I Luv My Sister!

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Geo: 47.6353, -122.302

Vacation Day 2 Sunday Sept 18 2011

Last night was another night of not-so-great sleep. I remember staring at the clock at 1:17am and again sometime just after 3:00 am. Unfortunately, the alarm did not go off at 4:30 as scheduled. Luckily, I woke-up at 4:47 am and jumped out of bed and so did hubby. He jumped in the shower and I went to blow-dry my still-wet hair from my shower the prior evening. We were dressed, all-dolled-up, and out the door in decent time. Driving on I-270 and I-70 at 5:30 in the morning is a lot easier than during regular daytime traffic hours. Thank goodness. We made it to our hotel, paid for our reverse park n' fly package, and were on the hotel shuttle at 6:20 am. Perfect timing. We had just enough time for hubby to have one cigarette and me to get one Tall Carmel Light Frappuccino. Ya gotta luv Starbucks!

Our first flight to Salt Lake City was uneventful except I was sneaking on a lot more carry-on items than I should have and got stopped. They realized there was two of us and let me go. I'm not sure how much of a difference it made because hubby was already carrying two bags but it got us on the plane with all our junk and that's all I care about. Our first plane was small and stayed low over the clouds.

We flew over the Rocky Mountains and into the big "Salt Lake" City. I failed to get a picture of the mountains and I probably should have. As for Salt Lake City, I wasn't impressed… at least not from the air… and who knows what that can tell you?? Our layover was barely enough time for hubby to smoke one cigarette (they have smoking rooms in this airport) and get a water. We were back onboard quickly and hungry since it was nearly one o' clock to us and all we had so far today was ½ my Frappuccino each and a teeny tiny bag of mini pretzels (45 calories, I checked).

Flight number two was interesting, if that is what you want to call it. There were three seats on the right side of the plane – long-legged hubby had the aisle seat and I was next to him. No one had appeared to sit next to me and they announced the flight attendant was locking the gate. I was ecstatic and began hopping over to the window seat and clicking on my seatbelt when I hear “excuse me?” and there was a lady who had been waiting to fly standby. Well, the good part was that she was super nice, smelled great, and slept through the entire two hour flight. The bad part was hubby & I were hungry, tired of sitting down, and our bums were burning by the time we ran off this flight. Sitting on airplanes all day is oddly exhausting.

O! Another thing of note… flying from St Louis to Salt Lake City was a small plane and seemed to be almost no noticeable security, no biggie. Flying from Salt Lake City into Seattle was apparently a huge security risk – I counted three security guys at our gate ALONE. There were two more security personnel in our gate area walking around checking any water bottles, milk containers, or any item anyone was drinking out of while waiting to board the plane – and, as usual, the first person they approach is my dear husband. He had JUST purchased a water at the newspaper stand next to our gate and taken one drink when they approached him and asked if they could please test his water bottle. After they said he was cleared I asked what they were looking for and they said chemicals that could be used to make explosives. They were very polite and actually joking around with us as hubby is used to this sort of thing due to his semi drug-dealer look – HA! I noticed they checked every guy drinking from anything. Oddly, I noticed they didn't check the females. :-/

We landed in beautiful Seattle and finally found the airport “islands” where hotel shuttles pick you up – there is construction and it was confusing but there were plenty of people offering instructions. Our hotel for the evening, the Doubletree by Hilton Seattle Airport, which I purchased online directly from Hilton.com for a total (tax included) for $125.06 offers free transportation to and from the airport. I had read online that this hotel has a contract with several of the flight crews so their free airport shuttle runs every 20 minutes (or more often) 24 hours a day. They arrived in six minutes. When they arrived, they dropped off almost an entire bus full of flight crew. Several more boarded with us and we were quickly on the way to our hotel.

We arrived at the Doubletree two or three minutes later as it is literally sitting on the back portion of the airport runway. There were several of us getting off the bus at once and we were last in line but they had five check-in ladies working and we were checked in and had our room cards and fresh warm cookies (yum yum) in hand within 5 or 10 minutes, max.

I had read this hotel was huge, had five wings and a tall tower which made it hard to find your room, was extremely slow, outdated, etc. I was a tad bit concerned about how dated this hotel would be and how far the walk would be (strange what fear others reviews can incite in you as hubby & I are both capable of walking long distances but stillll). Anyway, this hotel is FANTASTIC. There is a gift shop, two restaurants, a bar, a Starbucks, and lots of meeting places on the main floor alone. We passed a big heated pool and steaming hot tub on our way to our room. Everything looked clean and nice. The check-in was quick, the service was superb, even the maids in the hallways were nice and gave us directions when we got “lost” once. And yes… we were given a room in the EXTREME back of the hotel and had to walk down air-conditioned, clean, carpeted, well-light, very wide open spaces and corridors – and take two elevators (no kidding!) - just to get to our room (#5467) - but we were very very happy with our room. We had a fourth floor, king bed, smoking room, with a full balcony and a water/lake view. It was all good. You can see the planes if you wait long enough for one taking off but we weren't in the direct path to really watch planes like some of the other rooms. The room, however, was sound proof and we didn't hear a thing. This was a fantastic location, a great deal, etc… I would stay here again and would recommend it to anyone!

A few minutes after check-in I called…. MY SISTER!!! My sister and her husband and her two children & their wives & etc.. all live in the Seattle area - actually, they live on the base at Fort Lewis because my brother-in-law and my two nephews are all members of the military. I hadn't seen my sister since 2009 when she flew to Missouri for Thanksgiving. I hadn't seen my nephews since 2007 when I last flew to visit them in Seattle. Only my sister had met my husband of two years (our anniversary is tomorrow). My brother-in-law left to serve his second (long) tour in Iraq three days before our wedding. He is obviously home now but he is injured (he has pins in his lower spine and the back of his pelvis). He has been in the military a long time and was planning to retire however, he is now not going to be able to stay in due to his multiple surgeries and more remaining. The good news, however, is that he is of sound mind and has done a good job serving our country and we are all very proud of him.

Hubby and I are exhausted tonight so after a long meal, a short trip to the mall for new sandals, and some more visiting, we said goodbye to everyone and are currently crashing in our room. It was only seven o' clock Seattle time when we left everyone but that was nine o'clock to us and we had been up since before five.

Tomorrow… our 2nd wedding anniversary …we have a fun day planned exploring downtown Seattle!

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