A Long Walk

We already bought the Heavenly-like bed. Now we may have to go for the pillows. The W bed is the most comfortable I’ve ever slept on. With rare sunlight filtering through the window slats, reluctantly, we got up. I hit the Play button on the great W CD we had been listening to all weekend as we made plans for the day. The first order of business was a long walk to work off some of last night’s meal and prepare us for tonight’s. We walked down Fourth Avenue all the way to Belltown and had breakfast at our old haunt CJ’s. Construction in Belltown was continuing apace. New residential towers were going up everywhere we looked. As we passed Pike St. we noticed a canopy was being constructed between Seventh and Eighth Avenues reminiscent of Las Vegas’s Fremont St. Experience. Cities are always copying each other. I thought they should build a Riverwalk here except that given the water level they’d have to call it the Sewerwalk.

Hunnybear and I both had the special scramble at CJ’s ($21 plus tip). Then we walked through Myrtle Edwards Park all the way to the commercial pier. They were doing something very weird to the foot- and bike-traffic patterns in the park: there were orange signs every few feet warning people about keeping right and left and merging and so on. Everyone seemed very confused by it. We walked back along the waterfront to the Bell St. Fish Bar where we sat down, had a couple bottled waters, and watched the Norwegian Sky load up. Then we walked through Pike Place Market and saw the famous Spoon Man, who now had a full head of hair. Last time I saw him he was completely shaved.

Checking out at the W

By that time it was almost three so we headed back to the W to pack up for our 4 p.m. checkout. They had turned off my Internet access and telephone already, which kind of defeated the purpose of having a 4 p.m. checkout, and they had charged the secret Free Saturday room rate to our bill for the third time in a row. I went down and talked with Nicole, the stunningly gorgeous blonde clerk, about the bill and she took care of it. Ninety percent of the best-looking women in Seattle work at this hotel. I mentioned that I had stayed here three times now and never been given a suite upgrade and what was up with that? As a Plutonium member I was outraged. Nicole said the hotel was fully booked and people actually were buying suites. Outrageous. Apparently they had three levels of suite at the W: the So Suite, the Very Suite, and the Way Suite. Regardless, the corner room we had (there seemed to be some terminology dispute among the staff as to whether it was a “junior suite” or simply a corner room) was delightful if a bit cramped. I expressed my happiness that the hotel was doing so well.

Roni met us at the W, having driven up from Olympia, and we descended the stairs to the bar so we could have a few Emerald Drops. Soon Kevin and Lara joined us and we munched on spicy almonds as we drank pastel-colored drinks from zig-zag-stemmed martini glasses and Lara, quite pregnant, sipped lemonade. Jody, the friendly and excellent day bartender, went home and was replaced by Dawniel, a stunningly gorgeous brunette bartender, and Kasie, a stunningly gorgeous cocktail waitress. Within minutes, five men immediately appeared at the bar trying their pathetic acts in a hopeless quest for Dawniel. The girls agreed that the only one who had a chance was the guy standing up and talking. The ones nervously looking into their drinks, working up the courage to speak, didn’t know it but they were already dead in the water. Such is the cruel reality of Darwinism.

We cashed out, making sure to get Starpoints for the drinks, and walked downhill to Second Avenue for our 6 p.m. early dinner reservations at the Brooklyn. This was one of those places where something has always gone wrong for me although some parts have always been excellent. Tonight it was Hunnybear’s salmon sampler that came out dry and overcooked twice. Fortunately the lamb chops they gave me were enough for two so we just split them. They were a bit fatty and cooked medium rather than the rare I ordered them, but they were still yummy. The manager came over and comped us all dessert for our trouble.

A nice leisurely dinner and it was time to head for the airport so we hugged Kevin and Lara goodbye, picked up our baggage at the W, and Roni drove us to Sea-Tac. We headed right for the Alaska Board Room but it was closed so we headed for the gate. A friendly, smiling redheaded girl who looked 17 checked us in and waived the upgrade-certificate requirement. What a difference between the Alaska personnel at Sea-Tac versus LAX!

The flight boarded early. It was an MD-80 with leather seats in First and, I hoped, freshly inspected jackscrews in the tail. We took off just a few minutes late. I reclined the seat to its maximum, only a few inches, into a strikingly uncomfortable position but nonetheless fell asleep immediately and stayed that way until the landing announcement came two hours later. There was a fruit and cheese plate served on this flight but Hunnybear and I both slept through it. We used the reverse pattern and came in over the ocean for a beautiful approach. As we landed we passed a large airplane bearing a government seal, probably used for shuttling high officials to and from important functions. I couldn’t think of anything important going on in LA right now though, just the Democratic National Convention, so maybe I was mistaken.

It was only steps from the gate to my car, parked right on the gate level in the Terminal 3 parking. We paid the $32 to get it out of hock and sped home in the moist, almost tropical air.

The end.

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