Goodbye Seattle

We checked out of our hotel on Friday (June 17th). Our flight didn't leave until 6:45 pm, but we had to check out by noon. We checked out around 10:30am, and the hotel was nice enough to hold our luggage for us until we came back to leave for the airport. Our last day was spent exploring parts of Pike Market we didn't see the first time and going to mall near the monorail. We ate lunch at Johnny Rockets. It was set up like an old diner. Joe had a yummy looking burger and fries, Kylie had mini hot dogs and I had onion rings and clam chowder (weird combo...I know). The food was delicious. The waiter was nice and didn't charge us for the chowder because he said he took to long to come take our order (we didn't think it was that long). After lunch we explored some more until we had to ride the monorail back to the hotel to get our things and head for the airport.

We knew we needed to figure out how we were going to get back to the airport without taking a taxi again. As I mentioned in the first Seattle post, we had a very expensive ride to our hotel from the airport. We figured it was the best way due to the fact that we didn't know where to get off if we rode the bus or the Light Rail (a faster version of a bus). We went to the Light Rail terminal near the mall and found that for $5.50 (for all three of us) we could get a ride to the airport. We just had to buy two tickets, go the platform to wait for the Light Rail, get on, and ride to the airport. There were about eight stops between the mall and the airport, but we got to the airport in about twenty minutes. We were kind of mad after riding the Light Rail, because we found out we could have explored more if we knew how easy it was to get from one end of the city to the other.

We got to the airport and that is where the fun part started. We first had to check our large bags. Thankfully we had paid for them online prior to arriving so all we had to do was give the bags to the attendant. We asked the attendant if we should check the stroller at bag check (like we did in Dallas with no problem) or at the gate. He said it would be easier for us if we did it at the gate. We took his advice and headed for security. At security, we all had to remove our shoes, jewelry, cellphones, etc so they could go through the scanner. One security person said she would have to manually check the stroller because it won't fit through the scanner. She took the stroller and wiped it down with some kind of wipe (I guess to see if anything bad shows up). Apparently the wipe showed there was something there. She told me that she needed to pat me and Kylie down because Kylie came in contact with the stroller, and I came in contact with Kylie. As soon as Joe heard what she said he became very angry. I told him it was not a big deal and I had nothing to hide. We both survived the pat down and gathered our things. We never found out what was on the stroller that caused us to be searched. The only thing we know that came in contact with it were her snacks. I guess a snickerdoodle cookie shows up as a bad thing on their system :)

After the fun at security we headed to our gate. We knew our gate was in the "N" terminal. We looked at airport map and found out the terminal was not connected to the other terminals. We had to ride and elevator and then a quick train to the terminal. We found our gate and had to wait about 2 hours until we were able to board the plane. Kylie kept busy by running around and eating snacks. Thankfully we were the first people to board because we had Kylie. We took our seats and waited while the rest of the plane filled up. We took off down the runway and said goodbye to Seattle. Once in the air, we had dinner. Our dinner was the same as our breakfast on the flight to Seattle ( a cheese and fruit platter). The next three hours went by a little slow. Kylie didn't get to take her usual afternoon nap so she was a little fussy. Nothing seemed to keep her occupied long enough. During the flight, I felt my lap getting a little warm. I thought it was just the heat from her sitting on my lap for so long ( I felt it the first time and it was nothing), but I was wrong. I lifted her up just to check and saw that her diaper had leaked a little. I had the fun of taking her to the airplane bathroom and changing her. The changing table in the bathroom was only about two feet long and Kylie is over three feet, so obviously that was an adventure. Once she was changed she got sleepy. She fell asleep that last thirty minutes of the flight. We landed at DFW around 11:45pm. As soon as we stepped off the plane, we knew we were back in Texas. We started to sweat even just walking from the airplane to the terminal. We went to baggage claim and had to wait about twenty minutes for our luggage ( a really long time when it is almost midnight). After getting our bags, we called the hotel where we stayed before we left, and they brought the shuttle to drive us back to our car. We had made the decision to drive back home because we didn't want to pay for a hotel room for only a few hours. We got on the road and headed back to Waco. The drive home seemed to take forever. We finally got home around 3am. We turned on our A/C (which had been off for a week) and crashed. We woke up around 10am on Saturday and still felt tired. We stayed at the house and did laundry. My mom was nice and brought us Bush's chicken for lunch. We then of course had to go to the grocery store because our fridge was empty. Before we went to the store we stopped for dinner at Bankcock Royal to try their version of curry. It was a little hot, but delicious. It wasn't Indian style curry so Joe said it wasn't the same as what he had on vacation, but it was a close second. Joe is now trying to find out where we can get Indian curry near Waco. We haven't been successful yet.

Our trip was great!! We hated to leave Seattle, but knew if we stayed we wouldn't have any money because we have to work to have money. We are already wanting to go back. There is much more that we did not see the first time.

We are now back to working full work weeks and doing chores around the house. The vacation is definitely over!!