Sleeping in Seattle

 It's a funny story as to how we came to spend the first two days of our recent vacation in Seattle, WA. 

This whole tale began last December when Dan and Susan said that they would be visiting their daughter, Alyson, in Seattle, where she was employed as an engineer at Boeing.  They then thought they could use the opportunity to tack on a Disney cruise to Alaska, and would we consider coming with them, and the rest is history, as they say.  The deal was that during our two days in Seattle, Aly would serve as our tour guide.  In the intervening months, Alyson was recruited by and took a job as a software engineer with Uber in....Pittsburgh! So, Aly came home, the Bonks now have their daughter living close to them, but we all lost a tour guide!!

That didn't stop us from having a terrific two day visit to Seattle, a first time visit for both Marilyn and me.  It even included us posing for the cornball picture before a green screen at the Space Needle.  That's the picture that heads this post, and believe it or not, it was freebie.   You get the picture taken, choose a backdrop, scan your ticket and they email it to you.  What a bargain!  We also found Seattle to be a very interesting city.  Very vibrant, very diverse, and very young.  We spent time on Saturday evening in the Capitol Hill area of downtown (bars, restaurants, cultural spots) and the place was just teeming with young people, many of whom, no doubt, employed in the Seattle's burgeoning high tech economy.

As I did with Alaska post, I will spare the prose, and go heavy with photos and some minimal commentary.

 It rains a lot in Seattle, but not the two days that we were there, so we were able to see Mt. Rainier, a magnificent natural wonder that dominates every view in Seattle.  In the foreground of this photo, is the Seahawks' Century Link Field and the Mariners' Safeco Field.

I suppose that no visit to Seattle is complete without a visit to the famous Pubic Market.

It is huge and jam packed with many colorful sights:

 This is also the home of the famed Pike Fish Market where the fishmongers throw the fish to each other.  No one was buying fish when we were there, so for the benefit of the myriad of tourists, the guys are willing to throw your baby for you:

 Just kidding.  They didn't actually throw that kid!

What else did we do in Seattle?  Well......

First, we had to figure out where things were.

Dinner at a Mexican restaurant.  That picture is actually of our reflection in a large mirror opposite from our table.  Very artsy of me to take that, don't you think?

We proudly display our senior citizen discounted tickets on Seattle's monorail.

Great Sunday morning breakfast at they elegantly named establishment.  I mean, how could we NOT eat there?

Then it was on to visit the Space Needle, the signature structure of the 1962 World's Fair in Seattle.

 I was struck by how small the actual overall area of the World's Fair's grounds were.  Some of those Fair structures still stand today, and much of the space is now public space.

 We got a senior discount of our Space Needle tickets, too.  The kids, Dan and Susan, had to pay full boat.

For twelve days in 1962, Elvis Presley was on location at the Seattle Fair filming "It Happened At The World's Fair".  We were indeed on hallowed ground.

 The views from atop the Space Needle are amazing, and they acknowledge how many people have visited the place since 1962:

 And they can be very specific in acknowledging your presence there as well:

We then visited the Chateau St.Michele winery in Kirkland, WA.   We have visited a lot of wineries over the years, and this was easily the most beautiful one.

On Monday morning, it was on to catch the train to Vancouver, BC.

Sitting in a railway station,

Got a ticket for our destination.

 Ridin' the Rails

It was three hour smooth and relaxing ride to Vancouver, BC.  Such a ride was another first for us.  Had never been on a passenger train before, and it was very nice way to travel.  From the Vancouver train station to the Vancouver pier was short cab ride away, and what followed after that was the Alaskan adventure that I detailed in yesterday's post.

Oh, one thing I didn't mention was how we actually got from Point A to Point B to Point C and so on as we toured around Seattle.  That was yet another new experience for the two of us, and it is one that deserves its own separate post, which will be coming in the next day or two, so stay tuned.

Tony Awards Time

Once a year, The Grandstander turns his bully pulpit over to old friend (by the way, that's "old" as in "older than me" and also "old" as in, well, you know) Bill Montrose, this Blog's Official Broadway Correspondent for his predictions on the 2017 Tony Awards, which will air on CBS the coming Sunday evening.

So, without further ado, take it away, Bill.....

I can't really improve on last years' picks; (10 for 10), plus I don't have the "Hamilton wave" to ride, but I'm still confident with these fearless prognostications:

BEST PLAY ............................................................    Oslo

BEST MUSICAL .....................................................    Dear Evan Hansen

BEST BOOK OF A MUSICAL ................................    Steven Levenson, Dear Evan Hansen

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE ......................................    Dear Evan Hansen

BEST MUSICAL REVIVAL .....................................    Hello, Dolly!

BEST PERFORMANCE - ACTOR .........................    Ben Platt, Dear Evan Hansen

BEST PERFORMANCE - ACTRESS .....................    Bette Midler, Hello, Dolly!

BEST PERFORMANCE - FEATURED ROLE

                                                         ACTOR ..........    Gavin Creel, Hello Dolly!

BEST PERFORMANCE - FEATURED ROLE

                                                      ACTRESS .........    Jenn Colella, Come From  Away

BEST DIRECTION MUSICAL .................................    Michael Greif, Dear Evan Hansen

Well that's it!   Looks like I'm leaning heavily on "Dear Evan Hansen" to capture most of the big categories.  "Come From Away" could pull some upsets,

but I'm still sticking with 'Evan'.  Even though "...The Great Comet" got the most nominations, their wins will come in the more technical "Design" categories;

e.g., Scenic, Costume, etc. And - as you usually point out  ......

                                                                                             WATCH BUT DON'T BET!

Thanks, Bill!

You've got to love how Bill has appropriated The Grandstander's "Watch, but don't bet" dictum, which The Grandstander freely admits he appropriated (stole?) from the late Post-Gazette Sports Editor/Columnist Al Abrams.  (An Al Abrams reference.  How's that for skewing old?)

I shall be reporting in on Monday to note Bill's winning percentage, and everybody enjoy the Tonys on Sunday night, or sometime on Monday because many of you will have DVR'ed the Tonys so as to be able to see the Penguins clinch the Stanley Cup on Sunday night.

Alaska and The "Wonder"

The time has come to sit down and write about our recent cruise vacation to Alaska with our friends, Dan and Susan Bonk.  The problem with this is no words that I can write will capture the majesty and beauty of Alaska, nor will they possibly capture the excitement, joy, and pure fun of the trip. Similarly, no photograph that we took can possibly do justice to the mountains, the glaciers, and the sheer scenic beauty that we experienced.  I am not that good a writer or photographer, but what the heck, I'll give it a shot.

This trip will always be special because even though it had been booked and in the planning stages for well over six months, it almost didn't happen at all.  Many of you know the reasonS for that, and I will not restate them here, but we were able to make the trip, and it was the experience of a life time.

For me, this was my very first cruise experience, and I wasn't sure what to expect.  I was pretty sure that I was going to like it, but you can never be sure, and the opinions of some that you might feel "trapped" or "confined" aboard a cruise ship proved completely unfounded.  The experience aboard our ship, the Disney Wonder, was 100% positive.  

If you've ever enjoyed a vacation provided by the people at Disney, you know what I am talking about.  First class service all the way in terms of room accommodations, service, food, and entertainment.  We honestly could not find a thing about which to complain.

Rather than give a lengthy narrative, I am going to take up much of the space here with some photos for he trip.  That's what you all really want to see anyway with some commentary.

This photo was taken in Ketchikan, our third port of call, and the sixth day of the cruise.  I put it early in the narrative, because I think it was the best picture taken of all four of us together during our entire trip.

Part of any Disney Experience is the entertainment:

A "Welcome Aboard" show as we pulled out of Vancouver.

"Frozen".  Yes, they actually made it snow on board.

Singer Kelly Jarrard.  

We heard her on several different occasions on the cruise, and actually met and talked with her as well.

Leslie, the Bingo Lady. Yes, we played played Bingo on four separate occasions, and Leslie and her team made it super entertaining.

Dan, Susan, and Marilyn with Darren McBurney, our Cruise Director.  Darren and his assistant, Anthony, did a morning TV show that ran on a continuous loop every morning, and they were terrific.  Darren was also a really neat guy to talk to.  Because of him, I will never say "Good morning" or pronounce the word "azure" ever again without putting his particular stamp on it.

Lito and Vicky, our dining service team throughout the cruise.  You rotated dining rooms each night and your team followed with you.  They were great.

Ariel, The Little Mermaid, gets a kiss from the handsome Prince.

Okay, enough of the cruise ship, you're saying, how about some scenes of Alaska?  Here you go....

An evening sunset.  It was 10:09 PM when this was taken.

Taking a morning stroll on the top deck.

Sailing on Endicott Arm to view the Dawes Glacier:

No picture can capture seeing this.  We also saw the glacier calve several time while were were there.  The noise that this makes is indescribable.  And the ice is so blue when it is first exposed to the air.  Beautiful.

I decided to get out of the cold and view Dawes Glacier in a more relaxed mode.

Downtown Skagway.  

The population quadruples whenever a cruise ship comes to port.

Dan and I attempt to negotiate a deal with a local small business person.

Anna, our tour bus driver in Skagway.  She had quite a back story.

Scenes from aboard  the White Pass-Yukon Railroad.

Two photos from the ship of Juneau Harbor.  See what I mean about the scenery.

The Mendenhall Glacier.  Again, no photo can possibly capture this.  Photos in the visitor's center document how rapidly this glacier has receded over the years.  Very sad.

Our hands on a piece of ice from the Mendenhall Glacier.  Hard to comprehend that this ice is tens of thousands of years old.

Sea lions and a bald eagle in Juneau.  We also saw whales, but those babies are hard to photograph.

Downtown Ketchican.

Every tourist town has a Christmas shop.

Again, Dan and I checking out local small businesses.

Creek Street in Ketchikan.  Once a notorious red light district.  

Strolling in Ketchikan.

That's me selecting a new yard decoration for Village Drive.  Should be delivered by the 4th of July.

Our final dinner on board the Wonder.

 From the cast and crew of the Wonder.... 

"Now it's time to say good-bye...We'll see you real soon."

I will stop here, but I could go on and on and on about this trip.  There are of course MANY more pictures that we will be happy to share with you at the drop of a hat.  Really.  Just ask us. And I will no doubt be making many more references to this wonderful adventure for weeks and months into the future.  I will just conclude by saying that Alaska is a one of a kind place, nobody treats you better than the folks at Disney, and in Susan and Dan, we had just about the best travel companions imaginable.

As the Disney people will always tell you, it was MAGICAL.