20120804 Seattle Clear, Hot (for Seattle)
It’s 86*F right now (1630), which is hot for here. The weather-guessers have even issued a heat warning for the area.
We arose to cat serenading, so we let them onto the patio for a while and fed them. Then we loafed for a while over the morning paper and coffee.
We did laundry and cleaning for Fran & Duane’s arrival later today.
We went next door to the Marriott’s Hook and Plow patio for lunch of Angus burgers - very good but a little pricey.
I took a walk up in the market & bought a little flower arrangement for the condo.
Fran sent emails 1) from Dublin, saying they were waiting for the plane, 2) from IAD, saying they’d arrived but the UA plane’s audio jacks didn’t work, but the flight to SEA should be ok, 3) from UA917 saying they were on the plane, 4) from UA917 saying they had a mechanical problem, and 5) from UA917 saying the problem had been fixed and they were looking to be an hour late. FlightView at the time estimated a 2128 arrival here vice 2019.
Given all that, we’ll stay in the condo and do the normal “happy hour” event with the cats. Then a little later, we’ll leave the cats some food and drive to check in at our airport motel. When the flight is close to the airport, we’ll move to the cell-phone waiting area at the airport. When Fran calls, we’ll go to the baggage area and get them. Then they can drop us at our motel and return to their condo.
And that’s the way it worked out, more or less. We found them after they called, they dropped us off, and we all went to bed.
20120805 Seattle to San Jose CA
This was an interesting day.
We were going to leap up, drop the bags off at Southwest, then go downtown to meet F&D.
We had trouble getting the shuttle bus from the hotel to the airport. Took forever. Then the check-in line at Southwest was miles long. When we finally did reach the desk, we were told they couldn’t accept baggage more than three hours before the flight. We went to the curbside check-in; they wouldn’t accept anything more than five hours before the flight, but he took ours when we looked like a tip (which he did get).
Then we hiked through the parking garage to the light rail terminal. There was a long line at the ticket machines until an off-getting passenger said there were a bunch of vacant ones farther down the terminal where we couldn’t see them. We got a senior fare on the light rail ($0.75 ea) and rode it 45 minutes to the Westlake Center downtown. We walked down Pine from there, through the Pike Place Market we’ve come to know, down the elevator and over to the condo.
F&D let us in and we chatted a little. Cats were hiding. We decided to go out for lunch and see what happened from there.
So we went to a place they know on upper Lake Union & sat on the deck in the shade (temp getting toward 90). We had enchiladas and things and a Manny’s Pale Ale. Very nice. We chatted about their trip to Ireland and we filed much of it away should we go there next year.
We then took a drive to West Seattle and around Alki Point. This is nice place, part resort, part condos, part everything. Great views of downtown Seattle on one side (we took a few pictures from which D will make a panorama) and onto the sound on the other. At the end, F&D dropped us at the Southwest area at the airport.
We walked in and noted that our luggage (3 pieces) had been moved out of the storage area we last saw them in. We went to the gate and waited for a while, then back to a bar for a beer and coke.
The plane was a little late coming in, so a little late going out. It was nearly full. After we reached altitude, I asked for a gin-and-tonic then promptly spilled it down my port leg. I used a bunch of paper towels to start drying me. At least I didn’t get anyone else. The attendant furnished a replacement. We read until arrival at SJC (San Jose).
Our first-numbered piece of luggage came out of the carousel, then the third-numbered. Then the notice appeared that all bags had been off-loaded. So we went into the office to start work on that. One that showed up was identical to the lost one, so they knew what to look for. They took the facts, and printed a report of which we received a copy, and told us it would probably be along in the morning.
Off to the rental car office - my Hertz IBM plan is good, but part of the contract has a heavy penalty if you turn it in at a different airport We need to leave from SFO. We couldn’t find a workaround to the iBM plan (effective for retirees also), so we were advised to reserve another car at SJC for the turn-in day to take straight to SFO for a small penalty.
We got onto 101 north toward Redwood City, but the GPS didn’t seem to be working. D called Susan to get directions to the motel. After we had the directions, D started all over on the GPS and it started working. We arrived at the motel safely.
As we were walking into the motel, the Southwest baggage folks called to say they found the missing bag. They wanted to know if I was still near the airport (no), then said they’d deliver it to the motel around midnight. I asked where they found it; they said it came in from LAX. How it got to LAX and back to SJC is a mystery.
We checked into a nice room at the Best Western Plus. It should do just fine for our stay here.
We went next door to a Seven-Eleven for supplies and returned. I started on these chores, while D checked out the TV (not many channels but ok).
The suitcase hadn’t shown up at 1am, so to bed.
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