Since we had an early Christmas in Louisiana
this year with our family, we decided
to do something completely different for Christmas.
We spent a long weekend in Seattle.

Although getting there turned into an airport nightmare,
3 flights cancelled that morning, re-routed to Reno
where we had to beg to get on a Southwest
flight to avoid waiting 7 hours for the next Alaska flight.
But we finally made it and arrived at the Downtown Hilton.
The hotel was lovely and right in the middle of town.
It's almost like New York with all the big department stores
with the fantastic windows all decorated for Christmas.
It was fun just to walk around downtown and shop.
Since we spent the whole day Friday in the airport we
were starving upon arrival and had a
fantastic meal at the Top of the Hilton with a
view to match!
We were especially lucky with the weather,
it never rained and it was in the upper 40's
and sunny the whole 5 days!!
I brought along  Christmas decorations
in my suitcase and we set up our own little
Christmas tree in our room.

On Saturday,  we got up early and drove out to
Auburn and had breakfast and spent the
whole day at the SuperMall! It was terrific.
If you couldn't find what you wanted there....
Then that night we went on the Christmas Ships Dinner Cruise.

This was a great evening. There must have been
at least 100 boats all decked out for Christmas
following us in a parade down the lake. We
had a really delicious dinner onboard at a table
right by the windows and we could walk out on the decks
for a better view. We were serenaded during dinner
by a lovely ladies group and we made two
stops at beaches where local folks were gathered by
bonfires to listen to the Tacoma Girls Choir sing carols
from another one of the large boats.
It was a wonderful evening!!

On Sunday, we rode the Monorail to the Seattle Center
and had lunch at the Santa Brunch at the Space Needle.
The food was great and the view unsurpassed.

After our brunch we attended a Christmas Concert
at the the Concert Hall. That night we had
a fantastic Anniversary dinner at Roy's Fish House.
 

On Monday, Christmas Eve, we got up bright and early to
try to go the the Microsoft Museam, which we missed on
Friday due to our airport nightmare.
We arrived on campus at 9:00am sharp and
found another person there waiting. David
went out to check the door and it was open and no
signs saying it was closed, so we went in, as did the other guy.
He went upstairs to the store and we went in to the museum
We we opened the door a beeping noise started
and I looked at the panel on the wall next to the door
and realized the alarm was going off.
We called out to see if someone was in the back, no one answered.
We didn't know what to do, so we just waited. And
of course the alarm tripped and 2 security guards came
running in. They asked us how we got in and we said, the
door was unlocked.  They checked our ID and made calls to their
supervisor, it was all kind of funny, except for that "911" cloud
that is always hanging over everything these days.  The guards
were very nice and said "someone" hadn't reprogrammed the locks
on the doors for the holidays.  Guess Windows XP isn't the only
security problem at Microsoft these days?
(Just kidding, Bill)

Well, after that little adventure we were on our way back to town
to see the Nutcracker at the Opera House.
We jumped on the monorail and had a quick lunch at the Seattle Center
then went to a marvelous production of the Nutcracker.
The sets were unbelievably beautiful, the music was superb, and
the ballet was divine!! We stopped at the Mall on the way back and
did some shopping, then walked up to Pike Street Market for
more shopping.  We returned to the room, exhausted and just
decided to walk across the street to Benihana for dinner.
Japanese food is a Christmas tradition, right?

Christmas morning was beautiful, we just relaxed in our
room, opening presents and watching TV,
and having a room service breakfast.
We checked out at 2pm and went back to the
Seattle Center for Christmas dinner at the Space Needle
and one more look at the awesome scenery from the top.
Then on to the airport for a much nicer flying experience this time
and home to Elko with some wonderful memories of
a different kind of Christmas.

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