Today, Tuesday 8/5, we board the cruise ship. ….Carnival Spirit…embarkation is from 12 noon. After showering and repacking it’s time to head out to find somewhere for breakfast. We wander round the corner past the cafe offering southern dishes such as jambalaya and gumbo, the bagel shop doesn’t  me either. Funny how you crave a simple breakfast, “hmm, let’s head back up the road and see what’s on the other side of the hotel” I say to Ty. He’s so very patient with me the poor man, he would find something to eat wherever we went. Not so me, a fussy bum (his words)!!

We wander into the Bacco cafe, adjoining our hotel, Inn a the Market. The breakfast menu is comprehensive and they have oatmeal and fresh fruit on the menu….yum, just the thing for this chilly morning, it’s quite a bit colder than yesterday. Ty chooses the big breakfast with eggs, bacon, hash browns and rissoles.

It was just a small cafe which filled up fairly quickly. A couple of people came in with a child of about 3 and sat at the table behind us. Everyone in the cafe could hear their conversation or should I say, his conversation! He was quite loud and complaining about a number of things including the way his wife fed their daughter each morning and how bringing her to a cafe such as this “allowed her to eat the food slowly instead of it being forced into her”. He was telling the woman with him about where they lived and how far the park was for exercise. All this in between making baby noises to the little girl. You know the ones, goo goo, ga ga, yummy yum and so on. I can’t elaborate on these any further as I’ve never been into baby talk. Meanwhile the woman is telling the little girl to “eat more food for grandma”.

I was bemused when he got up and told the cafe he was going to the mens’ room. Ahh, peace and quiet for a couple of minutes was my immediate thought. Everyone was enjoying their breakfasts when he burst back into the room telling all and sundry how there was only one toilet and he had to line up and wait his turn. This was not a satisfactory situation for him and the cafe should do something about it. Luckily we had finished breakfast and chose to have coffee elsewhere!!!

We headed to Starbucks on 1st Ave for coffee but it was standing room only and we needed to sit for me to write and publish the blog, luckily there are dozens of Starbucks in Seattle. We headed to the 4th Ave shop and found a seat. We perched here for an hour, I wrote as Ty read the news and people watched. Seattle has a wide variety of cultures, it reminded Ty a little of San Francisco.

It was now 11.15am time to get back to the hotel to check out and organise a taxi to the port. Ty had thought we might walk to the port, I didn’t find that statement at all amusing or even sensible. Was he going mad with cruise fever before we’d even got on board? Is there such a thing as cruise fever or did I make it up?? He has thought the peer was in walking distance, hmmm, the ship berthed about 4 miles further north of where we were…..he could walk if he wanted but I was not.

I had promised to send postcards, yes there are people out there in the world that still like to receive the good old fashioned postcard to stick on their wall or fridge and I’m very happy to oblige. So there were 3 postcards to send but no post office in sight when enquiring at the desk the concierge told me the hotel has a complimentary postal service for guests. How good is that!

The taxi arrives and we commence our ten minute drive to the Smith Cove pier for embarkation.