“Good evening from the flight deck ladies and gentlemen, we’re about 120 miles out of Seattle and will arrive around 9:50pm Pacific Time.”
Wonderful, we made time and we will be about 20 minutes early.
The Dragon Llady looks out of her window and begins poking at me....LOOK...what in the world is that sticking above the clouds?? As I leaned over, I simply said, a mountain dear. Yep they are mighty big in these necks of the woods. With that, the camera flew out of the bag and it was picture time....
The landing was a 2 bouncer... and we taxied what seemed a long way but came to a stop in the middle of the apron. Hmmmmm.
“Hello from the flight deck again, seems we’re a bit too early and all the gates are full, we'll have to wait here till someone pulls back... not sure when, so please relax.
10 minutes later we start to roll, only to make a U-Turn [Hey... we know about those] and park again. 15 minutes later we again start up and finally found a real gate and parked. What was 20 minutes early turns out to be 15 minutes late... Oh welllll.
The trek to the Baggage claim was not too bad but the wait was: a vey painful one bag a minute. On the way to the baggage claim we got a call from our limo driver who thought he missed us because we actually arrived later than scheduled but we assured him we were there and would call as soon as we had bags in hand. 40 minutes later we called Robbie of Seattle Town Car who met us at Door 14 and we were off to the Marriott Waterside in downtown Seattle. Check in was smooth and we found our 7th floor perch with a sideways view of the harbor with out anymore U-turns.
As instructed we called Earl to let him know we arrived [just before midnight] and confirmed our date for 9AM Sunday morning.
A quick edit of “Departin’ Casa D’Chaos” prior to posting and we crashed... it had been a looooonnnng day.
Around 9 AM Sunday morning, Earl and Charyl Kay rolled up, threw our bags in the trunk and we headed to Pike
Place Market for a really great breakfast at their favorite spot in town [and now ours] Maximilian’s, a super-cool little French bistro right on the water. It was Father’s Day and we were able to get a table without reservations. Service was good, atmosphere great, food divine and the company outstanding. ....the weather was superb!
Then the tour of the Market and surrounding historic area began and what a delight it was. For those that don’t know, Pike Place is the home of the “flying fish” where, when a fish is ordered, one guy finds the fish on the ice display and tosses it across the counter, sometimes over 30 feet to the next fellow who weighs it wraps it for the customer. There is always quite a line up of tourists watching this show.
It is also home of the original Starbucks coffee house and several Seattle landmarks including De Lauranti’s Italian grocery/deli/wine shop that has a fabulous assortment of imported items and some of the best prosciutto de Parma around.
In addition to the various permanent vendors, there over 300 “day vendors” that set up shop every day, often relocating in a different section of the market from day to day. Amongst these are some truly gifted artisans. The only stipulation required of all vendors
is that they are one of a kind and do not have another shop
or outlet anywhere else. Starbucks is the only exception because they were the original vendors in the market way back when.
Pike Place has something for everyone: it is a farmers market with some of the freshest veggies and fruits; it is a flower market filling the air with fragrances; it is a meat market and fish market, Beecher’s HandmadeCheese can be found there too [yum] and of course t
chotchkies everywhere... Dragon Chic was getting whip
lash! Also
some great street musicians and artists. Sort of Old Coconut Grove, meets Key West Mallory Pier, meets SoHo. With other stops on
the
agenda we were short on time and didn't get a chance to see the shops on the floor below but hope to on our return.
Next stop on the Sedlik Seattle Sojourn was the Seattle Art Museum’s “Olympic Sculpture Park” where Charyl volunteers as a guide and is very involved in the arts scene in Seattle. The
Olympic Sculpture Park is 9 acres where people can experience the art outdoors. Some fabulous works are her including a great CALDER that frames the Dragon Lady and the Space Needle very well. It has views of
Puget Sound, the Olympic Mountains and the city. Tree hugger Illy was quite pleased to know that the museum was involved in restoring the salmon habitat on Elliott Bay, and all the plants & trees in the park were native to the northwest. While we tried to squeeze in as much as we could we were coming up on time to head to the ship, and will have to make another stop there also as there were some really incredible pieces that we missed. Through it all, shutterbug Chuckie was snapping a way.
For those that don’t already know, Earl, a prominent Seattle resident, is a Miami High classmate and Thespian Brother who I've kept in touch with over the years and both he and his wife share the same love of travel that we do. Earl and Charyl Sedlik are a perfect matched pair that are full of life and were an absolute joy to have squire us around their great city. We can’t wait for them to pick us up on our return for round two of the Dragon Lady Loves Seattle tour.
Not sure of the embarkation challenges that awaited with Holland American, we got to the pier a little before 2pm to find a very quick and pleasant check in and found ourselves in cabin 6153 by 2:15The cabin accommodation was very nice and the luggage began trickling in one at a time. A quick walk around the Lido Deck, 2 bud lites and 2 slices of pizza’s later and we were off to the mandatory boat safety drill where we had to separate, women and children in front and wait as they called role for everyone who was supposed to be at this station. They take this very serious. By 4PM the ship left the port and we were on our way “NORTH TO ALASKA!”
Ciao 4 Now
Chuck and the totaly in LOVE with the Sedlik's and Seattle, Dragon Lady
This of course has made it a joy at bedtime, offloading the days choices and reassembling it all in the morning, only to watch as she shuffles it all once again. 
