Seattle, sleep in your car." That was a quote on trip advisor about a Travelodge in Seattle. How horrible must this person's experience have been for he or she to write that?! I didn't think Travelodges were that bad, but in the future I'll be avoiding them.
The last two weeks have been consumed with the very first family vacation. How is it that we've never taken a family vacation?!?! I'm not sure, but it is now being corrected. I had no thoughts when I decided last year we were going on a cruise to Alaska and I'm not sure why. I knew how difficult it was to plan a meeting for Rudy when there was more than one person in that meeting. I dreaded trying to juggle schedules of three or more people, why didn't I think of that when I planned this trip with five people to juggle?
The cruise itself wasn't a problem. It's a cruise. My hardest job is choosing which excursion to go on. I've been blessed with an awesome mom who is open to going wherever I chose and usually is happy to go on any excursion I chose. Though on the last cruise, I almost took away her power to have a vote when she couldn't decide between visiting King Tut's stuff or seeing the Pyramids. I had to bite my tongue. Was there really a question between the two? In her mind, there was sadly.
The hard part came when planning the trip to visit loved ones in Seattle beforehand. When do we leave? Do we stay at a less expensive hotel near the airport and take the train into Downtown Seattle every day? Or do we stay at the expensive hotel in the heart of the tourist traps? Who knew asking for a hotel that served free hot breakfasts and had an indoor pool would narrow my list greatly? Do these Seattle people know where they live? Why in the world would you build a hotel and give it an outdoor pool? No one cares that your pool is heated if it's raining on their head.
And who knew hotels were so expensive? I wasn't moving in, so why am I paying an arm and a leg? It's just a place to sleep and eat breakfast, and if we get back to the pool early enough, to go swimming. This reminds me of why I stick to my floating hotel when I travel.
I realized how Southwest can charge quite a bit more than they use to do since they still do this antiquated thing called "your first two bags are free" and give snacks. I remember when that was part of your ticket price. Sadly, it's not.
I also learned if I get an email from airfare watchdog I need to log on to every computer in the surrounding area and buy my tickets. As soon as I finished purchasing my ticket and refreshed the page, the deal was gone. Are you serious?!?! Then I was stuck. I had to keep buying from them since I couldn't let the kids fly in on a later plane by themselves or on a cheaper airline. Oh the joys! Though once you throw in the cost of luggage, I got the same deal the other airlines were offering.
I printed out things to do from a mom's traveling blog. I'll have to weed through them and see what we're actually going to do cause if this Mommy isn't entertained then no one is entertained. Space Needle and Pike Market Place are the two most do activities on day one. Everything else is gravy. Things will be a little tight since now we only have 2 1/2 days in the city.
Praise God for great friends saying the right thing at the right time. I was planning our trip with no consideration of upfronts. Can you imagine me being somewhere other than work for upfronts? I most have been high when I started planning this trip. Thankfully our trip was after CBS' upfronts, but not CW's so instead of spending all day Thursday in Seattle, we'll hit the ground running on Friday morning.
Me, three kids, double stroller, four backpacks, two pieces of luggage, and a carry-on alone in a big city. This is definitely going to be an adventure.
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