Another Fine Day in the Emerald City
We made it after a massive delay to Seattle.
We were supposed to leave at 9:30 am on Weds. Plane was a little slow to leave and GRR they did NOT have assigned seats for us so we almost got bumped!? Got crap seats nowhere near eachother and in the tail (bounce bounce barf). Pushed back from the gate aaaand... proceeded to sit on the runway for an hour and a half due to a parking break problem. Waited for a part.. did't fix it... got deplaned.
Luckily, a few people on our VERY full flight got on a different airline in order to make aconnection to Tokyo on time so when we asked, a very nice gate agent found us some seats in the same row, on either side of the aisle, 4 seats behind 1st class, IN AN EXIT ROW.
Holy crap the whole exit row thing rocks. I heart it a lot. Space for my legs and nearly no clausterphobia!
The flight was ok. Sitting in the first plane FOREVER was the best exposure therapy ever. I was so impatient to leave and bored the flight didn't freak me out very bad at all. Mostly I got really bored because I finished Golden Compass with about 2 hrs left to go, and the second book was stowed over my head and I didn't want to open the bin and clock somebody with falling luggage. (One downside to exit row - no seat in front of you for stuff storage).
I spent an hour of the trip singing the Buffy musical songs, in my head, in order just to pass the time.
When we got in finally got in our luggage wasn't there. Josh had watched them loading it from the first plane to the other and somewhere along the way a manager had come out, told them to stop and just get the plane going. Sigh. The line to file a claim took longer than loading the rest of the bags would've. All told we spent about 12 hrs in planes/airports and got in at 9pmish MI time. Bags showed up the next AM.
Our hotel is AWESOME. We're up on the 19th floor overlooking Eliott Bay and the mountains. My ears pop whenever we go down the elevator . We're right downtown. I try not to look down.
We made it in time to our first two apartment appointments. Sadly no major luck on that front yet. We're going to have some serious motivation to purge things when we get back because so far they've all been much smaller then the two living floors of our place.
I think we're definately going to focus on Capitol Hill now, althoughshawboy Ballard isnt' ruled out. Both have lot of "It's Ann Arbor.. but BIGGER" features I like. =)
shawboy gave us a whirlwind tour our first night. Saw all the great lookouts around the city. Also ate at a great italian place in Ballard. Somewhere on the way back to the hotel I actually fell asleep in the rental car. I was exhausted apparently.. and it was like..3am MI time.
Yesterday was some more apartment hunting, along with Pike Place Market with a great grilled cheese, AND we went to the Seattle Independent Film Festival to see 'The Garden' - a documentary about the South Central LA community farm and it's drama. It was really good and it felt great to sit.
I now know why Seattle is one of the fittest cities in the US. Holy crap the hills. HUGE hills. I'm not sure it isn't hillier than San Francisco. When you visit, bring sneakers, bus money and be warned.
I actually can kind of see why they freak out about an inch of snow now.
Oh.. it's true btw. DOGS EVERYWHERE. Seattle <3's itself some dogs. Lots of apartments have dog runs up on the roof including one we liked best so far (for other reasons) with a whole "off leash area" up there.
Oh dinner last night was vegetarian restaurant #1.. 'Bamboo Garden'. ALL VEG CHINESE FOOD! the menu is huge and it's REALLY good.
Need to get moving today. Rental car has to be back. Need to find HOUSING! Must hunt out more tasty food.
We were supposed to leave at 9:30 am on Weds. Plane was a little slow to leave and GRR they did NOT have assigned seats for us so we almost got bumped!? Got crap seats nowhere near eachother and in the tail (bounce bounce barf). Pushed back from the gate aaaand... proceeded to sit on the runway for an hour and a half due to a parking break problem. Waited for a part.. did't fix it... got deplaned.
Luckily, a few people on our VERY full flight got on a different airline in order to make aconnection to Tokyo on time so when we asked, a very nice gate agent found us some seats in the same row, on either side of the aisle, 4 seats behind 1st class, IN AN EXIT ROW.
Holy crap the whole exit row thing rocks. I heart it a lot. Space for my legs and nearly no clausterphobia!
The flight was ok. Sitting in the first plane FOREVER was the best exposure therapy ever. I was so impatient to leave and bored the flight didn't freak me out very bad at all. Mostly I got really bored because I finished Golden Compass with about 2 hrs left to go, and the second book was stowed over my head and I didn't want to open the bin and clock somebody with falling luggage. (One downside to exit row - no seat in front of you for stuff storage).
I spent an hour of the trip singing the Buffy musical songs, in my head, in order just to pass the time.
When we got in finally got in our luggage wasn't there. Josh had watched them loading it from the first plane to the other and somewhere along the way a manager had come out, told them to stop and just get the plane going. Sigh. The line to file a claim took longer than loading the rest of the bags would've. All told we spent about 12 hrs in planes/airports and got in at 9pmish MI time. Bags showed up the next AM.
Our hotel is AWESOME. We're up on the 19th floor overlooking Eliott Bay and the mountains. My ears pop whenever we go down the elevator . We're right downtown. I try not to look down.
We made it in time to our first two apartment appointments. Sadly no major luck on that front yet. We're going to have some serious motivation to purge things when we get back because so far they've all been much smaller then the two living floors of our place.
I think we're definately going to focus on Capitol Hill now, althoughshawboy Ballard isnt' ruled out. Both have lot of "It's Ann Arbor.. but BIGGER" features I like. =)
shawboy gave us a whirlwind tour our first night. Saw all the great lookouts around the city. Also ate at a great italian place in Ballard. Somewhere on the way back to the hotel I actually fell asleep in the rental car. I was exhausted apparently.. and it was like..3am MI time.
Yesterday was some more apartment hunting, along with Pike Place Market with a great grilled cheese, AND we went to the Seattle Independent Film Festival to see 'The Garden' - a documentary about the South Central LA community farm and it's drama. It was really good and it felt great to sit.
I now know why Seattle is one of the fittest cities in the US. Holy crap the hills. HUGE hills. I'm not sure it isn't hillier than San Francisco. When you visit, bring sneakers, bus money and be warned.
I actually can kind of see why they freak out about an inch of snow now.
Oh.. it's true btw. DOGS EVERYWHERE. Seattle <3's itself some dogs. Lots of apartments have dog runs up on the roof including one we liked best so far (for other reasons) with a whole "off leash area" up there.
Oh dinner last night was vegetarian restaurant #1.. 'Bamboo Garden'. ALL VEG CHINESE FOOD! the menu is huge and it's REALLY good.
Need to get moving today. Rental car has to be back. Need to find HOUSING! Must hunt out more tasty food.