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a&w, airport, alaska airlines, b-line, breakfast, bustling, carollers, carry-on, checking-in, christmas, christmas eve, commercial, cookie, customs, dinner, dollars, entertainers, exercise, extravagance, fairmont, fairmont hotel, flying wedge, food, hamburgers, hawaii, hot tub, hotel, jet, juice, long-term, luggage, morning, n gate, ocean, parking, piano, plane, quartet, river, sauna, seatac, seattle, shuttle, sleep extravagant, snack, snooze, snored, spa, splurge, suitcase, taxi flight, train, unicycle, vancouver international airport, vancovuer, wake-up, water, yvr
It’s off to Hawaii we go for Christmas and it is a very early start. This is our first time and it has taken us weeks to decide just how to begin our trip. There were several choices. The first leg of the journey would be to actually get to the airport. Several options were considered, including driving to the airport and parking in one of two long-term parking lots. Other possibilities would involve asking someone to drive us, or taking a taxi. We had a notion, since the main flight would be leaving from Seattle, that a drive south and an overnight stay might be nice. Then there was the big splurge, the one my sister recommended. It was an expensive idea that made us cringe a bit, because we would stay at the Fairmont Hotel at the Airport. With check-in at three in the afternoon and our wake-up call at three the next morning, it seemed like two hundred dollars for 12 hours, most of it trying to sleep, was extravagant.
A splurge of extravagance was it. We drove to the YVR (Vancouver International Airport) Long-term Parking and took the shuttle to the Fairmont. We had borrowed carry-on luggage with wheels and only one of us had a suitcase that would require checking-in. Once at the Hotel, the rest of the family went exploring dinner options and I made a B-line for the spa. I enjoyed the hot tub and sauna and had some interesting exercise in the swimming pool. When I say swimming pool, I mean you swim against a jet stream of water, sort of like swimming up a river.
For dinner, we ended up sharing A&W hamburgers, because my son was craving it and then went to the Flying Wedge. We then attempted to sleep and found it a difficult prospect. I was told I snored, but, I felt I was awake all night.
So, here we are, half way across the ocean to Hawaii and we are tired. We got up at three in the morning, went through customs, and then took off at 6:20 AM for the short hop to Seattle. We had to wait couple of hours, not to mention, a long walk and train ride to N Gate. Along the way we had some breakfast and bought some food to take on the plane. The SeaTac Airport on Christmas Eve, was bustling. At breakfast, we had live piano playing. As we walked, we saw entertainers, including a guy on a unicycle and a quartet of carollers, just to mention a couple. Now that we have finished our food and we are about half way through the trip across the water, I think I will try to have another snooze.
Here is a bit of a commercial. I should say a bit about Alaska Airlines. Not only do they seem to be everywhere at the SeaTac Airport, but, the flight has been really good with several servings of water and juice and even cookie and a little snack pack. At SeaTac, Alaska Air is everywhere.
