Colorado Cruiser: Day 10 and 11

Day 10 - Disembarc and Seattle

Angela, Shauna, John and Eric originally had flights scheduled for noon, but Delta rescheduled their flight for 6:30, so rather than heading right to the airport, they have a whole day to kill in Seattle. Nan and I originally had a flight for 10:00am, but we were concerned about getting there on time. All the other flights on Saturday were very expensive so I booked us to leave the next day at 10:00.

As a result, we were in no hurry, so we all selected the 9:00 disembarking time and swore we were going to sleep in. I set my cell phone alarm for 7:00 and managed to sleep that long. We planned to meet at 7:45 for breakfast, but when we got there, no one was around. Nan and I ate breakfast together until John and Angela showed up. They'd eaten much earlier and were now just enjoying the ship for the last time before our group was called to leave.

After Breakfast we wandered around thinking we had allot of time, but at 8:40 they called our group and we scrambled to get back to our room and grab our stuff. We scoured the room for any remaining items, stood on our balcony one last time, then headed for deck 2, midshsips to leave our dream vacation behind.

We walked off the ship and followed signs through the terminal and down to the luggage area. Nan wandered through the aisles of bags till she found ours, and also found Shauna and Erics. I texted John and they were already outside. We waited a few minutes till Shauna and Eric came to get their bags, then headed for the exit.

Nannette joked a bit with our customs agent and he joked right back. He checked our passports and waved us ashore. We walked our bags over by John and Angela, then I headed to taxi line to go rent our car. My taxi driver wasn't very happy. He'd waited in the taxi line for over an hour, and all I wanted was a 3 mile ride into downtown. He'd been planning on a cab full of people headed to the airport, But he climbed in and off we went.

It only took 10 minutes to get to the space needle. The avis rental was just across the street. A small office with a small counter. I had to wait a few minutes while a couple got their rental, but at the next counter, a lady we making quite a fuss. She arrived 30 minutes before her scheduled rental time and her car wasn't there yet. The agent offered her a slight downgrade or she could wait for her car to arrive. He also gave her a flat $25 inconvenience fee, but she kept offering him ultimatims and he kept telling her it wasn't a negotiation.

She kept arguing until a small line had formed then used that to pressure him. He finally said, either accept the offered car or wait for hers. She took the offer but kept griping the whole time and even when she got outside she whined at anyone who would listen.

I got a Kia Sedona which is the same car we had a week ago on our way in. I'm still very impressed with the amount of storage in the van, but the passengers in the middle seat were very unhappy with the self tightening seatbelts. Every few minutes I'd hear someone unbuckle, and rebuckle to get some breathing room.

Once I had the car, I followed the GPS back to the terminal, It was allot slower getting in than it was getting out. When I finally came around the corner I took the first open spot I could find. The traffic director yelled that I should go farther along, but it was too late, the cars behind me had already blocked me in. I tried to worm my way back out but no one would let me. Finally John said we should just load where we were and we did. We were goot at this by now and loaded up pretty quick.

Once the car was loaded I began inching my way out. The car ahead would move and I'd fill the gap until the cars behind were forced to let me out. I was almost out when a limo started to come around and cut me off. The same traffic late blew her whistle and stepped out in front of him, scolding him. Then she waved me out and I was free.

Someone said they'd heard her knock on someone's window and say "McFly, what do you think you're doing?". She was a no-nonsence lady for sure.

We drove right back to the Space needle and parked across the street.

Nan and Eric got in line to buy tickets. No one else really wanted to go up, so we wandered around while they took the elevator to the top. I remembered to send the camera with Nan, otherwise I'd have almost nothing to show for today.

It quickly became aparent that John and Shauna were both in "GET ME HOME" mode. They really didn't want to wander the festival that was being setup in the area, check out the food trucks, or look at all the buskars (street performers) setting up around us. John sat reading something on his phone. I won't go into all the teasing that went on, but there were some good laughs had (by the rest of us).

At 11:30 I was tired of waiting and headed into "The Armory" to find something to eat. Last week we'd eaten here as well. The mexican and asian foods weren't that great, I was going for Mod Pizza. If you haven't had mod pizza before, you get to order a custom pizza with as many toppings as you want, and it will be ready to eat in about 5 minutes. Just as I got in line, Nan called to say they were down from the needle. She gave me her "hawaiian" pizza order and headed over. I had pepperoni, mushroom and onion. I also got a nice side salad to go with it.

The pizza was great for lunch. Once we were done, we still had 4 hours before the others needed to be at the airport. John and Shauna were all for heading straight to the airport right now. I just shook my head. I'd rather do almost anything than just sit in an airport for 6 hours.

Finally we all agreed to go to Kelly Park which was nearby. It's supposed to have the best view of downtown Seattle. We followed the GPS up a pretty steep hill and took a left into a small side street. I stopped to let everyone out. Eric got out but everyone else said they'd just wait. I sat there a minute and finally the rest decided they might as well go look.

Nan was stuck in the way back and couldn't get out. I turned the car around and found a better parking spot, then got out myself and helped Nannette extract herself.

The view was everything it was supposed to be. An awsome view of the downtown. We took a bunch of pictures, including the girls posing around some art work. They were trying pose artistically themselves, whatever that means.

After spending 30 minutes we finally climbed back in the car and headed for SeaTac airport. There was very little traffic headed south with us, but the north bound lanes were packed with people. Miles of traffic on a Saturday afternoon, no thank you.

On the way to the airport we reminisced about our favorite parts of the trip. The favorite day seemed to be Juneau. Even though it rained, the glacier was awsome, the tram to the top was great, and we even liked walking around the town.

The favorite meal was Monday night when we ate at the Steak house.

My personal favorite activity was all the time playing cards, laughing and joking together, and the fact that we're all still friends after the number of Draw 4 cards thrown on each other says allot.

Best overall sight was probably Glacier bay.

We pulled up to the airport terminal and got out to hug and say goodbye. I often get very melancholy at the end of a vacation when I have to part from friends, and this was no different. It wasn't as bad because Nannette was there with me, but I was very sad that it was all over.

Nannette got on the phone to a couple that we know in a town right by Mt Rainier. Kyle spent the last 9 months of his mission there. She was such a close friend that she even flew out for Kyle's wedding, so we planned to meet her and her husband at a Denny's nearby.

Nan and I had just eaten pizza so we just got an apple crumble to split while they got what looked to be awsome hamburgers. We chatted for about an hour about all the comings and goings, and especially showing pictures of baby Pendaryn. We said our goodbyes and headed for the next reunion with our friend Brad.

Brad, Kerry and their family used to live in Colorado Springs 11 years ago. They were very good friends and we've kept in contact ever since. When I wound up scheduling the flight for tomorrow I had called Brad to see if we could stay with them. He said his family was just leaving on a tour of Europe, so he had room for us.

We drove 40 miles up through some small towns (I was avoiding the congested freeways) and arrived the the small town of Samamish. Brad greeted us with his typic smile and great laugh. We've always loved Brads bright and laughter and it was great to hear it again.

While we chatted, Brad's daughter Marissa and her husband showed up. They were on their way to a wedding receptions but they took 20 minutes to chat with us. I remember taking my daughter Klair and Marissa up snow skiing when they were about 14. It was great to see her again.

After they went out for dinner at Red Robin, then Brad took us for a driving tour of his favorite places in the area. There is so much greenery that it's hard to keep my internal compas calibrated. I had no idea where we were, but it was all beautiful. We stopped at a lake about 2 miles from his home and got out to walk around. He said he rides his mountain bike over, then rides the 6 mile path around the lake as a nice loop.

We walked back to the car and continued looking around the area. We drove through a couple of neighborhoods with multi million dollar homes with huge trees all throughout. I could live with that if I had to.

Back at Brad's home he put the moovie Zootopia on to play. We chatted while the movie played and I worked on the blog. Marissa and her husband came back so we chatted even more while the movie played. It was a fun combo of funny movie and lots of chatter.

When the movie ended Nannette said she was ready to go to sleep and Brad had to take a car over to a neighbor's house. I still had more left to do on the blog so kept working till it was done, then went to sleep.

Day 11 - Travel home

I set my alarm for 6:00am. We figured we'd leave by 7:00, hour to the airport and return car so we'd have plenty of time before our 10:05 flight. We bid a tearful goodbby to Brad and headed for SeaTac. Except that when we got there, our flight was actually at 10:50 flight and we had 2 1/2 hours to wait. I found a charging station and started writing another day of the blog while Nan read facebook.

As the time for the flight got near, Nan bought us sub's from Quiznos. We wandered over to the gate thinking we had 35 minutes only to hear a last call for our flight. They'd boarded much earlier than we thought and we were the last people onto the plane.

We wandered down the aisle and heard the flight attendant announce that it was a completely full flight and we should take whatever seat we can find regardless of the location. We'd passed one seat on the very front row and when we got to the back, Nan took a window seat. There were open seats near the end, but the flight attendants said they were already full. A lady behind and I turned around and headed to the front. She took that front seat. I looked around and there was nothing open.

The flight attendant told me to return to the rear which I already knew was full. I was sure that I was going to be bumped from the flight but the attendant assured me there was a spare seat somewhere. I walked to the back and saw nothing open. The rear attendant picked up the phone and tried to get the front attendant on the line but she wouldn't answer. Finally she paged the whole plane and said "Kathy line two".

After they chatted, she walked up a few rows and tapped a girl on the shoulder. It was another flight attendant who was standby on the plane. She wasn't bumped, but she had to sit in a flight attendant jump seat and I got her aisle seat right across from Nannette. That was quite the heart pounding feeling to think I was getting bumped from the plane.

I spent most of the flight writing this blog and watching "Chopped" on the free southwest wifi.

I talked about "Get Home Fever" before, and I actively try to prevent it in myself. So when I asked my son Kyle to pick us up, I deliberately told him to come an hour after our flight arrived.

I didn't want to spend the last half our of my vacation pushing my way off the plane, running through the terminal and trying to get to the pickup point. I wanted the end of this great vacation to be a leisurely stroll through the airport without a worry in my head and that's what we did.

Just about the time we got to baggage claim, our bags came out and I plucked them from the carousel. We strolled to the elevators and while everyone else crammed onto a full elevator down to the arrivals level, we took the empty elevator up to the departure level.

We found some empty chairs to sit in and wait for Kyle to call. We chatted about the fun time we'd had, then I let Nan read my last couple of Blogs. When Kyle called to say he was entering the airport we gathered our things and walked out to the nearly empty roadway and loaded our things up.

Kyle had brought his wife Laura and 6 month old baby Pendaryn with him which delighted Nannette. She and Laura climbed in the middle seat to entertain the baby (It's all about entertaining the baby). We drove back toward the springs and stopped once to change and feed the baby but otherwise it was a nice drive home.

As we dropped off of Monument Hill into Colorado Springs, a summer shower came down off the mountain and pelted us with a pretty hard rain shower. We had to slow to about 20 mph for a while because of visibility, but after 5 minutes it lightened up considerably and drove home in a gentle shower. What a wonderful way to cap it all off.

View from the Space Needle