I was bound and determined to make it to a SEA-Do sometime before SEA-Do IX so I managed to block a weekend out on my calendar as soon as the dates for this year's soiree were announced.

Ticket prices from DFW-SEA, however, traditionally run very high in the summers, so when a one-day fare sale ran in June, I quickly booked a good fare and twisted PeachesBB into booking too, despite the fact that neither of us usually knows our schedule that far in advance. Peachy redeemed a bump voucher which made her ticket a whopping $6 and change and I then decided to use my second Free Friday/Saturday from Starwood at the W Seattle, so we were set for inexpensive travel plans to Seattle.

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Friday, August 16

After two or three insane weeks at work, I decided we deserved a day off so I called the EXP desk on Thursday and convinced them to move us from the oversold 4:00 pm flight to the 7:55 am flight without a change penalty so that we could have a full extra day in SEA to play. Of course, sleep is always at a premium for me and so I dialed into telephone check-in as soon as the alarm went off and then hit the snooze bar... once, twice, three times. As the alarm dinged the first time, I realized I was still not fully packed and now running at exactly one hour to boarding time.

Fortunately, I can pack in the dark. I threw my jeans and top on and, after a moments consideration, threw my usual sandals in the suitcase and laced up my trail runners. Although with telephone check-in, I've been able to return to my pre-9/11 habits and roll up to the gate at T-minus eleven minutes to departure, I decided I might be pushing it today, so I drove directly to the airport ($16/day parking vs. $7 offsite) and grabbed a garage spot at Terminal C. I breezed through security and walked up to find Peachy sitting on top of her rollaboard taking a catnap.

Boarding commenced as soon as I arrived and we took our aisle/window seats in the exit row, grabbing our Bistro Bags on the jetbridge. (Yes, boys and girls, I flew coach, as Miss Peachy is hoarding her earned upgrades for the second coming...) All in all, it wasn't bad - we had the center seat blocked - apparently one of about three empty seats on the flight. She dug into her Bistro meal as soon as we sat down - Wheaties, bagel, cream cheese, raisins, (and NO oj or bottled water ) and then settled in for a nap while I read and worked on my laptop. Our flying time was a quick four-ish hours and we landed at SEA-TAC only about twenty minutes late.

I had talked to newself the night before about sharing a ride to the W. Missy was generous enough to come pick him up, so while he was retreiving his checked (!!!) rollaboard from baggage claim, I rang Missy and asked "Where's the Eskimo?!" Of course, Peachy and I seem to have a history that whenever we are BOTH in SEA that we end up seeing Missy at the airport. So our foursome headed into the city and planned our day. Newself hadn't planned for the Boeing Tour either, so we figured we would go grab lunch and do some shopping instead. Missy taught us the naming rules for downtown streets (1,2,3, and JJ,CC,SS,UU,PP - best remembered as "Jesus Created Seattle Under Protest") and turned us loose at the entrance of the W.

Newself's room was ready but ours wasn't, so we checked our bags with the bellhop and waited for him to drop his off. While waiting, markbach wandered down to the lobby and agreed to join us for lunch. We ended up across the street at Sazarec where we enjoyed a lovely cajun fusion lunch (Mark got to try his first oysters - caviar topped local beauties) and yummy desserts. Mark bolted to go join the Boeing gang and the three of us took off towards Nordstroms and other downtown shops. Peaches managed to snag some new fall duds and we were soon ready for a nap, so we all headed back to the W where our room was ready. Our room was nothing special although we were on a "preferred" floor. I wasn't expecting an upgrade since we had booked two doubles, but we weren't too disappointed with the view.

After a refreshing two or three hour nap, we decided to get ready to head downstairs for some cocktails in the lobby. Several folks were arriving at the W at various times from their flights, so we had all agreed to just hang out there so we could have a central meeting spot. Peaches and I were joined by mashav, BingoSF, and smooth. Later, Beckles, AusTXHiker, mjm,and I012... joined us as well.

We were all getting slightly hungry so we headed over to Andaluca for what were billed as tapas. While it didn't meet the usual tapas criteria, our tensome (as we were joined by ClueByFour) sampled some nice wines and enjoyed catching up on what had gone on since the last time we had all been together at various Do's.

Post dinner, we headed back to the W to figure out where to head next. A group was assembling in Pioneer Square and the baseball group was supposed to be rejoining folks. We debated heading down there but then chexfan called and said he was coming to meet us at the W so we grabbed a table there to wait. After he arrived, markbach and newself arrived from the game and so we ended up staying put. I headed up to bed pretty early but understand from Peaches who stayed later that several more folks showed up at the W.

Saturday, August 17

Some of us are early risers no matter what time zone we are in. This morning, I was fortunate that Peaches was in a rare early rise mode as well. (Gee, if I could have PREDICTED this, I would have been aboard the boat , but "oh well"!) I got Day One of the trip report posted while she was in the shower and then we decided that we were hungry. Really hungry.

One of the things about FT events is that there is a rare group of folks who actually rise early when there isn't a good reason to do so (like catching an ungodly early flight, going sailing, or drinking beer in an RV). We knew at least one person, however, would be up for a hearty breakfast, so we woke Beckles. Twenty minutes later, he joined us at the W and we got directions for where to go get a "good greasy breakfast".

We headed down to the Market to a lovely bar and grill where we had a lovely window overlooking the flower stands and the fish throwers. Eggs, smoked salmon, biscuits, and home fries later, we had enough energy to do some wandering in the Market. (Actually, first stop was Sneaker World to buy The Peach a pair of shoes without heels! ) Around 10 am, my cell phone started ringing as folks began calling to find out what we were doing for the afternoon. We pow-wowed for a second and then called everyone back to let them know to meet at the W at noon dressed to explore. We continued wandering the Market and Beckles left to go to the Hyatt to see what his new suite looked like.

By noon, we had hiked the hills back to the W where I012..., Beckles, markbach, ClueByFour, and BingoSF were waiting. We piled into two rental cars and headed for the RedHook. We pulled up just in time to see the Fan O Chex heading in for the 1:00 pm tour. We stayed back in the restaurant and had some munchies (and some folks had a nap) while waiting on the 2:00 pm tour. While we were eating, the Missy Van arrived so we had more FTers to play with. We were fortunate that chexy chose to do the 2:00 pm tour as well. He was able to fill in a few gaps for the tour guide and made sure we all got our fair allotment of brew. When we got done, we headed back out to the restaurant to socialize and found that baraboodish and her husband had stopped by to have lunch, so everyone stayed another 45 minutes or so and enjoyed more fine RedHook products.

3:00 meant naptime for some, so we headed back. Beckles, I012..., markbach, and I decided to stay in the W lobby for drinks and a snack and AusTXHiker came down to join us. We girls eventually headed upstairs to get ready for dinner and around 7, everyone headed over to the Desert Fire.

The Desert Fire dinner coordinated by Missy was wonderful. We had a huge balcony at Pacific Place, great food, and lots of margaritas. I won't even try to mention all the names of folks here, but I got to catch up with lots of old friends and meet several new ones. I only regret that I didn't get to talk to more people... I tend to be a "sitter" so I never made it around to a lot of the folks at other tables or standing inside. I did finally get to meet dhammer53 and also got to talk with a fellow Tech-Ex. Freddie Jr. was successfully passed on to Spiff who will be escorting him to Denver before they both rejoin me in ORD for the transpac leg of the September SIN trip. Missy did a wonderful job pulling off a classy evening that was enjoyed by all!

After the Desert Fire folks decided to kick us out, we led a mass procession of folks to Kells. I think we slightly shocked our poor waitress when a clump of about twenty folks walked in and immediately pulled together every table in her section. She managed to get our drink order (and snap a couple of group photos) when the SECOND wave of FTers came flying through the door. It was pretty loud inside, however, so this group said their hellos and most ended up back on the patio.

As I turn into a pumpkin at midnight, Peachy and I started saying our goodbyes just as chexfan arrived. We managed to stick around a few more minutes but made it out to the patio to collect markbach just as a yellow cab magically appeared to whisk us away to sleep!

I am sooooooooo�� jealous (but I had my side-car yesterday = Saturday evening at Interlaken and did a toast to all of you).

Chexfan was at this dooooo....????!!!!!!!!!

Is this one of those "rhetorical" questions?

Great report Techgirl, was extremely p'd off that I wasn't able to be there

Fantastic report! Sorry I couldn't get my act together and get to the SeaDoo. Can't wait for SIN though, should be a blast!

Great report TG!!

...but it's MADE..Jesus MADE Seattle, there are no "C" streets

Funny ... one of the first things I learned (from a bus driver, who offered it as a way for me to remember the order of streets) when I moved here was:

"Jesus Christ Made Seattle Under Protest."

There are two streets (from south to north) that start with the initials of each word in that phrase: Jefferson, James, Cherry, Columbia, Marion, Madison, Spring, Seneca, University, Union, Pike, Pine.

ok so there ARE C streets. But they're really lame ..no cool people go there

And to think that neither Peaches nor I had started drinking when Missy taught us this!

Duly noted. Since I sometimes catch the #60 bus on 9th Ave and Columbia Street, I guess I know where I stand!

Sunday, August 18

We woke up way too early AGAIN, although we both managed to sleep about 90 minutes later than we did on Saturday. We were hungry and fudge wasn't going to cut it for breakfast, so The Pike Place Bar & Grill was calling our name again. We checked out (only about $100 in damage since we didn't touch room service OR the minibar all weekend!) and left our bags with the bell desk.

The walk to the Market was brisk as it was quite nippy out at that hour. Our first stop was to look for the Pig (aka Rachel the lifesized piggy bank) since Peaches had been unsuccessful in locating it on Saturday. We found her right in front of the fish throwers so we decided to gawk like tourists and snap a few photos.

Breakfast was quick - we were most decidedly starving... french toast and piggy products (sorry Rachel!) and caffeine. Reenergized, we headed down to the piers to meet up with Hunki on the boat. He was already playing host to ozstamps, Joh, AnnaS, markbach, and mjm so we joined them aboard for mimosas (and other delights) and enjoyed some great talk about travel to all points far and exotic.

When it was time for brunch, we headed towards Anthony's with the rest of the crew, but since we weren't at all hungry, we said our goodbyes and gave lots of hugs before heading back to the Market to poke around some of the interesting shops along the stairsteps, among them a parrot haven and several kiosks of an international flavor.

We wandered around downtown a bit more before deciding to head to the airport a bit early since Peaches somehow caught the FT fever over the weekend and decided that she might like to either UPGRADE or BUMP off our oversold flight. All upgrades at this late hour, however, had moved to airport control, so we decided the Admirals Club would be a good place to sit and wait since it is spacious and even has a nice shower facility.

Alas, our flight had no upgrades available but the agent was nice enough to move us to a slightly earlier flight where we could upgrade. That flight was delayed, however, so we still had a long wait (and would only get home about 45 minutes earlier). Nonetheless, greed got the best of us, so we upgraded.

Our flight home was on a TWA 757 complete with a TWA crew (in AA uniforms with TW id badges) and a TWA safety video. Imagine our "shock" when we were welcomed aboard TWA and watched a nice video with shots of the old livery! (I wish they would just get this darned transition over with already!)

I do believe we got one of those senior crews that had not yet been instructed on how to do AA's F meal service. Drinks were not exactly free-flowing (although Peachy seemed most delighted with her "tan" Russians) and the service was spotty. Hot towels were handed out with hands (not tongs) directly out of their plastic heating tray) and dinner was served all on one tray. The FAs didn't come around to offer wine once. I was truly disappointed that it seems that the TW flights are still being catered separately... I know from three weeks ago that the flight that went out fifteen minutes after us to DFW from the next gate would have had a nice three-course meal service. (A word to AA... FIX THIS soon if you want to keep your service levels differentiated!)

We arrived into DFW around 9 and I said farewell to Peachy for the week and headed off on the TrAAin to find my car, head home for eleven hours, and repack for a week in PA.

And here are the photos. (I can't believe I beat markbach for once!)

They still need captions... or feel free to suggest some with the comment feature.

http://photos.markbach.com/gallery/album01

Jen, great trip report as usual!

Linda