Sleepy in Seattle

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It is almost time for Sharon’s “Ice Therapy” to begin, and I’m not sure who is looking forward to it more. Today is our eleven month anniversary (I better mention that if I expect to pass my Husband 101 training). We had quite the ordeal travelling here. Someone had the bright idea to work yesterday and take the red-eye one-stop thru Minneapolis/St. Paul, which I’m sure seemed like a good idea at the time. Have you ever tried to make a connection thru this airport when you arrive on the C-concourse and you need to get to the F-concourse. After numerous moving side-walks on the first concourse, which was in what appeared to be a quite new terminal with plenty of restrooms after each short conveyance, we arrived at the tram stop (I think we could have taken a tram to this part because it was going back out to where we had come from). Well, beyond that was our tram to the D, E and F concourses. This dropped us off in a commercial mall food court gateway that just never seemed to end. We finally do get to our “exit”. This was a much older part of the airport, and we sure missed those moving sidewalks. Finally, after forty minutes, we have arrived at our flight. It’s a good thing we had two hours to connect. It wasn’t as bad as London, after all, there were no customs, immigration or banned substance control points to clear, or busses and trains to catch, like I had when I returned to LAX after our honeymoon about a year ago (yes, I went back to LA and she went back to work in Ohio the next day and I got home 6 hours earlier than she… I’m never going to hear the end of that one, fortunately she booked those flights: but I’m the one with only one and one-half hours to make my connection and that flight was delayed by 25 minutes! And in London, when a flight leaves at a certain hour, the gate closes 20 minutes before that and they actually do close the gate.) I made my flight then, and we made this one too, and our bags arrived without a problem. Someone’s other bright idea was to reserve a window seat and an aisle seat on the leg to Seattle, with the idea that no one would reserve the seat between us. Well, the flight was full, so someone didn’t have a choice. We had to call for our ride to the Fairfield Inn (Marriott property). They weren’t included in the hotels featured at the airport “call-a-ride” kiosk, so we had to do it the old fashioned way and use the cell. They directed us to go up a level, across the walkway bridge and down again to the pickup point, and to call when we get there for a driver and to let them know which pick-up spot we were at. Sharon wasn’t happy about these directions, especially the up-a-level part with her two check-ons, her carry-on, her lap-top and her purse. Okay I had my two checked bags, my carry-on and her carry-on… we found the elevator (it was out of order)… we found the alternate elevator and it wasn’t too bad… not going up escalators as Sharon had imagined. We called and were picked up almost immediately, and the driver was very helpful with the bags (it’s around midnight, so were working on 3-in-the-morning time from Ohio… are you getting the picture about that first bright idea??? ) At the hotel the driver fetched a dolly for us and we managed with our luggage. Now for the one good idea someone had, we chose the Fairfield Inn for their package for $164 that included transfer to and from the port, breakfast, transfer to and from the airport and the upgrade to a King-Sized bed (the last we’ll have for a while). So today we get on the Amsterdam… let the therapy begin. To be honest, we have had three nice days of Spring and five nice days this past week in Summer, but other than that we’ve had torrid heat and humidity, and last winter was pretty cold. Earlier this year my Prius got hailed on, but then again, that helped pay for this. And Sharon has already told me that I’m going to “Love Alaska”. She calls it her special place. And you know, I’m betting she’s right!

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