Parents-Only Vacation: Day 1, Seattle

Thursday, 11:43AM Eastern Standard Time, En-route to Seattle

We’re on vacation. Finally. Keith and I normally have fairly minimalist approach to traveling, we pack lightly and spend most of our vacations afoot, exploring the destination. But times are a changing, so for the first time this parental unit is going high-tech for a vacation: we’re loaded with electronics! We decided to bring the laptop (along with several other gadgets), which might not mean much to you except that we’ll try to do one or two blog posts along the way. Currently I’m typing while we’re en route to Seattle. This morning was an early, early start. I don’t know *who* picked the 6AM flight, but that person needs to have his vacation planning privileges revoked. Our first flight was to Detroit, and it was quick and uneventful. The most notable moment was when the flight attendant thought I snubbed him after he greeted me as we boarded. It was 5:45AM, I’d been up since 4AM with no coffee yet, we were crowded in the aisle of a very stuffy airplane, and I was anxious/preoccupied about leaving the boys for a week, and I was wondering if I left enough prepared veggies for Gran GG to feed boys, so sorry to Earl on flight 1122, I wasn’t very enthusiastic in my “good morning” greeting. I didn’t think my response was that bad, but it caused Earl to try a different language, so he greeted me in Spanish. I apparently have a little Latina flavor?

Anywho, we got to Detroit, grabbed a bit to eat during what we thought was a 2 hour layover. Turns out that Detroit is not in Central Time zone as aforementioned Vacation Planner thought, and we made it to the boarding gate just in time to board the flight to Seattle. So here we are, with a few dozen immediate friends, crowded & eager to arrive in Seattle.

More from us later, right now I have to perform a Circue de Soleil-esque acrobatic move to catapult over Keith’s enormous electronics bag on my way to the lavatory. That’s suddenly occupied again. Amazing how quickly an old lady who needed assistance boarding will move towards the lavatory once the “occupied” light goes off.

Thursday, 4:23 Pacific Standard Time, at the hotel.

I’m not sure why Frank Sinatra left his heart in San Francisco-‘cause Seattle is a gorgeous city, and feels very similar to San Francisco, just cleaner and with more attractive people. (Sorry San Fran). We’ve had a good first day, we arrived here around 11:45AM local time and made our way to the hotel. After freshening up and guzzling some water we headed out in search of the Pike Place Market.

The Market, I am disappointed to say, was less than impressive. Sure, there’s the fish being thrown, and some attractive stalls with flowers and fresh produce, but there are also some really random sh*t being sold in stalls that reminds me of a flea market that used to operate a few miles outside of Athens, GA. I have strong feelings about flea markets, so part of the Pike Place experience left me wanting a shower. We did grab a few fun bites, some caramelized butter cake at a Swedish stall and a huge apple fritter at another. Here’s Keith, partaking in a healthy* afternoon snack.

In the background is the stall where fish is thrown about. It’s a pretty exciting atmosphere, so exciting in fact, that a tourist passed out and an ambulance came to take her away. We saw her sitting up and talking after the circle of paramedics dispersed around her, so let’s hope she’s doing OK. We headed back towards the hotel, walked (for miles, it felt) through some parks adjacent to the water, which brings us to the present. We’re missing the babies, so we checked in with Gran GG, who sounds like she survived Day 1 of Ellerman Twin Bootcamp. Way to go Gran GG! We love & appreciate you!

Next up for us is the complimentary happy hour at the hotel (whoohooo!) and then dinner at a fun restaurant. Then some ZZZ’s ‘cause we have a full day tomorrow.

*We added some milk to complete the snack. That’s healthy, right?