Our flight was at 8:20am so we woke up around 5am in order to get ready in time. Jen and I each took a shower and finished getting ready. Aunt Sandy was almost ready too. I made an ‘eggie’ for breakfast and loaded up the car with our luggage.
We were out of the house by 6:50am and it was an easy drive down to the airport. I dropped off Jen and Sandy to check in while I parked the car at work. Sandy was flying out to Seattle on an American Airlines flight so her and Jen parted ways once they were in the terminal. On my way to work I called up Alex to beg a lift to the airport. He was happy to oblige and met me outside of the building and took me to the airport.
When I entered the airport I called up Jen but she wasn’t picking up her phone. Since she already checked in for us and was nowhere to be found, I had no boarding pass. Fortunately I was able to get through the security area with my company ID badge and checked the display boards to find our gate (T-13).
As I walked up to the gate Jen returned my call. We waited for our seats and were assigned seats together in zone 9. This wasn’t a problem because the flight had about 80-90 empty seats. In fact, Jen and I had an empty seat between us.
I took the spacious opportunity to unload my camera from the backpack and take some photographs out of the window. I also found that I had enough room to use my laptop fairly comfortably. This is unusual for a non-bulkhead coach seat.
(Waiting for pushback)
The flight was really nice. For some reason the particular plane we were on seemed to have more room than other planes of a similar size. The in-flight movie was ‘The Island‘. I thoroughly enjoyed it! The plot was a little lame but in my opinion, it was a great movie to watch on a plane and the action was good.
I should have tried to get some sleep during the five-hour flight to Seattle but I had way too much to occupy my time: watching a movie, reading my great book, listening to podcasts on my ipod, and working on my laptop.
Because of this, the flight seemed to go by way too quickly. During the flight we were served a little snack pack which consisted of four crackers, some cheese spread, a tiny box of raisins, and two Oreo cookies. We were also given two rounds of beverages and a choice of snack later on (I had sun chips). I was pretty satisfied with the offerings.
Some time during the flight after the movie was over I pulled up the window shade and looked outside - it was a pretty cool sight: I could see snow-covered mountain ranges in what I guess were the northern Rockies.
(View from the plane)
Eventually we landed in Seattle. The weather was overcast and misty. Sandy’s flight had a layover in Dallas so we had some time to kill while we waited for her flight. Ours arrived around 10:45am and hers didn’t get in until 1pm.
Jen and I were hungry so we walked around the modern-looking airport and settled on a place to eat. I had some mall-quality Chinese food and Jen had a healthy veggie bagel. We sat together at a table in front of some large windows and looked out over the planes coming and going.
After lunch we exited the gate area and fetched our bags from the baggage claim area. It was easy to find out blue bags since they look so much different than everyone else’s. We found a chair to sit and wait. Jen read her book and I opened up my laptop.
I still marvel at this: I was surfing the web on my laptop with no cords coming out of it, not connected to a WiFi network. Instead it was communicating with my Motorola V3 Razr cell phone in my pocket via Bluetooth and accessing the web over T-mobile’s GPRS data network. The speed wasn’t that great (it was about modem speed), but I’m not complaining given the versatility of the setup. While waiting in the airport I was able to add several entries to my weblog - what a great use of time!
Finally Sandy arrived (I monitored the progress of her flight from my computer). We met her at the baggage claim and headed out to the rental car area. The car wasn’t that great. It was a little two-door Chevy Cobalt. I’ve grown to really detest two-door cars (at least non-sports cars). They aren’t practical at all.
It was a long journey from the airport to Sandy’s house on Whidbey Island. We had to drive a lengthy way up interstate 5 (If we drove south for a long time we could stop at Larry’s house!) and then over on a side highway to the ferry.
Fortunately for us we reached the ferry in time for the 1:30pm launch. As we waited in the ‘queue’, a few police men with specially-trained dogs walked around and investigated the cars. They did not find any drugs or explosives in our car.
This was my first time on a ferry of this type. The only other time I can recall being on a ferry was when Jen and I were in Orlando and took the ferry into Disney’s Magic Kingdom.
The ferry ride was fairly short - about twenty minutes. Jen and I got out of the car and walked around the boat. Inside was a lounge area with a grill serving some food and coffee. Jen got some coffee. We also stepped out on the observation deck for a minute until it got too cold to stay out there. It was pretty cold out - in the 40’s. That combined with the wind and overcast skies made it not too pleasant.
After we reached Whidbey Island, it was still about a 45 minute drive to Coupeville. It is such a long journey from our house this morning in Atlanta to Sandy & Chuck’s house on Whidbey Island. From start to finish I guess that it was about eleven hours from door-to-door. I was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to take a nap.
We unloaded the car and said out hellos to Jen’s uncle Chuck. After a few minutes of talking and greeting I excused myself and took a nap for about an hour. It felt great to rest. I’m normally not so worn out but I think the weather helps my sleepy state.
I woke up and joined Jen, Sandy, and Chuck in the kitchen area. Jen was having a glass of Cabernet - I had a glass too. We talked for a bit and then
We had plans to join Sandy and Chuck at dinner with their friends. Sandy had been visiting in Atlanta for about a month so she had been gone a long time. We walked out of their house and down the street and through a small wooded area until we reached a house belonging to their friends.
In all, three other couples showed up. They were all probably in their sixties - around the same age as Chuck and Sandy. One of their friends, an older guys, said that he was from Erie, Pennsylvania. As soon as he said that I immediately thought of the movie, ‘Wall Street‘.
We had some wine and snacks before dinner. The actual dinner consisted of a salad and seafood gumbo. I liked it a lot and had a large helping. After dinner we had some thin ginger cookies which reminded me of tin ginger snaps.
Eventually it was tie for us to go. I was pretty tired and I think Sandy was too since she has been up just as long as us. We walked back to the house and turned in for the night. It felt great to go to sleep.
