On the road again

So much of this summer still seams so surreal, including the fact that I was in Seattle twice in less then three months. I have to say I really like Seattle – the area is beautiful, the people friendly, and during the 8 days I was there the weather was beautiful, warm and sunny, no rain!

Getting to Seattle was uneventful for me. For the 3rd time this summer I the Grand Rapids to Denver flight and for the third time the time was moved up to 8:30 am, which meant I needed to be up and out of the house by 7:00 ugh – not ideal for the start of a vacation, but thankfully I was able to sleep most of the first flight. As we were approaching Denver I was looking out the window and notice a plane was stopped on the side of the road out near the runway. Approaching the plane were several emergency vehicles, obviously something was wrong. I found out later the plane was from Little Rock, and a tire blew during take off. Thankfully they were able to land without incident, but they had to sit there for a couple hours and several people missed their connecting flights, including a several couples who were on their way to Seattle to catch a cruise ship and were in danger of missing it, which is why I am glad I flew out a day early.

The second flight was also uneventful and as I approached Seattle I was able to get some great pictures of Mt Rainier. With all the time changes, I spent 8 hours traveling, but arrived in Seattle at 1 pm.

Shannon’s travels to Seattle were decidable more complicated and stressful. Originally Shannon was scheduled to fly from Orlando to Seattle on Saturday with a lay over in Huston. But with hurricane Ike quickly approaching, the Huston airport was to close at noon on Saturday. Shannon received this news on Wednesday and so her flights were moved to Friday. She was able to get into the hotel a night early and everything was set. So we thought. Thursday night Shannon received another phone call from the airline telling her that the Friday flights were now cancelled and she had two choices, take a flight that lands her in Seattle an hour after the ship left on Sunday or pay an additional $1000 for the final first class seat on Friday. Neither one was a valid option. So Thursday night, just hours before she was scheduled to leave Shannon was ticket less. Thankfully she found a flight on Air-Tran that got her into Seattle on Friday, but didn’t get here home until Monday. This worked out due to the fact that Shan’s roommate works for the Marriott chain and was able to get us rooms at the Courtyard by Marriott for $50 a night.

On Saturday Shannon hung around the hotel until I arrived, thankfully I landed early, quickly picked up the rental car and drove over to the hotel. Our adventure was about to begin….