Continued below:
Entering The USA:
Scenic drive south:
I stopped at Alderwood Mall on the way up and Premium Outlets on the way back. The latter was a disappointment I thought with not that much Premium stuff, especially compared to the Woodbury Common outlet where one can find real bargains on high-end stuff.
In Seattle I would be staying at the only proper IHG hotel in Down Town which was the CP, arriving Friday afternoon for 3 nights. This would clear my 3 city stay for the promo. Hotel was ok but nothing special with a little dated rooms. Reception claimed I was given an upgrade, but I had already booked and exec. room and this also appeared exec. But they claimed the upgrade was to a higher floor... I swapped rooms after 1 night as it was rather noisy. Both rooms had nice views but the second room a better one.
First room view towards south east. That highway was busy 24/7 and a parking lot each morning and afternoon. SEA has some serious traffic...
Friday evening a large group of FT mods met up for drinks and dinner.
Saturday was spent at the Renaissance Hotel for the Mod DO which was as productive as ever. The Raffle is great fun with Airlines and Hotels raffling out lifetime elite statuses.... (actually not, rather we raffle out gifts from our countries).
Post Mod Do it was time for a quick shower and preparations for the evenings dinner. Great seafood place in Down Town Sea, with a few of the mods already walking sideways from pre-drinks at the Hyatt.
IB are a kind bunch and invite all mods for dinner as a thank you for us volunteering and travelling from all over the world to the do.
It was a sight to behold one certain mod hitting on one of the IB folks fiancee (truth be told, she's smokin!).
Another classic was that there was plenty of unused drinks tickets and in true Frequent Flyer fashion the bargaining with the waiters began.
"What is the cash value of a ticket?"
"X dollars, sir"
"Ok great. So a bottle of DP2004 is XXX dollars, and here I happen to have XXX dollars in Tickets."
"I'll get you a bottle of DP2004, sir".
After 5 minutes folks at another table spotted the DP and hastily inquired what has happened. I explained the procurement procedure and within 30 seconds people where running around looking and asking for unused tickets...
Sunday was spent shopping but also a second trip up to Everett. I had already been on a VIP tour in 2012 for a delivery flight as mentioned previously, but fellow mod ZOL had not been at all. So we steered the rental up north. The public tour is nice, but does obviously not compare to the VIP tours at all. First of all, in the VIP tour one is actually walking on the factory floors and cameras are allowed. Public tour is limited at the Balconies and no cameras. But still worth it of course!
Boeing:
We stopped by Bellevue Square on the way back for shopping, before heading back to Seattle. The evening was spent driving around before going up the Space Needle.
View from second room, rather nice.
Monday and last day some more shopping and an epic Cheesecake Factory sallad, while ZOL had a massive steak.
Time was finally running out and it would soon be time to head back East and the Nordics. My fellow BAEC mod LTN-Phobia was on the same BA flight back to London, and actually both of us on the UD of the 747. Coming up in the next part.