Leaving the JEWEL - 243/365

What a sad, sad day!
We had to get off the ship today. NO FUN, no fun at all! We all hit up the "bacon buffet" as we had come to call it, one last time this morning. YUM! It was wonderful, but we have all just eaten non-stop on this trip...LOL! 

After breakfast, we spent some time walking around the ship, taking some last minute pictures. We just wanted to wander and take in as much as we could. We just loved everything about it! We even stopped and took pictures with our fabulous cabin steward and the famous "washy washy" singer! 

 Eventually, they started making jokes over the speaker that anyone that didn't head toward the gangways, were going to have to wash the dishes. That was our cue to get going. 

Getting off was sad and I admit, I almost shed a tear or two. We made so many wonderful memories, for our little family, but also made wonderful memories with my WHOLE family! We had that good of a time! More laughs than we could ever count. 

My dad had arranged a van to pick us up and take us to the airport Marriott for the night. Nana, Papa, Jim, Reagan, Jenny, Raymond, Chips and Kathy were all spending one last night in Seattle, before heading home. Ed and Pam rode in the van with us, just to spend the day, since their flight didn't leave Seattle until 11:30pm. 

Once we got to our hotel, we decided to hit the pool to relax a little bit. They had an amazing atrium with live trees, comfy lounge chairs and a huge pool. We all enjoyed a dip!

After we swam, Raymond and Jennifer suggested we all head over to the The Museum of Flight. They were nice enough to arrange a van for all of us to ride over in, and the return trip, too. 

We got there and were pleasantly surprised! It was amazing! They had life size planes of all kinds. I think Jim and I, liked the Air Force One the best. They had the actual Air Force One that Kennedy, Nixon, Johnson and Eisenhower used. It was amazing to see. Even the communication stations on the plane, looked so OLD! I can't even imagine what the inside of today's Air Force One looks like.

Another really cool thing was, a Concord. British Airways donated one of twenty Concords to the  museum. It was really something to see, the nose of the plane was so weird how it tilted down.  The inside wasn't much different than other plane. It said that Phil Collins, once, did a concert in London, flew home and made it to a show in New York, the same day! Crazy! 

We had fun, just asking Uncle Ed questions about the planes. He is our family aviation expert and knows just about everything about planes. 

After we finished at the exhibits, we sat on the back patio of the museum, enjoyed a few beers and watched some planes land. There was a small airport right next door, where a lot of  Lear Jets were landing. They also offered private rides in an old vintage bi-plane. No one was brave enough to go for a ride in our group, but we saw one or two people go for a ride. No thanks! 

Once our van picked us back up, we headed back to the hotel. We were all starving by this point, so we decided to have dinner at the hotel restaurant. We ended up getting a back banquet room to ourselves. We had the best time back there. We laughed until we cried and just shared stories of the week. It was the perfect way to end the best family fun ever! 

The first picture is all of us standing on the curb after we got kicked off the ship.

Next is Reagan and an astronaut...

I think so....

And finally, a silly picture, I took in the elevator at the museum....