Seattle

This month has been a busy one.  Scott is away on his 4th business trip in a month (he's in Alaska this week).  The third trip in the line up, was a two day trip to Seattle.  A long time ago, Scott volunteered to be bumped from a full flight, and received an airline credit.  We were going to use that credit to take a little trip somewhere together.  But, we'd never used it, and it was going to expire this month.  So Scott checked prices of a ticket to Seattle, and it was the same price as our credit.  So, we asked my parents to come stay with the kids, and I went to Seattle with him for two days.

But a few days before the trip, I came down with a horrible cold.  I was miserable.  I thought about canceling, but decided that getting away and resting might help me feel better.

So last Wednesday morning, I left the house at 5 in the morning, going on 3 1/2 hours of sleep, and hopped on a plane to Seattle with my husband.  The flight was miserable.  My cold kept my ears from equalizing pressure, and by the time we landed, I had fluid built up behind my left ear.  I couldn't hear anything, and my ears hurt like crazy.  Scott had 3 other work sales people with him, so I really felt out of place and like a pathetic tag-along.

We got in a taxi, which dropped us off at this building (downtown Bellevue).  This is where Scott would spend the next two days in training meetings for Gallagher.  We arrived at the building, and Scott kissed me goodbye and headed right into meetings.  So there I was at 8 in the morning, in a strange city, on foot, miserably sick, and not able to check into my hotel till later in the day.  I cried and wished I'd stayed home with my sweet kids.

I walked down to where my hotel was, so I would know where it was.  There was a tiny park across the street, so I walked over to sit on a bench.  The bench was damp and covered in moss, so I couldn't stay there.  So I pulled up a map on my cell phone, and decided to suck it up and make the best of things.   I walked down to the city park, and walked around a bit.  Then decided to make my way down to the water.  There was a little park and a small beach.  I sat at the water's edge and tried to enjoy the scenery.  It was beautiful, but I was so sick, that I had a hard time really enjoying it.  I still just wanted to go home.  The sun was covered in fog, and the day was grey and gloomy.

Finally I picked myself up and started the long walk back.  At last the sun came out.

 I'd been walking around for 4 hours, and I really did not feel well.  I stopped at Scott's building at noon, and he came out to share his lunch with me.  He called the hotel, and learned that they had a room ready for me, so I could go check in.  I walked down to the hotel, and checked into my room just before one.  I climbed into bed, and fell asleep.  For four hours.  When I woke up, I was happy to discover that the fluid behind my ear drum had drained away, and I was feeling much better.

Scott finished with meetings, and came to the hotel to get me for dinner.  All the sales guys that were there for training (about a dozen of them) were headed to dinner, and had invited me to come along.  I won't lie, it was awkward.  Me and a bunch of insurance guys, talking business over dinner.  I still didn't feel my best, and didn't really want to worry about making a good impression.  But dinner was yummy, and it was paid for by the company, so free food isn't all bad.

After dinner, I made Scott come walking with me back down to the water's edge.  We got there just in time to see the sun set.

The next morning, Scott left early to head to meetings, and I slept in.  I arranged with the hotel to have a late checkout.  Normal checkout was noon, but they said I could stay till 2.  I got up at 10, and headed out to explore, feeling much more happy than I had felt the day before.  I had looked up must see places the night before, and had read about some botanical gardens on the other side of town, that had free entrance.  So I pulled up the map on my phone, and headed out across the town of Bellevue.  It took about 40 minutes to get there, but was worth every minute.  It was gorgeous and so peaceful.

  

Then I started the long walk back.

I got back to my hotel, and showered and packed up.  I checked out of the hotel, and decided to give the big shopping mall a try.  But, I'm really not a shopper, so I ended up just going back to Scott's building, and sitting out on the back patio for about an hour till he finished with his meetings.  We weren't supposed to fly out till 9:30 that night, but his meetings got done early, so we moved to an earlier flight.  He came out from meetings, we hopped in a taxi, and headed to the airport to make a 6:00 flight.  I enjoyed my second day much better than my first, but was still very happy to be headed home.

The flight home was just as bad as the first on my ears, and even resulted in a burst ear drum.  I came home feeling miserable still, but grateful for the opportunity to see a new city.