WORST...JOURNEY...EVER!
Skip this paragraph if you don't want to read about airport incompetence! Our flight to Philadelphia was fine, I watched 12 Years a Slave and Luke watched the Lego movie and played Mario, obviously. But then our internal US Airways flight accross to Seattle was a huge cockup. First we were an hour late boarding, then we sat on the plane for another hour and a half before they told us that we all had to get off as a meter was broken and they couldn't work out how much fuel was in the plane. Another 2 hours later they remembered that they had a spare plane. We all jumped on it and sat there for another hour until they realised that they had forgotten to transfer the luggage accross! As they were loading, the conveyer belt broke, the ground crew had a fight and one stormed off. John watched out the window as his suitcase was thrown angrily onto the belt and got broken. Then during the 6 hour+ flight we were offered one single drink that was 80% ice, so we all got dehydrated. We then had to wait an hour for the hire car. But despite all of the kerfuffle and the 6hour delay, Luke was a star (he might have even whinged less than mummy and daddy) and had many compliments on his good behaviour by friendly Americans.
Anyway! Hampton Hotel is nice and we had a good sleep. Breakfast was awesome with a make-your-own waffle machine, which was of course my primary reason for choosing this hotel. This morning we took the lightrail into Seattle and hopped onto the monorail, straight to the Space Needle for a lovely view of the city. Next was the Chihuly Glass and Gardens which were spectacular. Gigantic alien landscape like exhibits made out of blown glass. Phone photos don't do it justice. We then went to the famous Pikes Place Market on the pier to soak up the bustling atmosphere and to grab some street food. Luke went on the carousel, the flower market smelt lovely, and there were busking musicians on every corner. We noticed that there was an excess of Starbucks in Seattle; honestly you couldn't walk 100m without seeing one, but then we found the first ever Starbucks with original signage and realised that Seattle is actually the home of Starbucks, so we forgive them. Another nice thing were the manholes in the roads with steam coming out of them, just like you see in the movies.
It did of course rain a little, but as Seattle is the rainiest city in the US we would have been a little disappointed if it didn't. Seattle is definitely a good place for arts, entertainment and culture with lots of interesting museums, sculptures on every corner, and loads for kids to do. The museums get pricey very quickly but you can buy city passes which help.
Now we are crashed in the hotel room - later we'll head to the grocery store collect snacks for our first day on the road to Vancouver tomorrow.
Comments
Post a Comment