how he lives. He is an "old man". He has a laser focus on the task at hand and he doesn't like to change plans for anything. He is nice to have around, and it is great to see how much he loves the cruise experience. I tip my hat to him for wanting to do all these adventures at his age. We went to Sock hop night and Ron was picked for an Elvis dance competition. He won a bottle of champagne and I think bragging rights for years to come. The video is posted at the bottom. I have a mixed opinion of the cruise ship experience. I like not having to worry about traveling but it is really tacky and quite frankly I think it is destroying the environment and the grandeur of this area. Huge ships filled with fatter people don't belong in the treacherous wilderness of Alaska. I am not a huge fan and quite frankly I feel like we burden these people, mountains and waterways. However, I am not complaining at how close I feel with the great outdoors and the great time I am having with my family outside of the "boat". Out first excursion was a "fly" fishing trip. A plane with pontoons picked us up and flew us to a remote location about 30 minutes away where we hiked for a little bit and then we loved every minute we had in that stream. I learned a lot more on how to cast and now feel more comfortable. In fact I caught the biggest fish but it was totally by accident. He was about to show me how to cast better and a huge rainbow was on my line. We then kayaked in the Auke bay in Juneau, Alaska. I was paired with Larry so I had to do a lot of paddling. It wasn't too bad but I had a ton of fun. We also went "whale watching" and saw a pod of them as well as 2 orcas. When we pushed off to go kayaking we saw a sea lion who followed us for a little bit and man was it cool. The next day we took a hike in Skagway after we took a historic train. We hiked to a certain location so we could see a glacier. It was an easy hike and we caught a break because the clouds opened up right for us to be able to see the glacier. It was a great sight and right as we were leaving, the clouds covered the glacier and stopped anyone else from being able to enjoy the spectacular view.
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