This cruise had been planned for a long time and paid for before our camping trip, so we weren’t about to cancel despite the issues we were having. We did go on the cheap, using points for half of our airfare and also for the hotel room we needed before the cruise. It was well worth it! Alaska was beautiful, we lucked out with the weather, and the Celebrity Solstice was a great ship.

Our long day flying from New Hampshire to Seattle started with a 5:00AM flight, a 3 hour layover in Chicago, and a 12:30PM arrival in Seattle. It had been a long day already, and we lucked out that the Hilton Hotel & Conference Center had a room ready for us. I chose the hotel because it was right at one of the light-rail stops so it was easy to get into Seattle. We rested a bit, I checked in with work, then my son & I traveled to T-Mobile Park to watch the Seattle Mariners take on the Florida Marlins. It was a “value night” which meant bleacher seats were only $10. The slice of pizza my son bought for himself cost $12. At least the $9 soda was refillable all game. One thing I want to do as we travel is try to get to as many Major League ballparks as I can, so this way I crossed off Seattle. We were tired after a long day, and left around the 7th inning, but we had a good time.

The next day we were free for the entire day. I’d made an appointment to visit Geocaching Headquarters, since we were in Seattle. I made it for 9:30AM – what was I thinking? I used my maps app on my phone and it showed us how to get there by light-rail and then bus. We arrived there with a half hour to spare, so we got some coffee and pastries across the street before venturing there.

We chatted with a “lackey” (as they call their employees) and looked at the many treasures to be found at HQ. I bought a special coin to commemorate my visit there, then found a few other geocaches in the area. Most of our friends we were cruising with were arriving that day, so we traveled to Pike Place Market to have some lunch and meet-up with them.

We found many quirky shops there and sampled a lot of different foods. Our main lunch was pizza at one of the breweries there, the we wandered around. My son found a “nerd store” as we call them and got a Godzilla stuffy. We then found a great bar on Post Alley called Can-Can. It’s a cabaret, but earlier in the day they have food and drink so we sat out on the balcony in lovely weather people-watching until our friends joined us.

I also went to the first Starbucks shop which is right there at the market. There was a huge line to get in, but we braved it and I secured my Pike Place Market mug from them (I collect the mugs) on points. We had some drinks, and since everyone was tired from traveling, retired early. Our pick-up for the ship was at 10AM the next morning, so there would be no sleeping in that day, either.