Thursday, August 27, 2015

Vacation- Part 1 (Seattle)

I know some of you (ahem, Aunt Bev) are anxious for me to get the vacation pictures up.  I’m waiting for Kevin to start scanning the professional cruise photos- some of which are AWESOME, I might add.  In the meantime, hopefully this will help.  So, I give you… Seattle…

 

We were pretty tired by the time we arrived in Seattle, we had gotten up at 2AM Eastern time to make our flight to Boston.   Kenzie was a little travel champ.  She slept for a few hours on the flight and spent the rest of the time flirting with the people walking up and down the aisle.

After all the travel and the time change, all we had the energy for on our first day was dinner.  We chose the Crab Pot.  They are famous for their seafood feasts.  They cook it up and dump it all out on the table in front of you.  We had the Westport Sea Feast which has Dungeness Crab, Snow Crab, shrimp in the shell, steamed clams, Pacific mussels, Andouille sausage, corn on the cob, and red potatoes.  Kaitlyn was a big fan of the crab meat.  Do we look tired? We were all in bed by 8:30 PM local time!    P8151531P8151529P8151532P8151533P8151534P8151536

 

The next day we went to the Public Market.  P8161538P8161545

Kevin really likes taking pictures of us walking in front of him  Not sure why…P8161542

These are the guys that throw the fish.  I told Kaitlyn before hand that they throw fish when someone orders one.  Apparently I wasn’t clear enough because she thought they were going to throw the fish at her!  When they did throw one, her eyes got huge.  She loved it!P8161546 

We had lunch at the market at Beechers.  Supposedly they have the World’s Best Mac and Cheese.  I have to admit, it was pretty darn good!P8161552

We also saw the first Starbucks.  We did not go in though.  I wasn’t about to wait in a line about 50 people long for a drink I can get anywhere else with minimal wait!

 

 

That afternoon we headed over to the aquarium.  Kenzie loved watching the fish and the sea otters.  Kaitlyn loved the otters too.  She also wanted to have her picture taken in every one of the photo boards.  I remember the days when I used to have to beg her to do those, now she gets upset if she misses one Smile.  Local high school students also do face painting for a small donation to the aquarium.  Kaitlyn was excited to pick out an octopus. P8161560P8161562P8161564P8161565P8161566

We had dinner at Cutter’s, another well-known seafood place.  I know how much my brother loves jambalaya, so I have too brag about the Seafood Jambalaya I had… amazing!  Jet lag caught up with Kenzie, and she fell asleep while eating.  She was so darn cute, servers kept pointing her out to each other and walking by to take a peek at her! And yes, that pacifier is just barely resting on her lip!P8161567

The next day was our visit to the Space Needle.  Kaitlyn was so excited.  She pointed it out anytime we walked anywhere!  While waiting for our lunch reservations at the revolving restaurant, Kaitlyn tried out the Space Needle hat.  Kaitlyn was also very excited about her lunch.  She ordered the Hot Dog Topus.  She loved how the hot dog looked like an octopus and the macaroni noodles were shaped like the Space Needle.  Plus it came in a souvenir Space Needle lunch box.  The biggest hit though, was the Lunar Orbiter dessert and the awesome dry ice that came with it!P8171571P8171572P8171573P8171574P8171575P8171576P8171578

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After lunch, we headed up to the Observation Deck.  If you look really closely to the right of the downtown buildings, you can see Mt. Rainier in the distance.P8171586P8171581P8171583P8171585

And since we had a two mile walk to our next destination, we stopped at Starbucks for drinks on the go.  Kaitlyn was excited to get one of her own…P8171590

I was most excited for the Underground Tour! Kaitlyn was worried about seeing ghosts down there…P8171593P8171594

On the way back to the hotel for the night, we stopped at Red Robin for dinner and ate on the deck.P8171599P8171600P8171601

Stay tuned for Part 2… 

Sunday, August 2, 2015

11 Months Old!

I can’t believe that Kenzie will be a year old in just a few weeks!  In the meantime, enjoy her 11 month old photos.  And just in case you were wondering…  Kenzie’s heroes wear headsets!

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Clam Festival/ Tall Ships Festival

First we headed to the Clam Festival.  We stayed long enough to eat some clams, have a lime rickey, and peruse the craft booths.  Since we got Kaitlyn a t-shirt at her first Clam Festival, we had to keep with tradition and get Kenzie one too.  As you can see, it was absolutely exhausting!P7191507P7191508

After that we went into Portland for the Tall Ships Festival.  It was a bit foggy, so Kevin took a photo the next day from across the river in South Portland.  The only ship we went on was the Coast Guard’s Eagle.  It has been to Portland before- we went on when Kaitlyn was only 8 months old.P7191509P7191513P7191515P7191518P7201519

Here’s a brief flashback of Kaitlyn’s visit to the Eagle as a baby…Kaitlyn (8 months) and Mommy by  U.S. Coast Guard Ship EAGLE

2015 AA Eastern League Conference All-Star Game

The Portland Sea Dogs hosted this year’s AA Eastern League Conference All-Star Game and Home Run Derby.  We managed to get tickets, so we lathered up the girls in sunscreen and had  a great afternoon/evening.

The West won the home run derby.   Blake Swihart of the Red Sox used to play for the Sea Dogs and was there to throw out the first pitch.  He then walked up and down every aisle shaking hands and taking photos.

At the end of 9 innings, the game was tied.  Rather than going to extra innings, we had a second home run derby!  This time, the East pulled out the win!  The game was followed by fireworks which both girls loved!

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