Mrs. Fine’s Travel Blog

OK, I’m rushing before I lose my internet connection. We have just spent a glorious day in Juneau and I have some great pictures courtesy of my brother-in-law, David, who has a fabulous camera.

We started the day on a trip to the Mendenhall Glacier. Information about this glacier can be found here.

I’ll try to get the pictures of the incredible humpback whale and seals we saw posted tomorrow.

If you know me, you know I am an amazon.com fan. They should really hire me to be their spokesperson. Anway, when we were sailing away and I asked my friend, Kathy, what the building was on the hill in Seattle, she said it was Amazon’s headquarters. It used to be a hospital and was converted by Amazon.

These show the beautiful skyline of Seattle.

This is Qwest Field where the Seahawks play

This is Safeco Field where the Mariners play.

Today is Monday, but we sailed out of Seattle on Saturday. Sunday was an all day on the seas so we had no internet connection via our Verizon wireless card. I’ve yet to be able to get my Gmail to connect, so if you have emailed me, I hope to read it soon. For some reason this blog is loading a little faster – not great, but it is loading:)

We are touring Juneau, Alaska in just a few minutes. We’re doing a Whale sightseeing adventure, then visiting Mendenhall Glacier, and finally attend a salmon bake – can’t wait!
This is a pic of our ship while still in port in Seattle!

When I return, I will post the rest of the pics I took in the harbor at Seattle. I can normally do this in a few minutes but this is taking much, much longer. Talk to you all soon!

Our last stop on the tour was the Pike Place Market.
As you can see by the pictures it was VERY CROWDED. Being a Friday, they had market day and not to mention all of us tourist.
You kind of had to creep along with the crowd to make your way through. The produce stores were incredible. We tasted some great nectarines and oh – the Washington cherries – yummo! The flower booths are out of this world. You don’t see anything like them in Birmingham. We tried to get up close to the Pike Place Fish Market to get a picture – you know the one where they throw the fish. Alas, we were not able to get a good picture.

To end the day, we drove to Sammamish to attend a barbecue/birthday party at our friend’s home, Mike and Kathy. It was their son’s birthday (Tim) and his fiance (Molly) and his sister (Jaime) were also in attendance. Kathy cooked up some great food and we had a blast.

For lunch, we ate at Anthonys Pier 66. It was right on the water. As you come into the restaurant you will see a sculpture of a fish made out of baseballs (I suppose it is to commemorate the Seattle Mariners). Pictured in front of the fish are my two nephews, Peyton and Parker. Sorry the pic is a little blurry, but I was trying to do it in a hurry because customers kept going in front of us. How dare they?:)

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We started the day going to the Space Needle. A little about the Space Needle:

Located at the Seattle Center, it was built for the 1962 World’s Fair, during which time nearly 20,000 people a day used the elevators, with over 2.3 million visitors in all for the World Fair. The Space Needle is 605 feet (184 m) high and 138 feet (42 m) wide at its widest point and weighs 9,550 tons. When it was completed it was the tallest structure west of the Mississippi River. It is built to withstand winds of up to 200 mph (320 km/h) and earthquakes up to 9.5 magnitude[citation needed] (which would protect the structure against an earthquake as powerful as the 1700 Cascadia earthquake). The tower has 25 lightning rods on its roof to prevent lightning damage.

The Space Needle features an observation deck at 520 feet (160 m), the SkyCity restaurant at 500 feet (152 m), and a gift shop.[4] From the top of the Needle, one can see not only the Downtown Seattle skyline, but also the Olympic and Cascade Mountains, Mount Rainier, Mount Baker, Elliott Bay and surrounding islands. Photographs of the Seattle skyline often show the Space Needle in a prominent position, even appearing to tower above the rest of the city’s skyscrapers, as well as Mount Rainier in the background. This occurs because the tower, which is equivalent in height to a 60-story building, stands roughly four-fifths of a mile (1.3 km) northwest of most downtown skyscrapers.

Visitors can reach the top of the Space Needle via elevators that travel at 10 mph (16 km/h). The trip takes 43 seconds, and some tourists wait in hour-long lines in order to ascend to the top of the tower. On windy days, the elevators are slowed down to a speed of 5 mph.

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We flew from Birmingham this morning and arrived about 5:00 p.m. (Pacific Time) in Seattle. From my in-laws room an unexpected view was seen – Mt. Ranier. If you have ever been to Seattle, you know that sometimes you can see it and sometimes you can’t. This was a rare time that we could see it.

According To Wikipedia – Mount Rainier is an active[1] stratovolcano (also known as a composite volcano) in Pierce County, Washington, located 54 miles (87 km) southeast of Seattle, Washington, in the United States. It is the highest peak in the Cascade Range and Cascade Volcanic Arc at 14,411 feet (4,392 m). The mountain and the surrounding area are protected within Mount Rainier National Park. With 26 major glaciers, Mount Rainier is the most heavily glaciated peak in the lower 48 states with 35 square miles (91 km²) of permanent snowfields and glaciers. The summit is topped by two volcanic craters, each over 1,000 feet (300 m) in diameter with the larger east crater overlapping the west crater. Geothermal heat from the volcano keeps areas of both crater rims free of snow and ice, and has formed an extensive network of glacier caves within the ice-filled craters. A small crater lake, the highest in North America, occupies the lowest portion of the west crater below more than 160 feet (50 m) of ice and is accessible only via the caves.

Tomorrow we have a day of sightseeing before getting on the ship on Saturday. We plan to go to the Space Needle and Pikes Market.

Welcome to my brand new travel blog. Each year I have been lucky enough to go somewhere in the world outside of Alabama. This year we are doing a repeat cruise to Alaska. I can’t wait. We will leave this Thursday to fly to Seattle and get on our ship there. Watch here for pictures.