Seattle / train

Got up extra early and didn't get much sleep. I haven't been able to sleep much during this trip. Took turns with A to eat breakfast to maximize efficiency. I was surprised to see the breakfast room quite busy. There seemed to be at least one tour. Time was short and didn't get to eat any self-serve Belgium waffles. I was completely stoned and had no sense of time. Just tried to eat my food fast, but still too slow. Thanks A for coming to fetch me. We checked out and took 7:30 shuttle to airport.

A paid an extra fee to upgrade us to "more leg room" seats. It was those right in front of the wing emergency exit. I thought we would be facing a wall, but noooo. It was just normal rolls of seats. The emergency exit was small. (It was a 737.) However, we did have more leg room than regular seats. Same as last time, only drinks were included. Food was extra. We ate the turkey wrap bought at the airport as lunch.

When we arrived at the Seattle airport, it was raining and quite cold. We came from 29 degrees back to 14 degrees. Kind of depressing. To the train station, we took the light rail. It was new, clean, comfortable, cheap, fast and convenient. The next train back home was at 6:50. We had a few hours to kill. It was nice to be able to hold our carry-ons at the train station (for $6). Then we realized (at least some) buses to downtown are free, and took advantage of them. I, on the other hand, was very surprised and impressed to see those buses actually run on the light rail tracks. The tracks are sunk, so the road can be used by other vehicles.

It was too cold. We weren't dressed warm enough, so we went into malls. Nordstrom, and Macy's. I tried on a dress I regretted not trying on in NY. Too bad it didn't look good at all. (T_T) A bought a bottle of wine, and I got some last minute shopping done. Finally bought a pepper mill to replace our broken one at home, and some toner at Body Shop. That was one of my higher priority wishes but no luck until now. I'm glad I got that done.

Had both lunch and dinner at Specially's Cafe near the train station. After NY's $9 sandwiches, these $6 ones felt like the deal of the century. Quality was excellent too. A really liked their coffee.

There was a group of low-teens in funny balloon headdresses boarding our train. Some of them were wearing leis too. A speculated that they might have come back from a Hawaii field trip or something.

Thank God the train had internet. I was able to keep in touch with brother. He was super nice and offered to pick me up from the station despite my arrival would be after 11pm. I was going to share a cap with A, but he had a good point: to save mom from worrying too much. Yes she does that a lot.

Our train was slightly delayed because of "having to wait for another train to pass". After arrival, we could not get off for a good 20 minutes (maybe more). The staff were unloading all the luggage first before letting anyone off... and as far as I could see, they had only 2 people! Finally, we went through custom, and our trip was officially over. Brother came, and I parted with A. It was almost midnight when I actually arrived home.