Becky and I were bounding up Queen Anne Avenue on our way to dinner as we took this nightime shot of the Space Needle. The top of the Space Needle was painted with stars and stripes. Of course, you can’t see the stripes in this photo, but from the nearby freeway the stripes were visible.

Here’s a nighttime shot taken from the Space Needle’s observation deck. I used a tripod and let the camera’s shutter stay open for a few seconds to get this image. Unfortunately, my tripod is wimpy and wiggled in the wind. Approximately one-quarter of the Seattle Center Monorail’s track is pictured right of center.

Here’s another nighttime shot of the Space Needle from Queen Anne Avenue. The shutter stayed open for a few seconds for this shot.

I thought fellow Mac users would get a kick out of this photo. This is the inside of the closed Queen Anne Office Supply. The owners of this store apparently run their business on iMacs, which is far from typical and way cool.

This closing photo is something Becky and I will never forget. We didn’t have a really huge suitcase, so we packed every suitcase and bag we could find or borrow to go on this ten-day vacation. I think we’re going to ask Santa Claus to bring us a huge suitcase for Christmas. More sophisticated travelers carried their luggage in just a couple of large, rolling suitcases. We felt like the Clampetts as we made our way from the ship to our hotel in Vancouver, from Vancouver to Seattle, and from Seattle to the airport.

This was the best vacation Becky and I have ever enjoyed. I don’t know how we’re ever going to top this one. Certainly the best part of this vacation was the cruise, which lasted for seven of the ten days. Vancouver, Victoria, and Seattle were less satisfying than being aboard Radiance of the Seas and touring Alaska’s Inside Passage, but not enough to foil the overall vacation. The service, sights, onboard activities, cuisine, and shore excursions we enjoyed on this cruise outshine those we’ve experienced on our four previous cruises. On the fifth night of the cruise, we were advised by the cruise director to tune into a channel on our stateroom televisions for disembarkation instructions. We were both depressed as we listened. We wanted to stay on the ship and take the whole cruise again, but I had to get back to work and Becky had to get home to have her wisdom teeth extracted. But, oh, how we miss being on this cruise! Instead of referring to the weekdays by their proper names, we say that the day is Juneau (Monday), Skagway (Tuesday), Hubbard Glacier (Wednesday), at sea (Sunday or Friday), Ketchikan (Thursday), or Vancouver (Saturday). We’re going to sail Alaska again one day.