Big Family Vacation Day 2025, Day -1

Saturday morning, I was up with the daylight, my brain being on Eastern Daylight Time. But the restaurant was on Pacific Time, so I sat by the window, admiring the view, before showering and dressing for the day. We went to Bacco for breakfast at 9:00, texting Scott our plans. They were just waking up after their late arrival from DFW, and would grab something to eat before our first activity of the day.

Scott and I don't get as many visits with each other as we'd like. He plays Beer League hockey on several different teams every weekend (at least, that's what the frequency seems to be from 1,200 miles away). So getting out to visit with him in Texas requires a lot of scheduling magic. In late November of 2023, he met a woman who swept him off his feet. He was fifty years old at the time, and I have never seen him that happy in his entire life. And he just seems to get happier and happier with every passing month of the relationship. Which, of course, makes Mom happy. As we headed into this vacation together, I was looking forward to meeting Cynthia, and she did not disappoint.

One of Cynthia's most remarkable facets is her organizational skills. When I first booked the cruise, I sent both households all the information, including the available excursions at each port. She made a spreadsheet!!! If I remember correctly, the spreadsheet included all the excursions offered by Holland America Line (HAL), along with other vendors such as Viator and companies local to each port. Amazing!

And she planned things! Cool things! She let me know that she was surprising Scott with tickets to Bill Speidel's World Famous Underground Tour and that she would get tickets for Jas and myself also, if we wanted to accompany them. What a brilliant idea this adventure was. I had been reading parts of James Michener's historical novel, "Alaska", since before Jas's and my first Alaska cruise together in 2023. In the spring of 2025, I had been learning about, through Michener's words, the history of Seattle in relation to Alaska. So I knew bits of that local lore. But to see all this in real life was amazing. Now, of course, I want to go back and read that part of the book again. I think my favorite part of this tour was seeing the purple glass in the sidewalk from above and below. [Here's a great picture from another travel blogger.]

Sidebar On: An ever-present personal health factor that was controlling my life from March through [the actual day I'm writing this account, 10/14/2025] was my arthritic knees. I met with my orthopaedic surgeon on March 13 to consult about the feasibility and desireability of Total Knee Replacement for my right knee. Both knees were causing me problems, but up until March, they were taking turns. Once I met with the surgeon and the surgery scheduler and settled on 7/15/2025 for the surgery date, both knees held hands and shouted, "We're not playing any more." So through April and May, I had been in physical therapy two or three days each week and working with a personal trainer at the Jewish Community Center fitness center. Every day of my life, from 3/13/25 to today, my ability to walk without pain has been iffy. So every activity on this cruise was undertaken with the caveat that I might not be able to complete the activity and might have to go back to quarters to rest my knee. Awkward! Sidebar Off

We were at the point now where we had less than 24 hours before embarkation. There were still things I wanted to see and do, so we split up for the rest of the day, with the option of meeting for dinner on Friday night. I had read about restaurants in Pike's Place Market and really wanted to try Lowell's, with their "three floors of waterfront view." I knew, as famous as they are, they would be swamped at noon. It was now 2:00 and I thought the time was perfect to get a table near the window. We lucked out on the second level with a table, a Reuben, and a BLT, and I loved every minute of this food and this view.

After our lunch, we went back down the stairs to explore more of the market, and found the arts and crafts makers' section. So many beautiful things. At my age, I'm trying to downsize the number of things that live in my house, so I've taken to buying only useful things, which on this trip was (yes, another) tea towel for the kitchen. But when we got to the other side of the space, we found a wood carver and I had to have her little heart carved from a purple wood. It was about 1½ inches across, and now rests on my piano with a couple of glass hearts. I don't remember the carver's name, but this page gives you an idea of some of the creative artists who display their work at the market.

We'd had enough walking for the day and headed up the hill to the hotel. After a little nap, we collectively decided to have dinner at another of the hotel's restaurants, Café Campagne. It started out with Tyler, Leslie, Caroline, Jas, and myself, with Scott popping in later. We all felt like we'd been eating all day, so we ordered numerous appetizers and drinks and had a lovely end to our final Seattle day.

Did I mention this was our first vacation together since Scott and Tyler were teenagers? Mama's happy.