A Seattle Kind of Day!

This was yesterday’s sun rise as we descended into Atlanta.

Flights that take off at 5:15am should be banned!  Or at least delayed a couple of hours.

Such an early early start to be leaving the house at just before 4am to get to the airport when the check in counters open at 4:30am to board a flight and get started on our journey.

But you know what? The truth of the matter is – we are so excited that I doubt we would have been able to sleep through the whole night anyway.  Like kids on their first trip to Disneyland, we are headed out on a week long Alaskan Cruise Adventure!

My feet are rocking the shoes!

Seattle in the morning mist!

We landed at just before 10 am west coast time, and I have to tell you of a situation that just made our day, swelled our hearts and filled us with love.  Upon deplaning in Seattle, as we were making our way to the rest rooms, there was a little West African lady, wearing her traditional dress (beautiful green batik dress and headdress!) and she looked lost, worried, weary and completely discombobulated.

Irene and I asked her in English if she was lost.  She didn’t speak English.  Swahili, maybe? I was guessing.  We asked the gate agent if someone could help her, and he asked if we would escort her to baggage claim where likely her family would be waiting.  We were happy to do so.

At one point, she was SO tired that she tried to sit DOWN on the escalator to keep from falling!  We held her up.

We got to baggage claim.  No family.  We went to the Delta baggage assistance desk and they told us to head over to claim 8 as that is where her luggage would be coming in.  About half way there, her family comes running, balloons and flowers in tow.  Smiles and tears and hugs all around, including hugging ME for helping to get her to the baggage claim. Out came their cameras to capture the moment and Irene and I left to go find our bags.

My heart was just so happy.  I can’t imagine how far she has traveled to get to Seattle to visit her daughter.  I can’t imagine how the daughter has worried over the past 24 hours or more that it took for her mom to board a plane in Africa, change planes wherever she had to make connections, go through customs, and finally arrive here in Seattle.  They are reunited.  It just made me feel SO GOOD!

Life is about places, and things, and adventures….but it is mostly about PEOPLE.

Downtown from the back seat of our cab!

We checked into our hotel, dropped off the luggage and headed off on foot in search of lunch!

Let’s go here!  To the Pikes Place Market!

Let’s wander around and have some fun!

A video posted by Bonnie K Hunter (@quiltville_bonnie) on Jul 7, 2016 at 5:13pm PDT

We found Undercover Quilts!

For those of you who remember Undercover Quilts being IN the market place, they moved last October up the hill into their own little building.  Fun shop!

We wandered downtown until we couldn't wander any more. Naps happened in the afternoon.

Then back out again we went for a bite of dinner…the goal was to keep ourselves awake late enough that we would sleep through the night and not be up at 2am as we feared! 

Irene at the wailing wall of machines at All Saints! 

Remember that scene from Harry & the Hendersons where Harry finds all of the taxidermy in the closet and his heart broken over his dead friends?  That’s how we feel about the machines at All Saints.  They are disabled.  They will never sew again.  They have had epoxy poured into gears to keep them from moving.  They are just carcasses!  So my vintage machine loving heart breaks. 

At the same time, they are beautiful and on display and that is much better than sending them to the ironworks to the melting pot.

Kind of like the insect displays where they are pinned to display boards behind glass in a zoo for our own learning.  Bad for the bugs, good for our education!

Irene zooming in on a favorite!

This poor 66 with the lotus decals is serving a life sentence without parole for a crime she didn’t commit!

SO much fun!

There are close ups of machines and more in my mini-movie. Click the white arrow in the center of the screen to start:

A video posted by Bonnie K Hunter (@quiltville_bonnie) on Jul 7, 2016 at 8:47pm PDT

Click the screen and it will play!

Our hotel room view!

So this is the plan for this morning.  Wake up. (Did that!  Slept 9 hours! Yay!) Post this, take a shower, find somewhere for breakfast and be at the pier by 10:30 to board!

As I write this my mom is boarding a plane in Boise.  Her two sisters are in the air already on their way from Minneapolis.  I’ll see them on the ship along with 50 quilters I am so excited to spend the week with.

I have a wifi package on the ship so I should be able to post daily, but if anything happens and things don’t connect so well, I’ll catch you up when I get back to a place where I can post.

Quiltville Quote of the day!

1950s quilt, love those stripes!

Quilt found in Kentucky.

Have a terrific Friday, everyone!

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