Days 21, 22 and 23

Time to go home

I'll make this quick! Nobody likes going home!

We were checked out of the Silver Cloud by 11:00,

but we had plenty of time to spare before our flight, so we drove firstly down to the Qwest Field Stadium and Safeco Field, where we parked up and had a look around the shops. Paul bought (or, rather, we bought) a Seahawks shirt - but there was no sign of Sounders merchandise! Not in the Qwest Stadium shop, nor in a couple of other sports shops we looked around! Apparently, nobody, but the Sounders, holds the franchise, so they sell their stuff from carts - but only at the games. Bummer! I was allowed to take home a poster, taken down from the door of one of the shops though - thanks to that guy, for the souvenir!

sculpture of rock

We didn't know where to go then, but we left the city and drove towards Tacoma (The Mountain was very visible today!). We first stopped at Des Moines for some lunch. Got a stuffed Captain Jack Sparrow from a kiddies meal at the McDonalds (didn't want the meal!!) and had coffee in the Starbucks there. Then we drove down to Saltwater State Park, by the shore, which we hadn't known was there, but was a lovely place to spend our remaining time before driving to the airport.

At SeaTac airport, we returned the car, unloaded all our stuff and traipsed over to the departure place to check in our luggage. Then we went downstairs for a while (arrivals), because that was the only place you were allowed to smoke (outside) in the whole airport area! Finally, we went through all the paraphernalia of X-rays and such (hub was stopped because of his belt buckle and they confiscated his lighter!), before waiting for our flight and taking off and flying over the place we'd just been!

Ladies toilets!











Mt Rainier above the clouds

The flight was OK. A little turbulence, awful food and that 'night time' ritual of having to keep the window blinds down for the entire flight. I hate that. On landing at Heathrow, we had to walk, seemingly MILES, to get our luggage, go through immigration, customs and all that - and then we had to wait AGES outside the airport, waiting for our taxi!

The Heathrow Marriott was fine. Probably I preferred it (slightly) to the Sheraton. Our room was nice (with a view over the runway!) - the beds were the most comfy ever - but the rollout was very dodgy! The executive lounge provided us with some snacks (though I was starving by bed time!) and we just hung around, really - waiting for a sensible time to go to sleep.

Next day we just drove home.

A WONDERFUL trip! Lots of MARVELLOUS experiences! Lots of BEAUTIFUL places! Lots of FABULOUS memories!

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[ Introduction ] [ Day 1 ] [ Day 2 ] [ Day 3 ] [ Day 4 ] [ Day 5 ] [ Day 6 ] [ Day 7 ] [ Day 8 ] [ Day 9 ]
[ Day 10 ] [ Day 11 ] [ Day 12 ] [ Day 13 ] [ Day 14 ] [ Day 15 ] [ Day 16 ] [ Day 17 ]
[ Day 18 ] [ Day 19 ] [ Day 20 ] [ Day 21 ]

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