Day 3: Travel day
Welcome
Yesterday we drove back to Seattle to catch our flight to New York City.
Our day began with a 7am lobby call to make sure we had plenty of time at the border. It was just as well because while trying to find the export office we ended up stuck in the truck waiting area. This high-vis lady came to our rescue though, maneuvering us out of the parked semis an helping us to find the correct building.
Then we were back on the i5 heading towards Seattle, going past the big flag in our big car.
We stopped at a Wholefoods for breakfast where I grabbed a Sledgehammer Sandwich - turkey, peppers, jalapenos, cheese, and rocket, on a pretzel roll.
It was past 2pm by the time we made it to the airport. Jon and Liz went to return the rental vehicle while the rest of us organised the baggage and went searching for cartes. Within the space of about ten minutes we had added three unpaid smartecartes® to the tally and saved ourselves $24.
Inside the terminal things started to get tight. We had a few slightly overweight bags and the stringent rules for this flight meant that we had to do some reorganising. By the time our bags were on the conveyor belt it was 30 minutes until wheels up. Feeling the pressure now we rushed towards TSA and managed to get let into the priority queue. Piling our belongs into plastic trays we waited anxiously for the x-ray machine to complete its business. Jon made it through unscathed. Gabe made it through unscathed. Then Tristan made it through unscathed. Liz forgot to take out the ipad but managed a quick recovery. Then disaster struck. The bad situation worsened significantly when my pedal case was sidelined for inspection. I watched helplessly as it sat in the inspection area with no TSA agents in sight. Everyone else was sprinting for the gate and all I could do was get ready to run. After several minutes an agent returned and gave my pedals a cursory inspection before sending me on my way. I had made it halfway to the gate when I got the news. Boarding was closed. The aircraft was being sealed.
Taken moments after arriving at the gate, flight AS 136 prepares to depart.
The TV on a neighbouring gate seemed to mock me with this ill-timed advertisement. Alaskan Air were right though, we do have kayaks there.
An hour later I was settling in to Concourse D for the 7 hr wait until the next flight. An extremely friendly lady at the help desk had managed to re-book me on the next available service but unfortunately it wasn’t until 9.30pm. On a more positive note there probably isn’t any other terminal in the world that I’d rather be stranded in than Seattle/Tacoma International Airport with it’s 103 gates, 48 restaurants/cafes, 41 retailers, and state of the art underground transit system.
The end of the concourse affords a spectacular view of the Sound Transit Link light rail arriving from Seattle.
In the end I decided to experience Sea/Tac through a good old fashioned airport bar crawl. There are many watering holes to choose from in Concourse D and I even ventured as far as Concourse C to find some new flavours. I took a series of pictures to document the evening which I’ve assembled in the classic square collage format.
My flight ended up leaving half an hour late but I was just glad to be aboard. I was completely exhausted and my eyes fell closed before we even left the tarmac.