SEATTLE AND THEN VANCOUVER WITH SIR ELTON JOHN! 9/19

This trip started out as our annual visit in Seattle to see our family -- Scott, Kristi and the kids (big kids now!)  And then we found out that Elton John would be at one of his final concert dates in Vancouver while we were in the Northwest!  Peggy's husband "stepped up to the plate" and bought both of us tickets for the Elton's "Farewell Yellow Brick Road" concert on 9/24 in Vancouver.  Check one off both of our bucket lists! 

More pictures and videos from the concert a little later in our blog, but we'll start at the beginning of our 2 1/2 week trip.

It's a long flight from Florida to Seattle but we're always happy when we can spot Mount Rainier from the plane -- we're close!

Scott picked us up at the airport and we headed for the Bainbridge Ferry. 

Great front and back seating for the best views!

If you've traveled to Seattle and have never taken a ferry, you've missed the boat (pardon my pun!). What a beautiful sight to leave metropolitan downtown Seattle,

glide across the water for about 45 minutes and arrive in another world -- pine trees, fresh air, amazing water views -- a wonderful ride not to be missed.

Dick always enjoys Ivar's Chowder on the ferry..

 

Then it's a fairly short ride from Bainbridge to our "home away from home" -- the Poulsbo Inn and a comfortable suite consisting of bedroom, fully-equipped kitchen, living room with sofabed and bath.  I think we've been staying at the Inn for at least 15 years and enjoy the roominess of the Inn and friendliness of the employees.

Check out our breathtaking view from the patio of our room at The Poulsbo Inn!!

Our first stop the next day was the Hot Shots Java coffee shop in historic Poulsbo where Scott is a regular customer every morning.  Wonderful lattes and even nicer employees greeted us each morning.

Of course, before going for coffee, we had to make our usual stop at Sluy's bakery across the street.  Fabulous pastries for our breakfast treat and of course we had to buy several loaves of their delicious bread.

And then it was on to the Clearwater Casino.  Scott dropped us off this morning but Clearwater has a shuttle service that picks up players at their homes or hotels and takes them to the casino.  Their shuttle service also brings you back when you've finished gambling.  This is a free service but it's a pleasure to tip the drivers and the schedulers.

I must mention one of our favorite bartenders at Clearwater Casino!  Check out that amazing Bloody Mary!

In the afternoon, Mary K's son, Tom, arrived in Seattle from his home in San Francisco to spend a few days with us.  Tom hadn't been to Seattle before, so Mary K scheduled a few days of sightseeing for him, starting with a family dinner at the Firehouse in Kingston.

I must show off Scott's beautiful meditation candle sculpture!  You have to see this glorious work of art in person!
  

The next day we headed to Bainbridge and had a quick coffee at Pegasus Coffee

before driving Tom's rental car on the ferry and into downtown Seattle.

We visited a few neat places around the city before our Savor Seattle tour Mary K arranged in the afternoon.

Our Savor Seattle is a walking tour through Pike Place Market, sampling lots of goodies along the way.  We met our group and guide at the "gum wall"....

And proceeded on to our first stop - Daily Dozen Donuts.

We followed our personable tour guide (with the pink umbrella) as we wound our way through the market after watching the guys in the fish market tossing large fish back and forth into the crowd....

stopping to smell the flowers....

 and visiting lots of vendors with delicious taste treats for us.

Ellenos Greek Yogurt

Los Agaves for tacos

Beechers for cheese samples - love the cheese curds!

Pike Place Chowder

Etta's for Crab Cakes

After spending a busy day in Seattle and taking another Bainbridge ferry ride, we drove to Kingston to take a look at the construction of Scott and Kristi's new home.  In February, 2017 they were celebrating Kristi's birthday in New York only to receive a telephone call that there was a huge fire in their beautiful home in Kingston and it was a total loss.

They decided to rebuild and you can guess why after you see their beautiful view.

The new home has now been under construction for well over a year, but it's going to be a beauty, with an anticipated move-in at the end of this year.  Here are a few photos of the new home which will be even more beautiful than the previous one.

Front

Back - Facing Water

We're looking forward to their "Open House" -- it's been a real ordeal for Scott, Kristi and the children!

The next day, Mary K and Tom made it a day of sightseeing marvelous Seattle.

Couldn't resist stopping at this very cool shop ..Totokaelo...for a quick look on our way to......

 Marvelous sweets and coffee at lovely and chic General Porpoise

We strolled through Pioneer Square

And made our way to the Space Needle.  

And ... my favorite Seattle spot.... Chihuly Glass Museum and Garden!!

 A glorious display of the most magnificent glass works of art and sculptures!  It makes you feel good just being here!

 A quick walk through Post Alley to find a favorite....Rachel's Ginger Beer.

We ended our adventurous Mom & Son day with an absolutely delicious dinner at The Pink Door, a unique dining experience in beautiful surroundings ....difficult to find, but well worth the hunt...arriving just in time, before the restaurant was filled to capacity and the pink door closed!

On Monday we were back on the Bainbridge ferry and cabbed over to the Holland America dock for our overnnight to Vancouver.  One of our personal Seattle favorite things to do!   Such a breathtaking experience! 

  

Mary K and Peggy began their trek to Vancouver, B.C. to attend the Elton John concert on Tuesday night.  We found a very unique way to travel to Vancouver.....a one night cruise on Holland America's ship the Amsterdam.  This is one of the best deal's we found.  For around $100 each, we were able to board the ship in the afternoon in Seattle.  It was the easiest embarkment we've ever experienced.....we were two of about six waiting to board the ship.  No lines at all.

As soon as we boarded the ship (at about 2 in the afternoon), our stateroom was ready -- inside was fine with us and this was one of the larger inside staterooms we've ever had.

Our Cruise Calendar!

We were told that lunch was being served in the buffet (yes, included in the price) and it was varied and delicious.

We then took a little time after lunch to explore the ship which is older, smaller but very clean and beautiful.

That evening, we had our choice of dining in the dining room or the buffet.  We chose the buffet again and the prime rib was wonderful.

We went to one of the outside decks to bid adieu to beautiful Seattle.

And, attempted  to see Scott's new home and property as we passed.  

After dinner was Entertainment! in the gorgeous theater.

The singer was a 4 time grammy nominee, Cyndi Wheeler...
and she had lots of showmanship and a beautiful voice.  Wonderfully enjoyable and...yes...also included in the price!  Can  you believe it?

We paused, on our way to the casino, to admire the admire the beautiful sounds of The Ocean Quartet. 

The casino was open and we tried our luck, but quickly went on exploring the shops which were also open.

When we woke in the morning, we were in Vancouver, surrounded by a beautiful port, condos and office buildings.

We even enjoyed breakfast on the ship before disembarking!  

If you follow our blog, you know that the first thing we do when arriving in a city is to find the Hop On Hop Off bus.  We didn't have to go far in Vancouver - the kiosk was actually inside the port.  We bought our tickets, walked outside and the bus was there!

We bought a 2 day pass which entitled us to 2 different routes -- the P route which heads to Stanley Park and then winds around the city -- and the C route which transported us through many different neighborhoods in the city.

We jumped on the P bus, headed toward a beautiful ride through Stanley Park, a monumentally awesome park, with miles of amazing and breathtaking sights of land and water!

Getting close to our hotel.

This bus took us just around the corner from our hotel - the YWCA Hotel.  An unusual name but a very interesting hotel with a great story behind it...and it's not just a hotel for women!

There were three reasons we chose this hotel after looking at Trip Advisor (as we usually do when planning our trips).  The location near the Rogers Arena (where Elton John will be in concert), and, of course, the price.  Vancouver is a very expensive city and this hotel fit within our budget.  It was also refreshing to read that 100% of the profits of this hotel are donated to single women and children.  We were happy to be able to contribute.

We entered a cheerful lobby with very friendly employees at the front desk.  

And we loved the pillars in the lobby with tiles handmade by participants in their project.

Our room with private bath was one of the roomiest and cleanest in all of our travels.

We were just in time to shower and dress for the Elton John Concert at Rogers Arena, just a few short blocks from our hotel -- we were excited to say the least, especially when we put on our flamingo glasses and feather boas to celebrate the "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" concert.

This amazing entertainer sang 23 songs with no intermission and came back, dressed in a robe, for an encore of 2 more songs. A once-in-a-lifetime adventure for us!

Here is the Setlist for September 24, 2019 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

1.  Bennie and the Jets

2.  All the Girls Love Alice 

3.  I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues

4.  Border Song

5.  Tiny Dancer

6.  Philadelphia Freedom

7.  Indian Sunset

8.  Rocket Man

9.  Take Me to the Piot

10. Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word

11. Someone Saved My Life Tonight

12. Levon

13. Candle in the Wind

14. Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding

15. Burn Down the Mission

16. Daniel

17. Believe

18. Sad Songs Say So Much

19. Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me

20. The Bitch is Back

21. I'm Still Standing

22. Crocodile Rock

23. Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting

                    Encore

24. Your Song

25. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

After the concert, we decided to go to Frankie's....right next door to our hotel.

Great drinks and a delicious French dip sandwich....As we gobbled down a salad and sandwich, we both said -- at the same time -- "Did we forget to eat today?"

Late to bed for the two of us, but we were ready early in the morning for our second day of the Hop On Hop Off -- this time we grabbed the C bus around the corner. went past the Stadium near our hotel, 

and drove through Chinatown....

Intricate dragons on the lamp-posts.

We stayed on the bus and decided to get off at the Gastown District....lots of interesting little shops and restaurants. One of our favorite Vancouver neighborhoods, Gastown is named after Jack Deighton, a ship's sailor turned barkeep in the 1800's.  Known as Gassy Jack because of his talkative nature and penchant for storytelling he was such a beloved character that he was honored with a Gassy Jack statue near where his saloon stood in Maple Tree Square.  

  

Strolling through Gastown, we paused at another unique sight in this historic Victorian era district...a rare (only 6 in the world!) clock partially powered by a steam engine. Every quarter hour, the two ton steam clock shows off with whistling and shooting stem from it's five whistles, in it's version of The Westminster Chime.  On the hour, it sounds a toot from all five whistles.  

 After finding shops where we found our souvenirs -- mainly an ornament for our Christmas travel trees -- we decided to take a little rest on a side street where we saw some sturdy benches, made to look like an ornate lidded box.

turd

Then we noticed that there were some great stacks of these "boxes" displaying matching shoes!  

What a great little shop!

After a full day of sightseeing,

 Another neat shop, Hudson House.  And, you know we love a sale!

A look around Vancouver's largest shopping mall...Pacific Center...where our big indulgence was at Saje Natural Wellness Shop. 

Let's take a rest and late lunch!  We found a lovely restaurant, The Flying Pig 

and enjoyed fried halibut and chips and wound our way back to our hotel for the night but only after spotting this unusual building in the heart of Vancouver!

 

We always have our eyes open for architectural delights and this building was one of them!

Public Market (around the corner from our hotel).

Lots of construction throughout Vancouver; but, it didn't stop us!

 and Vancouver Public Library. 

We made a quick stop at Parq Hotel and Casino, which turned out to be ho-hum.  We expected more so didn't stay long 

The most exciting sight here was the Bentley outside the casino!

A little more sightseeing the next day...

we found the Pacific Center for some shopping...and then on to the Amtrak Train Station for our ride back to Seattle on the Cascades Train which travels along the coast.

We boarded our train and settled back for a relaxing and beautiful ride to Seattle!

What a way sightsee! 

The low cost of $40.00 per train ticket was well worth the ride!  Just getting a glimpse of Mt. Rainier was amazing!  

We were back in Seattle in the evening and settled down again at the Poulsbo Inn.

The next day was Scott's birthday and we celebrated at the Loft in Poulsbo.

The birthday boy with his new knit cap from Mary K,  wife Kristi and Karin Hanlon, his mother-in-law.

 Jack Hanson, home from Western Washington University, celebrating his Dad's birthday with his Grandpa Dick....

                                                 and Grandma Peg.

Karin and Mary K enjoying the party.

Before we left Seattle, we were able to have dinner with our favorite police officer, Valeria Nau of the Poulsbo Police Department.  We'll never forget Val for finding the person who stole Dick's wallet a couple of years ago and proceeded to spend, spend, spend on his credit card.  Val arrested the perp in 24 hours and caught them red-handed with plenty of evidence!  ("perp"??...I guess I've been watching too much Forensic Files!)

                                      And she has a nice ride!  

We had a fabulous 2 week trip with the highlight being Elton John's Farewell Tour.  Good luck, Elton and Farewell Yellow Brick Road!