billinghamn

Sun 10 Aug AA1057 - MIA-SEA

Equip: 757
Scheduled Depart: 20:55 Actual: 09:03
Scheduled Arrival: 00:15 Actual: 00:03
Takeoff: 09:16 Touchdown: 11:56

Well the time in the lounge didn’t go too slowly. I spent a fair amount of time uploading photos and then updating the blog and then FT. We found a relatively quiet spot in the lounge and we weren’t bothered by anyone. The food selection was good – salad selection looked very appealing, and then there was a selection of filled baps, cheeses, cold meats, and two soups. I had a bit of the corn chowder which was very tasty. We are apparently going to eat dinner on the plane, (so I am told), so I look forward to that.

It’s a fair old hike from the Premium Lounge to the D gates, so we left about 50 mins before departure – there’s some very interesting artwork in the lounge, and on the walls of the corridors between concourses D and E. It’s nice they have made an effort to be a little different.

When we arrived at Gate D37 there didn’t seem to be that many pax waiting for the flight – we got there about T-40 mins, but within a min or two, we were called forward to start boarding. Unfortunately when we got on and discovered that First Class had the large grey seats we could understand why not so many people wanted to get on this flight! But we were told later the flight was packed. There’s only one flight to SEA today, and possibly every day, so it can’t be that popular a route.



The one thing that did make us chuckle was an old guy who got on just ahead of us – he thought he was looking for row 18 and was sent towards the back of the plane, but then a few mins later reappeared – he was actually looking for 1B!



The large grey seats on this 757 were very uncomfortable – the reason is that there is no support for your head. On more recent 757s and 738s you can flex the head rest to give you some support. The other thing to say was that the seats were in a very poor state of repair as can be seen from one of these photos.

Dinner comprised a nice corn chowder soup to start with and stuffed chicken breast. billinghamv had the ice cream for pudding (apparently I was asleep at that point so missed it). Service was ok, but as normal we had some relatively old generation AA CC who clearly believe we are a bit of an annoyance rather than a customer to serve to with a smile. But what the heck just think of the TPs and the fact that we are on holiday.

During the flight I used GoGo and picked up an email from Hertz advising me of the car they had selected for me to pick up from the Gold Canopy thingy – a silver Ford Mustang! I was dreading the Chrysler 200 convert which seems to be Hertz’s standard convert offering, so they either are being very nice to me, or they had a Stang that they needed to get back to SFO! I’m not complaining.

The problem with a Mustang is that billinghamv tends to be quite low down – she’s only a short arse after all, so we normally end up buying a cushion/pillow from Home Depot for her to sit on, and then chuck it before flying home. Well we may have been a bit naughty when getting off the MIA-SEA flight when not all of the cellophane pack of pillow, blanket and duvet actually remained on the plane!

It was a long walk from Gate D7 back to baggage collection and the exit, but it was only a further 5 min wait until the bus to the Car Rental Centre arrived. Surprising how many people arrive after midnight and need a car! We seemed to be the only ones picking one up from Hertz though. Found our car, checked billinghamv was on the insured drivers list and we pottered down to the barrier to have our details checked. I always find it amazing to think that so many cars are sat in a garage with the keys either in the ignition or in the door. I know that they have security barriers etc, and no one can get out, but I guess someone could just wander around nicking all the keys!

Used my mobile (running on Three) as a sat nav to find the hotel – it was only a few miles away, but it’s one of those situations where you can easily get your nickers in a twist over directions, unfamiliar roads and traffic etc. Found the hotel within 10 mins and there’s obviously quite a lot of building work going on in the area, so it’s not as an attractive area to stay in, but it’s close to the airport, very familiar and as normal, they upgraded us to a large, deluxe suite.





Once in the room, dumped the stuff, I took a Melatonin pill and we crashed.

Blueboys999

I used to fly in those seats regularly when AA operated them to both BOS & JFK from MAN. In those days they offered them as a 1 class flight with elites having free access to the front 'F' rows. I much preferred them to the current offering in Y or the WT seats on the now long gone BA MAN-JFK service.

wrp96

She was probably getting the oneworld access rules confused with the domestic AA rules. Remember there are different rules for AA versus the rest of oneworld. If you were accessing the lounge as an AA admirals club member on a domestic ticket, you would only have access if your flight was leaving from terminal E.

Blueboys999

I thought much the same thing. An AA EXP/Platinum would usually have access if the domestic leg was part of a same day international ticket so the timing would be relevant. Of course not in this case though.

billinghamn

Yes of course - that makes sense now - thanks for clarifying wrp96 and Blueboys999.

toomanybooks

You seem to be a beer guy, so be sure to try lots of our great US microbrews while here.

mkjr

redhook should be readily available given where OP is...

in Spokane, I have always enjoyed Churchill's Steakhouse. not cheap but very good

http://churchillssteakhouse.com/ The peacock room at the davenport for some libations.

nice to get a mustang. thankfully fuel is cheaper in the US...don't speed too much.

billinghamn

So we have reached Ellensburg where we have stopped for a Starbucks. May just try out that steak house, and I'll see what I can do about microbrews. Thanks for your comments and suggestions.

Madge Ishen

You seem to have incredible energy! Maybe try some of the canned Starbucks double shot espressos from a local supermarket to get that extra zoomph.

Your TR is a joy to read and we're already looking forward to the next instalment. Safe journeying - have a fantastic time and thanks for sharing!

^

billinghamn

Microbrews here I come! Looked up the location and menu of Churchill Steakhouse - we may be heading that way tonight! It looks more expensive than your average place to eat, but that's fairly common for high quality steak places isn't! Will let you know what we think later today/early tomorrow.

Paced ourselves fairly well - us Brits are probably more renowned for speeding than you Americans, but we kept to a reasonable, and safe speed. The US cops are also red hot on speeding as well aren't they?

billinghamn

Thanks Madge Ishen - nice to hear from you - glad you are enjoying the read. First instalment of our drive to Yellowstone will be coming up later today.

billinghamn

Mon 11 Aug 2014 - Seattle – Spokane

Drive: 275 miles
Highlights: First Starbucks for this trip! (i.e. not expecting much today)

The melatonin pill didn’t do that much for me overnight – I managed to get to about 5am (i.e. 4 hours kip) before the jet lag headache I had, forced me to get up. Trying to avoid waking billinghamv meant that I was limited in what I could do, and how much noise I was allowed to make (!) Consequently I couldn’t find any Anadin and therefore I had to suffer in silence, until that is I managed to summon up the courage to make enough noise to wake up the wife.



So we officially woke up at 6am – I had managed to find my laptop so that I could at least update the blog whilst billinghamv had her last hour asleep. We both felt reasonably well rested, but we both had jet lag headaches, so that was the first job to address. Second job was for me to head downstairs at the Hampton to get some coffee and fresh milk which I accomplished successfully. That was enough to get the day moving and we started looking forward to our first day on the road.



Breakfast was ok – decent selection of cereals – scrambled eggs with an unusual smooth texture, and turkey sausages. Although not what we would choose for breakfast, it’s free and it delivers enough energy to get us to our first road stop of the day - Starbucks. This was all planned out in advance remember, so billinghamv had already assessed our options and had selected Ellensburg which had 3 Starbucks’ and this was about 100 miles from Seattle – about a third of the way to Spokane – our stop over for the night.

The road out of Seattle was really busy – as far as billinghamv is concerned we took the I90 all the way – as far as the blokes are concerned we had to take the I5 North then across on the I405 before joining the I90. It was an easy day for directions however much detail you include. It’s probably all we could have dealt with anyway. However getting on the road felt great – we always love being in the car driving in the US having nothing to worry about other than what time we will arrive at our first Starbucks stop.

We initially got caught up in the rush hour traffic heading in to Seattle. As soon as we turned on to the I90 heading away from Seattle things settled down. However it was fab that we could use the car pool lane up the I405 when there was a traffic jam in the main lanes. We need to have more car pool lanes in the UK!



It wasn’t long before we arrived at Ellensburg but of course we struggled to find the Starbucks – we used Google Maps Sat Nav directions on my phone, but my co-pilot couldn’t get us there, until we stopped on the main road through Ellensburg to review directions again, and we realised it was directly in front of us! Anyway we had our normal drinks, had a chat with one or two of the locals and then got back on the road.



By this stage it was already into the late 70s/early 80s and since we hadn’t done our pharmacy shop, that we would put the hood up and stick the air con on. We got back on the I90 and then started thinking about lunch. billinghamv picked out a place about half way between Ellensburg and Spokane – a place called Moses Lake – there we found a Safeway which had salads and take away Chinese (I was yearning for a Panda Express and Safeway was the closest thing I could find). We ate in the car with the engine on to keep us cool. The temperature was now in the late 90s.



We stopped at one elevated location with a nice view back of a bridge we had just crossed, and some horse figures stuck on top of a mountain – not sure what the point was, but looked pretty cool. Could have walked up, but we would have burned so decided to leave it to a few long zoom photos to prove we had visited.



The temperature eventually hit 104 degrees F at one point. It was hazy almost the entire day on the road so there’s not a great deal that you can take photos of and feel anywhere near satisfied with.

Reached the Hilton Garden Inn, Spokane Airport around 3pm, checked in and thought about going for a swim. It was an indoor pool and unfortunately was overrun with kids, so we decided it wasn’t worth the hassle. After a nap in our room, we started thinking about dinner - probably going to seek out Churchill Steakhouse in Spokane which has been recommended to us by a FT member.

Well dinner at Churchill's was magnificent - steak was beautiful, tasty and just hit the mark. Overall good value for money I would say. Started off with the lettuce wedge and I had a Top Sirloin Steak, medium, and it was done to perfection.





So top marks to my FlyerTalk recommendation! I also tried the Ninkasa Total Domination IPA from Eugene, which was also excellent.

mkjr

Typical prices but we often share one steak given the sizes. Depends on the state and sometimes the county as to zealousness towards speeding.

billinghamn

mkjr - great recommendation for dinner (Churchill's) - pictures and report updated above. If anyone has any recommendations for Kalispell - we would be interested to hear from you!

For our drive to Kalispell today Google Maps recommends we continue down the I90, turning off on to the MT-135W at exit 33, continuing on to the MT-200 E, MT-212 N and US-93 in Polson. It's about 240 miles today. Last Starbucks will be at Coeur d'Alene.

billinghamv

Thought I'd just add my contribution in here after a few days of holiday. And thanks mkjr for the Churchill's tip - my dinner doesn't get photographed (it's usually under demolition by the time billinghamn gets his camera working) but I had the chicken stuffed with goat's cheese and sun-dired tomatoes on a bed of spinach which was historic.

We just love these trips in the States so much. It's so relaxing, really getting away from all the hassle at work back in Blighty and we feel so at home here. Thanks, America