4.29.2018 NCL Pearl to Alaska live writeup- and I don’t even sail for 75 days!

[Weetahbugdotcom]

Day 1 pre-cruise, part 2:

 

Up and at-em, and feeling tired and gross, but also hungry, I took a walk around Seattle. My Airbnb is in Queen Anne, about a 5 minute walk to the space needle.

 

I am a google maps junkie. I am constantly pinning locations I want to see, at home, at places I travel to, and all across the country. Most of it is abandoned things (on my coast anyway,) but for traveling, it’s usually silly roadside stuff, oddities, etc. That way if I am close to something I want to see, I know it. Anyway, I like signs, so I took a walk to this guy:

 

There is a LOT of construction in Seattle. Often when I wanted to take a straight shot somewhere, I had to go left and right and then correct my path to get around construction. My stomach told me to stop at a place called Lil Woody’s, a local burger chain.

 

 

Here I got an impossible burger (vegan and pretty convincing on the meat factor) and some amazing fries. The Rainier beer was underwhelming.

 

Next I walked to the space needle. The line was ridiculous, but it actually moved pretty fast.

 

 

 

Remember I said everything in Seattle is under construction? Well, that includes the needle. I knew this ahead of time, but...

 

 

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... a more apt name for it is “plywood in the sky.” I’m a big fan of mid century, space age, sputnikky design. I didn’t really feel it in this plywood skybooth. I hate to say it but I really don’t think it’s worth it until they are done. Still, there were some cool views.

 

 

 

 

I didn’t stay up there long. I headed back down and over to the chihuly garden, which was totally more my jam.

 

 

Tapatalk only lets me post 6 photos at a time so...

 

 

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More chihuly:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Do you know there is a Chihuly on the Pearl?

 

Anyway, a few more:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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It was 430, and I was starting to feel the fact that I had had 2 1/2 hours to sleep in the past 40 hours. I walked “home,” set my alarm and took an hour long power nap. When it was over, I took a shower and it made me feel a little better. I treated myself to an uber since my next stop was 4 miles away.

 

I met an old friend who lives in Ballard. She took me to an amazing fun vegan tiki bar/restaurant called no bones. I had 2 amazing cocktails (passion fruit jalapeño margarita and a coconut mojito.) We shared a plate of buffalo cauliflower and I got a stuffed poblano pepper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Weetahbugdotcom]

After dinner, it was still early, so we walked around Ballard. We stopped in Cupcake Royale, and I got a delicious key lime pie cheesecake cupcake to go. At this point I got a small second wind, but knew I would die if I didn’t grab coffee. Unfortunately, I paid for the coffee, but forgot to grab it.

 

 

 

My friend offered to drive me back to my apartment, because at this point we were 4 miles away, but my second wind and I wanted to walk around a little. Besides, I have yet to contribute to One of Seattle’s newest forms of tax revenue...

 

 

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Are you under 21? Yes? Then skip this part. If not, read on.

 

 

In 2012 Washington state became the first state to legalize recreational marijuana. In its first year, it raised almost 40 million in taxes, and almost $320 million in taxes in 2017. That’s a lot of pothole repairs, school program funding, low-cost neuters, and other services!

 

 

I made it very clear to my budtender that it has been ages since I’ve touched the stuff, beyond a couple hits. I also told him that i was clueless about edibles, particularly dosage, and I wanted to feel good but not be drooling all over myself. He spent a good amount of time explaining things to me. I settled on 3 items, of which I will have to find homes for some of because there’s no way I will finish them before the cruise, and I can’t bring them with me.

 

I grabbed a Lyft for the ride home. Curiously enough, the driver really wanted to try to convince me to have children. Not with him, thankfully, but with my boyfriend. The answer was still the same: Not Very Likely. I started to get tired. I mean, more tired than I usually get when strangers tell me what to do with my uterus and my life.

 

 

Back at the apartment, I got into my pajamas. I sat down and had a little dessert- the cupcake I brought home, and two salted caramel chocolate edibles.

 

 

 

Then I did some laundry. It was going to be about 90 minutes before I felt anything anyway.

 

 

 

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[tvetan]

Thanks for taking care of the recipe exchange. Got mine ready, love getting new ideas. Robyn

[Defhermit]

sooo.... I have to ask.

 

has anyone experimented with bringing vape pens onboard cruises? how..... thorough... are they when inspecting vape pen cartridges?

 

... just asking...

[shadowmeboy]

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for sharing these. I wanted to see what the observation deck windows were going to look like. Before the railing/windows made it difficult to take pictures.

[brunolvr]

I can totally take care of that for you!

 

 

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Looking forward to seeing your pictures & hearing all about your cruise -- and also would love to see MDR menus. We'll be on the Pearl in a short 4 weeks.

[Weetahbugdotcom]

Seattle: day 2:

 

So, let’s just say I had the best sleep of my life after that chocolate.

 

Woke up in the morning and started walking and didn’t stop. Well, first i opted to “wake and bake”

Since I didn’t want all of these edibles to go to waste.

 

First stop, Biscuit B*tch, where I had vegetarian version of the least nutritious, super fat, and most delicious breakfast. Biscuit and shiitake gravy with veggie sausage and egg. They call you a b*txh when they give you your food. All the music has the word b*tch in it. It’s crazy and loud but fun. The one in pike place market is all stand up eating but there are a couple other locations that are sit down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Took a walk through the market but didn’t but anything.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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More market:

 

 

 

 

 

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I of course visited the gum wall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Then I went down to the waterfront.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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One of the coolest things on the waterfront is the curiousity shop. It has real mummies and shrunken heads.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Next, it was off the the pinball museum. They have funhouse, My favorite pinball machine. It’s $15 for free play as long as you can stay, or $20

For unlimited entries in a day.

 

 

 

Their tables are in date order in the main room, so you can literally play them sequentially if you want.

 

 

 

 

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My skin was literally itching for most of the trip, because all of the buildings were so new. I had never been somewhere so NOT old. Thankfully, i

Spent some time wandering around pioneer square.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[fastpitchdad]

Next, it was off the the pinball museum. They have funhouse, My favorite pinball machine. It’s $15 for free play as long as you can stay, or $20

For unlimited entries in a day.

 

 

 

Their tables are in date order in the main room, so you can literally play them sequentially if you want.

 

 

 

 

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They have my two favorite machines as well...Addams Family (far and away my #1) and Terminator T2.

 

Looks like you are having a great time...sorry you missed the beautiful weather we had last week.

[Weetahbugdotcom]

This thing in pioneers square was built for the world’s fair.

 

Here’s some street art in pioneer square, pike place, and Chinatown:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I took the Seattle underground tour. I recommend it. I am no stranger to crawling around in underground tunnels (I photograph abandoned buildings for fun and often travel in tunnels) but it was neat to see the underground history of Seattle.

 

There is a lot of talk of poop on this tour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Now I took a walk up to Capitol Hill. I’m sure I went through a couple other neighborhoods, but I lost track.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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There was an oddity shop up here that used to have one of those naked trump statues that popped up nationwide but it was gone when I got there. So I went and had a salted caramel cupcake and a honey lavender Latte at cupcake royale. I highly recommend them.

 

I also stopped at this bikini coffee stand.

It was chilly, so my very friendly barista was wearing a sweatshirt but she was happy to take it off if requested.

 

 

I had some weird roadside destinations I wanted to see, so here they are.

 

Mambo dance steps:

 

 

Pac man park

 

 

Now it was dinner time. If you love ramen, or don’t know if you love ramen, I recommend this place. It was great- kizuki ramen. I got the vegetarian ramen with kale noodles, and added tofu, egg, greens, and woodear.

 

 

I also got a hot sake. Everything was amazing and I couldn’t finish it.

[Weetahbugdotcom]

Now, I took a $15 Lyft to lake Washington.

 

On my 16th birthday, a deceased male was found in the now demolished greenhouse section of this house. He was 27 years old, had a shotgun in his hand, and me being 16 years old in 1994, this was an influential moment for sure. I am of course talking about Kurt Cobain. This was his house, and some benches next to it are still visited regularly as a memorial.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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