Day 3 Seattle to the Ship!

Saturday morning we were up bright and early to have breakfast and head for the boat with my parents. My brother and his family spent the morning exploring downtown Seattle and met us later.

 The Girl modeled some Seattle grunge (2016 version) for us as we walked to breakfast.

















A short shuttle ride and there she is (behind that building, and the car...)

 The Norwegian Jewel!  Originally built for Caribbean cruises, she was retrofitted a few years ago for Alaska. There were some funny things that weren't retrofitted--see if you can catch them in following posts and pictures.  Apparently, this ship and it's sister, The Pearl, are just too small for Caribbean cruises, but are perfect for squeezing through glacier fields in Alaska.

 A little lunch, then some exploring.

 We quickly found what was our favorite area--the sun deck/quiet area.  We're guessing that during its Caribbean tours this area was more popular and a good place to lounge--we found it to be not very crowded (except during the glacier run) and quiet.  We brought coats...it was good.

Not pictured is the young man we called "Houston" all week (because we didn't catch his name this first day) He hung out with us for quite awhile and became the first member of The Girl's Group (as my nephew, M, called them).  As we left Seattle he was excited to the point of jumping (ok, I was too) when we all saw whales!

 Sunset, day 1 on ship

More visitors!

We've had a busy few weeks here at the Ranch--My folks a few weekends, followed by Grandude the next week and finally,last weekend, Mr Ranch's sister, brother-in-law, and our little nephew came for a visit.  Little L is quite the traveler already and has multiple international trips planned for the next year.  We had a fun visit--our kids enjoyed being "the big kids" and traveled back and forth between entertaining themselves upstairs and entertaining the little guy downstairs.
There was a lot of playing in the living room and getting to know our pets and his cousins...

 "Try hugging the other end of the kitty, Buddy"

 Although the little guy has two cats at home, dogs are a relatively new idea to him.  Our older pets, Tigger and Indy, who have baby experience, audibly sighed when they realized there was a baby in the house, but cooperated nicely with the petting and loving.  Liberty, whose baby experience is unknown, was also a very good dog--letting the little guy pet her paws and give her hugs.

   "My goodness, what big paws you have, Liberty!"









One of the little guy's favorite toys at our house turned out to be the cat scratching post--we think that was just because it allowed him to stand and maneuver around the room more easily!

Indy declined to teach the little guy to walk, as she (Indy) taught Claudia so many years ago.  I think her tail was tired.  Or maybe she was just tired :)

 We enjoyed dinners at home on Friday night and Sunday night...The little guy ate a lot of everything--fish, rolls, potato, and cole slaw on Friday, and hamburgers and sweet potato fries on Sunday.

On Saturday we enjoyed the lovely weather by visiting a nearby  (free) historical museum with an extensive outdoor area. The Girl enjoyed riding around with her cousin and being the backseat helper. We had a little adventure on the way--the visitor's rental car died at a stop light!  Luckily, it started back up and there weren't any other problems!

 The Girl is nearly as tall as her aunt....

 Any of you who have seen Despicable Me 2, can imagine what The Boy was saying when we saw the sheep ("Ramsbottom...snort snort...Sheep's butt..giggle, giggle...")

 Our nephew had his first taste of homemade ice cream (it was "Celebrate cows day" or something--we had homemade cheese, butter, and ice cream during our exploring).

The rest of us enjoyed the sunshine!









On Saturday night, we took the  little guy (and his parents) for his first visit to a hibachi restaurant...
 He enjoyed the rice and eating all the veggies off his parents' plates.  The "show" was entertaining to him (as well as the rest of us, as always), too!

Doesn't everyone wear shades at dinner?








Sunday after church the visitors spent some time at the Outlet Mall and visited an uncle and aunt who live nearby before the end of their trip on Monday.
Everyone reports that they had a great time!