Vacation Recap - Part 1: Seattle

Hi All!

As I am sure you are aware if you are a regular reader of my blog (I think there are a few of you out there!), I recently spent two weeks on a cruise to Alaska. Well, in all honestly, Hubby and I really spent twelve days ON the cruise and two days trying to catch up with the ship!

Why, you might ask? Well . . . you see there was a storm in Dallas on the morning we were flying out to catch the ship in Seattle. When I say storm, I really mean "huge, amazingly violent. seemingly never-ending downpour spiked with lightening and loud rolls of thunder." This storm started early in the morning. We had such "fun" getting out luggage out of the car and into the shuttle bus in the downpour. NOT!

Anyway, the storm caused the airport to be closed for SIX hours.

Our original flight was supposed to get us into Seattle three hours BEFORE the ship left. Add a six hour delay and we got to Seattle three hours AFTER the ship left. Let's just say we were not exactly "happy campers!"

We decided that since the cruise was 14 days, it was worth it to try to catch the ship at the first port - Ketchikan, Alaska. The Alaskan Airline people were very, very nice as they helped us book a flight up there for the following morning (we couldn't get our act together to make the last flight of the day which left 20 minutes from the time we found Alaskan Airlines!).

A flight the next morning meant we got to find a hotel for the evening in Seattle. Our priority in the search wasn't comfort or price - it was who had an airport shuttle to get us first to the hotel and then back to the airport the next morning. After finding a hotel, our next priority was food.

We looked through a book of menus at the hotel and took the hotel shuttle to Dave's Diner.

It was a neat little place. It was set up like a diner along Route 66 and had all kinds of neat Route 66 paraphernalia on the walls. The menu featured a variety of food, much of it "home style." Hubby chose a hamburger - which he pronounced to be "good" - and a mircrobrew of some kind.

I went a different way since I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE meatloaf and never make it at home because Hubby doesn't like it at all. The meatloaf was good - very home style and yummy.

In a corner near the cashier there was a little display of shirts, hats, and tote bags for sale. We briefly considered purchasing a shirt for Hubby's friend Dave.

For the trip home, Hubby decided that we could walk back to the hotel since the shuttle ride took all of about five minutes. While leaving I snapped a picture of Dave's Diner. It has a vintage car out front. Unfortunately, the picture isn't that super because of the combo of the dark night and the neon sign. Oh well - I never claimed to be a good photographer!

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That is how we spent the first night of our vacation - which we were supposed to be spending on the cruise ship! Luckily, Hubby decided to try (with the emphasis on TRY) to view this as an adventure and NOT a disaster. It helped to keep things a little less stressed for both of us!

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I will continue with vacation stuff tomorrow - I hope I don't bore you too badly!

I was sad to realize that I missed meeting up with Asthmagirl while I was in Seattle. We were going to try to meet up when we returned from the cruise but things were too crazy and so I totally forgot (sorry!)

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In other news: I am getting ready for a Spasmodic Dysphonia Support Group meeting today. I hope that a bunch of people show up. Dr. Mau from the UT Southwestern Medical Center is coming to speak. He is a doctor who does Botox injections for people with SD. My co-leader, Lori, is out of town due to the fact that her mother isn't doing well (she was recently diagnosed with breast cancer) so I am on my own! **Gulp!** Tomorrow or Monday I will fill you in on how it went!

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Also, I just found out that L, the receptionist/secretary at my speech therapist's office has to have surgery next week. Apparently, they found new cancerous tumors which they are going to remove. Not good. I will be going in to the office to help cover for her while she is out.

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What a week!

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Trisha

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Voice Update: Well, it is doing pretty darn well considering that I skipped two weeks of massage and didn't do a whole lot of exercises either. I am not yet back on the "band wagon" so to speak. Hopefully once my schedule returns to normal I will get it all together.