A sparrow

I got pretty excited the other day when I received a Bird Buddy notification that there was action at my hummingbird feeder. Turns out it was a sparrow waiting for its turn for the other feeder. It's been up since late May and this was the first visitor.

Garden surprises

Came home from the cruise to find a few of my zinnias blooming.

We planted these canna lilies in the parkway. I got the bulbs from the museum this spring. Notice Andy and E in the background. We were all going to the bank to finally separate her account from ours.

This is the Black-eyed Susan plant we bought at Costco and now it's full of blooms. The second plant still has nothing.

My marigolds are doing pretty well too.

And this Monarch was fluttering around the milkweed plants. I haven't found any caterpillars this year.

Mahjong Monday

Back from the cruise, I'm getting back into the regular routine. Laundry, unpacking and grocery shopping were the priorities for the day and it was Monday, so it was mahjong night. We played with Allison's new tiles - pretty but not lucky.

Andy took the picture so he's not in it. The woman on the right won all four games we played (she also teaches mahjong).

And while we were out playing games, L was at her first MBA class. It's a four-hour class. Oy.

Guests are gone

We took Cindy to Union Station on Sunday afternoon to catch her train home, delayed departure several times though.

E was in town for her friend T's bachelorette party so once we dropped of Cindy we drove into the Loop to pick up E - at a Dunkin', of course.

A good-bye hug for dad. E and D will be home in a couple of weeks for their friends' wedding. Cindy's train was delayed and she got home four hours late. E's plane had a cockpit window that wouldn't shut and got home an hour and a half late. Not a good day for trains and planes.

Our student

L had the orientation for her MBA Program last week at UCF. The mascot's name is Knightro. I suppose there's a story behind that (later realized it's Nitro, just as an unfortunate spelling tragedy). Let the studying begin!

She's official.

Some new student swag.

She looks ready to begin!

More random Alaska

Thursday night at E and D's we went to dinner then stopped by Snoqualamie Falls around sunset.

Pic of the newlyweds.

Friday we caught our flight from Seattle and managed to get into the United Club on the passes I had. Here's the last of random Alaska (and Canada) pictures:

This sign was in the bathroom on the boat we cruised on durng our Sitka excursion.

And the bathroom sign at the brewery in Prince Rupert.

Fishing boats in Prince Rupert.

E with one of the glowing fish on Scarlet Night ...

and Cindy with a fish.

Cindy and me at a pier in Prince Rupert.

This was another the murals, painted by the Prince Rupert artist around town ...

and an eagle.

Speaking of eagles, this was in Prince Rupert. I posted the close-up picture of him earlier but look how big he was from a distance.

The burger place on the ship does an interesting sandwich each day. This pork patty with chorizo, pickled red onions and a couple other toppings was offered on Tuesday. E had it and said the black bun tasted like any regular bun. Kind of strange.

Cindy enjoying a boozy drink and a pretzel.

Lol. This was above a sofa in Sailor Services. We visited that a few times and they answered all of our questions.

Russian Orthodox church in downtown Sitka.

Eagle carving at the Sitka dock.

Random Alaska

Thursday we woke up back in Seattle. Here's some random happenings from the cruise:

A very cool stop sign in Ketchikan.

Ha!

Our first day on the ship and D tried out the net thing .,,

as did Cindy.

I told Andy I was going to bring home a totem pole and here it is.

Cindy got interviewed by the host one day at history trivia. It was a hard game.

Last day at sea

We met up with our new Houston friends, E and D for Wednesday morning's speed puzzle challenge. We crushed the competition by putting a 300-piece puzzle together in 20 minutes, We joked that we could have done another puzzle before the second team finished (and we could have) but we didn't want to show off.

E, Cindy and I celebrating the win with our free drinks. D was off to a whiskey tasting.

When we got back to our room our blanket was folded into a heart. Cute.

In the afternoon we joined E outside, wrapped in ship-provided blankets, and enjoyed the fresh air. The waves seemed big (to me anyway).

Such a nice lounging space that we only discovered on Tuesday. It's too bad the rooms don't inclde a floor-by-floor map of the ship.

While we were in the lounging area, we were offered Alaska-inspired bites. E had something with duck, she and Cindy also had a carrot thing. I tried a lemon curd - can't go wrong with dessert.

The menu had some Alaskan drinks including an Alaskan IPA I had. Same company as the beer I had in the tour boat in Sitka.

Then it was time to do some shopping and spend down our "sailor loot." We found some magnets, a T-shirt, nothing too exciting and finished with $2.45 left. Now, to finish off that bar tab... .

We were playing a game of Uno with the kids when our Houston friends stopped by and talked us into particpating in a Family Feud-type game. It was fun but we didn't do well.

They had added a romance oackage to their ship fare so they could board early and had to get a bottle of chmpagne before disembarking. Nathan doesn't even drink champagne so he ordered the bottle, popped it open and let the rest of us drink it.

Cheers!