August 25, 2009

I'm sorry to say we have to put Jacque on probation.  The Freaky five gathered at the Billings Saddle Club horse show and Jacque had the gall not to show up.  She went to a Clinton Anderson clinic, can you imagine that???  Jacque has one more chance to redeem herself and get back into good graces, if she isn't at the next gathering of the freaky five, she will be out on her ear.

 Day 1, Sept. 17 I took the day off from work to get all the final preparations for the trip done, last minute packing etc. Deb and Jacque are spending the night and we have a load of hay coming. Teri was moving a big bale with the truck and got it hung up so we were moving the bale by hand (backs), we got the bale moved and OOPS, Teri left the truck in reverse. I managed to get out of the way, but our poor fence (just recently built) couldn't get away in time, the truck took out a section of the fence.

Day 2, Sept. 18 Teri and I were supposed to leave on an early morning (7:30AM) flight and the others were booked on an 11:50 AM flight. So I got up bright and early to get ready, by the time I was out of the shower Teri was up and getting ready. I don't know whose fault it was (wasn't mine) but we missed our flight and had to wait 4 hrs until the next one (we were lucky to get a seat on this one) which was the one Tina, Deb and Jacque were on. We arrived safe and sound in Seattle and rode the hotel shuttle to our motel, the Springhill Suites in Renton WA. Our room was nice, with two queen beds and a fold out sofa. We had a little refrigerator and microwave in our room. It was a little cramped but worked well for 5 women. The only thing that would have been better would have been to have a second bathroom. We didn’t do anything exciting that night, just ordered pizza and appetizers, had them delivered to the hotel, and we stayed in for the night.

Day 3, Sept. 19 We got up bright and early this morning (that’s a lie, I never get up bright or early) and we all showered, dressed, a couple of us did the hair and make-up thing then we went downstairs to eat breakfast. It was a great breakfast thank goodness, because the next couple of hours were not. We were going to ride the hotel shuttle back to the airport so we could catch the light rail (the new train system Seattle has just built) to go downtown. We were sharing a shuttle with a gentleman who was going to a pick up his rental car (take note no matter what the commercials say Enterprise will not always pick you up.) Our driver was really scary; he was taking corners on 2 wheels. This was in a big passenger van. I’m not joking, Deb’s had the black and blue marks on her thigh from me holding on to her and she even put her seatbelt on, which she never does. The driver didn’t have a clue where he was going. He was trying to find the address for the rental car place when he got a page from the hotel that he had to get some guests to the airport ASAP, the driver still drove around and around trying to find the car rental place. He even talked to someone on the phone at the rental facility and neither he nor the other person knew where anything was. Finally the man who was trying to find his car rental convinced the driver that he should go pick up the other guests and get them to the airport. Turns out it was a good thing the driver went back and picked up the guests. They were pilots needing to get to their plane. Unfortunately they needed to go to the Renton airport. We needed Sea-Tac. The driver dropped pilots at the airport and proceeded to look for the car rental place. The poor guy who needed to get his car rental called the rental company and asked them for directions, but the driver still couldn’t find it. The guy also asked if they could drop the car off at the hotel, but they said no, they didn’t have anyone to take it there (remember my note about the commercials, don’t ever rent from them). Finally, a few hours later we figured the shuttle driver felt very sorry for us having to ride around all morning and he dropped us off at the light rail station instead of making us take another shuttle from the airport to the light rail. We finally got on the light rail and headed downtown. From the train station to downtown Seattle the train ride was very relaxing and offered a great view. It cost $2.50 and took about half an hour.
We spent several hours just walking around downtown Seattle. A large part of that time was spent at Pike’s Place market. The rest was just walking, looking, and taking photos. We headed down to the waterfront and looked at the cruise ships in port. One was the Norwegian Star that Tina and Teri had taken to Alaska last year. The Norwegian Pearl, the ship we were soon going to board was also in port. We had rented a car that afternoon and had to walk what seemed like a couple of miles to the Hilton Hotel to pick it up. We weren’t prepared for all the walking and “holy crap” the streets are straight up and down and I wasn’t sure Tina was going to make it (she was having hip problems), but she did, we picked up our car and went to visit my cousin and his family in Redmond, WA. We had a nice visit with them and toured his very nice horse boarding facility and headed back to Seattle.

We would have liked to spend another day in Seattle to see more of it and to spend more time at the market, it was great, we bought fresh flowers, fruit, cheese curds and I bought the biggest tomato I have ever seen, but we were on a mission. We ate at some restaurant that was kind of like a “want to be” Texas Roadhouse only the food wasn’t as good and was quite a bit more expensive. Then we headed back to our hotel. Teri, Tina, and Jacque then headed out on a booze run and came back five bottles later. Then Jacque, Tina, and I hit the hotel hot tub and then we all called it a night.

Day 4, Sept 20th  We got up bright and early, had a good breakfast and packed up (including my beautiful tomato) to head for the pier. If we would have had photos of five women trying to get all their luggage into a Chrysler 300, we would have made it big on Americas Funniest Home Videos, all the people at the hotel are probably still laughing. We finally after much maneuvering got five BIG suitcases, five medium suitcases, and five carry-on bags in the trunk, on the floors, in our laps, hell I’m not sure we weren’t sitting on them and each other. Then it was a long ride from Renton to the Pier clear on the other side of Seattle. We finally got to the Pier and waited in a line in the car for over an hour before we were even close enough to the terminal to unload. Jacque, Teri, and myself hauled all the luggage inside and to the check in terminal. What a freaking mess, traffic was backed up for miles and when we got to the unloading zone there was no place to park. It was like unloading cattle, you drove up, had about 5 min to unload and then you had to get out, Deb drove around so many times I thought they were going to arrest her. Tina and Deb then went to drop off the car back at the Hilton. The Hilton was a long way from the pier, at least a 20 min drive. GPS is a good thing, but only when it works. Tina and Deb took a few wrong turns but eventually got the car back safe and sound. They then hopped a cab back to the pier. A cab from downtown Seattle to the new pier is approximately $20. The car rental was only $25 for the whole day. Next time we’ll probably skip the car and just do cabs and the light rail. As usual, the crisis past, we got aboard the ship and continued on our big adventure. This was the first leg of the trip. We boarded the Star Princess. Just one of many ships in the Princess cruise line. The thing I remember most about this ship is the great dessert we had and the service was wonderful. The Star had the best pool out of the whole trip. It was heated and no kids allowed. We all loved it.

I’m not going to go into a blow by blow of the rest of the cruise, (I can’t remember a lot of it anyway), I’ll just tell you the stops and my thoughts. We sailed from Seattle to Vancouver on the Princess line. The Princess ship was great, the food was great and being my first cruise it was all new and great. Sailing into Vancouver just as day was breaking was absolutely gorgeous (thats what I was told anyway, and I saw the pictures). From the shoreline Vancouver looked like a city we’d love to spend more time in. Unfortunately that is about all we saw of it was from the shore. In Vancouver we departed Princess and took a cab to the second pier of two piers. We changed ships in Vancouver and boarded the Norwegian Pearl ( I had to leave my beautiful tomato on the ship, really made me sad). There we entered the cruise terminal and waited about three hours for the people leaving the Norwegian Pearl to depart so we could get on. Then we were on our way to our final destination, Los Angeles. Along the way we got to visit Astoria, Oregon. The ship couldn’t dock there so we rode in the little life boats they call “tenders”, it was like riding on a regular small boat. Astoria is a pretty little town, but not much to do there; we walked to the bank and got some cash (thank you Wells Fargo for being all over the west coast,) and then just walked around awhile. Deb and I walked down to the docks and saw the sea lions lying around on the dock sleeping, fighting and barking, there were bunches of them, it was pretty neat. Then it was back to the ship and on our way to our next stop, San Francisco.

We docked in San Francisco and headed for Pier 39 and it was great, all those shops and so little time. Saw more seals, they were lying all over the dock and making lots of noise, and they really stunk, must be getting lots of garbage to eat. Deb just had to see Alcatraz and the day was so cold and windy we had to buy jackets at the gift shops to keep warm. I didn’t really want to go, but after whining the appropriate amount of time, I settled in and actually enjoyed it (except for the cold wind). I almost felt sorry for the inmates who once lived there as there wasn’t much for heat and can’t imagine what it would be like in the winter. What a dreary place.
Our next stop was Los Angeles, our final destination. It was fall, we were traveling the west coast, we expected warm weather, we packed shorts and tank tops and what we really needed were sweatshirts and jeans. It was colder than expected except the last damn day in LA it was in the 90’s. Disembarking was a real nightmare, there were so many people and so many of them didn’t have a clue where to go, we waited in line for over an hour to get off the ship. We had a city tour of LA booked since our flight didn’t leave until late afternoon. We were about an hour late starting out on our tour. We were supposed to make 3 stops, but because it took so long for the bus to depart we only made 2 and they weren’t really worth stopping at. There were streets closed, the highway was closed, everything closed so the bus driver made several detours from the original route. Beverly Hills which is supposed to be such a classy area had several streets that looked like slums. The whole area-even though neat and well kept looked old, like it came from a 1940’s movie set. Old houses and a lot of them not remodeled. Some of the “mansions” in the Beverly Hills were just plain ugly and nothing more than big houses, certainly not mansions. We were so late getting to the airport I’m sure there were a few people who missed their flights back home. We had time to kill, got something to eat and waited for our plane. The only thing I really remember about Los Angeles is that I don’t care if I ever go back there.

As far as the cruise ship itself, it was great; I would do it again in a heartbeat. The entertainment was great, the food wasn’t great but there was lots of it so you got many choices. We always found something we liked to eat. In fact, we all did more than our fair share of eating. All of us went to the comedy/juggling act Sharkbait, two guys who were really good and really funny, it was a great show. Deb, Jacque and I went to a Vegas Showgirl show and it was ok, nothing special. Everyone but me (Tina and Teri pissed me off so I cut off my own foot and wouldn’t go with them) went to a comedy called Second City – as in the Second City comedy troupe that has spawned so many famous comedians, they said it was good. We went to karaoke 3 nights and it was great, there was really some talented people there until Deb pushed me up there, then it all went downhill. The best show was the “Liars Club”, it was hosted by Sharkbait , the cruise entertainment director and another guy, it was just hilarious, I about wet myself I laughed so hard. After the liars club they had a game called the Quest, it was kind of like a group treasure hunt-they get people into groups and had them find and bring things up on the stage, the group that gets the most of what they ask for wins. It was just too funny. I got the girls to participate (against my daughters’ wishes, -real pansies, those two) and we had our own group. We didn’t win because we didn’t have a man, and a lot of things needed a man, but we did get one of the host’s pants, which was nice of him. It started out easy; the first item they wanted to see was an empty purse. Then it got harder. The last Quest involved men standing on the stage in nothing but their underwear wearing a bra, with lipstick on their face and I can’t remember what else. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen 60 and 70 year old mostly naked men in a bra on a stage. If you ever go on a cruise and Sharkbait is there entertaining, don’t miss it. Deb and I went to an art auction and I was just sick, they had the Perfect Red Rose, (one of my favorites) by Thomas Kinkaid and I could has bought it very reasonably, but it was framed and I didn’t want to have to get it packaged and sent home, next time I will though.
Basically we ate a lot of food, had some great entertainment, saw some new places and all in all had a great time. Cruise prices really aren’t that bad considering the price includes your room, all your food, the entertainment, and the transportation. It took me a long time to get much in here, and even though I left a lot out, just know it was a great time and we are planning another one someplace where it’s a little warmer.