Wednesday, December 8th., 2021…… I had acupuncture and Cathye had
her volunteer session at SHEM this morning so we both headed off to those. It
also gave me some time to get back and get boxes for some of Cathye’s gifts. We
did more laundry to get clothes prepped for the upcoming trip on Sunday. Penny
will be taking us to the train depot so we don’t have to leave a car. We have been checking the weather and are
delighted to hear that they will be getting some snow at Leavenworth this week.
Not so much when we are there (22% chance) but we are hoping to get that some
will remain while we are there.
Thursday, December 9th., 2021…… I had my list today. Cathye had hers. I needed to
get the second ladder out for the roof. I needed to also put the truckster on
the battery charger. Cory and his friend are coming over tomorrow morning to do
some work for us around the house. They will be using the lawn vehicle to move
most of the large rocks out of Cathye’s island. They will go out to the front
flower beds and I also needed to put markers in the ground out there where I
wanted them to go. The ladders are needed because we’re having the guys go up
to clean out the gutters. I had noticed when I was hanging the Christmas lights
that there was moss building up and it was time to get that cleaned out. One more
thing I can have them do!
Friday, December 10th., 2021…… Interesting day! Cathye was scheduled to go to look at a
bridal dress today and the girls were going to join her. The guys would be here
to work. Aimee was supposed to come by before that to go look at the appraisal
for the trailer. She cancelled for today. I had to get out the truckster and
air up one of the tires plus get the second ladder out for them for the gutter
cleaning. The guys got here and got the larger rocks that were in the island
area out and moved to the flowerbeds and dropped in my marked areas. They then
headed over to the trailer in my truck to pick up the rocks that Cathye has in
her flowerbeds. These are smaller and came from her son in MO so she wanted to
make use of them here. The problem started when I told the guys to just drive out
and unload them behind the island. That didn’t work too well. They only got
about 10 feet into the mucky wet grass before they got stuck! I had to use Cathye’s 4x4 to pull them
out. She says it took a REAL truck to
get my little one out! Yeah, haha!
Anyway, they transferred everything to the truckster and got it all unloaded. The girls took off a little later and the guys had lunch then went on to get the gutters done. That went pretty well, just kind of slow because my ladders are old and need to be replaced. I need to put that on my Christmas list. They got done and left and I rested for a while and worked on the blog for a bit. The girls got back and were worn out from their day of shopping.
Saturday, December 11th., 2021…… We spent most of the day getting
ready for our trip tomorrow. We each had a small overhead suitcase and I had the
requisite carry bag with meds and chargers and the tickets and such. I think we
are ready. Once Cathye suggested we go to the German village of Leavenworth, WA,
I was in 100%! I didn’t particularly
want to drive in the snow and we came up with the idea to take the train up
there. So, I went to work planning for the whole trip. I had to make individual
reservations for 1) the train from Albany to Seattle, 2) the hotel in Seattle
before Leavenworth, 3) the train to Leavenworth, 4) a hotel/motel in
Leavenworth, 5) the train back from Leavenworth to Seattle, 6) a hotel in
Seattle, and 7) the train back to Albany. It took some planning but I got it
all arranged and the reservations made. Cathye had called her niece and told
her we were planning a trip up. She lives in Seattle so they made plans to get
together the first day/evening. Penny
would be staying here to babysit the fur babies. We were set! We went to bed
early tonight because we had an early day.
Sunday, December 12th., 2021…… We were up at 4:30am and on the road to Albany. We changed plans and would be driving ourselves. We managed to make coffee before we walked out the door and would eat something on the train. We parked at the train depot and I texted Penny where the car was. She and Cherrelyn would come get it later today. We had coach seats on the Amtrak Cascades train, which (we think) started from Eugene. There was plenty of room and we settled in and relaxed as it headed north. It was dark and we couldn’t see much but we knew the area so we just ok. We made several stops and arrived in Portland about the time the sun came out. We saw folks getting on and off as we made our way north to Seattle. We were only 1 minute late as we pulled in. That was impressive! I remember a trip we took several years ago on the train with Bill and Treasa. We left the Oakland area on the California Zephyr headed on the 1 ½ day trip to Denver CO. That train started out late and never caught up on the schedule! So, I was surprised, and very impressed that this one was so efficient. I had booked us in the Embassy Suites, which was literally right across the street from the depot! We had a room on the 20th floor (not much of a view though – just another building next door!) but it was beautiful none the less. Cathye called Heather and they arranged to meet us at the hotel. We wanted them to be our tour guides around the Seattle area. They took a bus in and we walked down to meet them outside. Heather has a 12-year-old daughter, Charleigh, who is going through a transition to be Charlie. We noticed that Heather always referred to Charlie as Charlie, not him or her, so we tried to follow suit. No worries, though, we all had a great time! We walked to the underground metro train depot (Sound Transit) and took that to Westlake station, closest to the famous Pike Place Market.
We explored around there and shopped a bit and also watched them throw the fish around. Then we headed down to the docks and went to The Crab Pot for dinner. Heather and Charlie had salad and burgers, but Cathye and I shared The Westport Seafeast. They came and dumped dungeness crab, snow crab, shrimp, steamed clams, mussels, andouille sausage, corn on the cob, and red potatoes on our table and handed us bibs and a mallet and we dug in!
It was truly a feast and was delicious! After dinner, we walked up the docks and got on The Seattle Great Wheel, a huge ferris wheel. The weather wasn’t the best and it was raining, but we still had a great view of the Seattle skyline and Puget Sound. After that, we made our way back to the hotel, walking in the rain. I had my warm rain jacket on and Cathye had her warm coat on but turns out it wasn’t waterproof! So, she got soaked on the walk back to the hotel! We will be shopping tomorrow for sure! We said our goodbyes and headed up to our room. Later, we walked down to the second-floor reception area, where they had complimentary snacks and drinks, and had a nice relaxing time and a few drinks.
I don’t think we were awake too much after we hit the bed. It was a long day!
Monday, December 13th., 2021…… Heather had mentioned underground Seattle tours in our area around Pioneer Square, which is where the city began, so I looked that up last night and booked us for the Beneath the Streets tour at 10:30 this morning. We went down to the hotel’s complimentary breakfast and had cook-to-order omelets (yummy!), coffee, juice, yogurt and more,
and then walked the ¼ mile to the address. We found it ok and were the first to arrive for our tour. It was very interesting! We learned that the Seattle we know today was actually built on top of the original city, founded back in the late 1800s.
Between flood and fire, they built over the existing buildings and foundations. The tour was about an hour and also took us outside to see highlights in the Pioneer Square downtown area. Weyerhaeuser’s corporate headquarters is here, UPS was started here too. It is highly recommended if you’re in the area and have the time to take this tour. Next on our list was Chinatown, which was just across the street from the train station we were at yesterday. We stopped at the Pinball Museum, which we had also heard about from locals.
For one price ($17. for seniors), you could play any/all of the 50+ pinball machines they have operational. You can start from the oldest they have (1961) and work your way up to the latest 2021 Godzilla model. I think we were there over an hour and played at least one game on probably 30 of them each. It was well worth the price of admission. I remember playing these older ones when I was growing up and going to bowling alleys in SoCal and in Illinois. I even managed to win some free games just like I did then! After that, we walked up the street and had lunch at a Chinese restaurant (don’t remember the name offhand but it was ok). We walked back to the room and rested for a few minutes, then headed out again and took the train again, this time past the Westlake station and all the way to Northgate, end of the line. We (ok I) thought that the Seattle Center and the space needle were at the last stop on the train. I was mistaken! But it worked out ok because we saw a Nordstrom Rack right across the street and Cathye found a nice raincoat. We also bought some inexpensive swimwear for the pool/spa we saw in the hotel. We stopped back at Westlake station and found the monorail from the Westlake mall west out to the Space needle. It was actually too late to take any tours but we took some pics of the needle at dusk.
We will be back tomorrow because our train to Leavenworth doesn’t leave until 4:40pm tomorrow afternoon. We had dinner at 13 Coins, next door (but not affiliated with) the Embassy Suites. It was just ok but super convenient. We went back up to the room and changed into our swimsuits and hit the spa.
I guess most people don’t think about swimming in the wintertime but we did! It was nice and there was only one other couple in there with us. It was on the 8th. floor, overlooking the football stadium.
We headed back on the train to the
monorail and back to the Seattle Center. Our goal today was to tour The Chihuly Garden
and Glass exhibit. Senior tickets were $28.00 ea. But we still went in. It was
way cool and almost worth the money!
Dale Chihuly is world renown for his glass sculptures and this exhibit
shows his talent! Just look at these pics…
The last one is from his collections area. I thought I'd seen accordions before, but not like these! The next stop was the Amazon Spheres. These are also called Bezo’s Balls! They are from Jeff Bezo’s imagination and house a hybrid greenhouse and botanical gardens, as well as offices for Amazon. There is also a huge office complex next door, with a toy yard in the middle, complete with teeter totters. We were there for the tour but it turns out that this space is only for Amazon employees. They told us at the door that on certain days they do tours but haven’t been since covid. Bummer! So, we took some pics of the building and then played on the musical teeter totters
before we headed back to the train and back to our hotel. We decided to go find the Asian mega store called Uwajimaya. We were looking for another duffle bag to carry souvenirs home in. This place was huge! It had every restaurant item known to the Asian community! But no bags that would work for us! We’ll pick one up in Leavenworth. We walked back past our hotel and down the street to a little bar and grill (Sluggers) that was just across the street from Lumen Field, home of the Seahawks, for dinner.
The owner was very nice and took good care of us and shared some great info about life in the bar business across from an NFL stadium! We met his new puppy and had a nice meal and a few beers and then walked back to our hotel and retrieved our bags and went across the street to await our train. For this trip we would be on the Empire Builder, bound for Chicago. So, this train was more than a commuter. It had sleeper cars and a lounge car and dining cars. We didn’t have assigned seats, just assigned cars, and we were among the first to board, so we were able to get the seats we wanted. We had a nice a view and plenty of legroom. I mentioned that this train was leaving Seattle at 4:40pm and was only a few minutes late. We were scheduled to get into Leavenworth, about 8:09pm. And when we got there at 8:10, there was a tram waiting to shuttle folks to town. Now this was something we completely overlooked! We saw the map of the town and everyone said the whole thing was basically only about 3 blocks long. Assuming that the train stopped in town was my mistake! The station was at the other end of town, basically about two miles out and Der Ritterhof Inn was even further the other way. But our driver knew every stop and got us to our place with no worries. They were expecting us. There was snow on the ground as they had their first snowfall of the season just yesterday. It was very clean and quaint. We walked down the street and looked around the area and decided we would go back to our room and settle in for the night. I'll take pics of the Inn tomorrow.
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