Sleepy in Seattle

Call the technicians!!
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Today we set off on our trip with a flight from Brisbane to Sydney. This flight was delayed for 30 mins, getting us to Sydney just in time for boarding of our flight to LA. Luckily this flight too was delayed as the plane had just returned with our athletes from Beijing and apparently there was a lot of partying going on.

We arrived in the pointy end of the plane to find that my seatbelt was jammed and a technician was called. After pulling apart my seat and unscrewind stuff it was finally unjammed. I spent this time fruitfully, drinking yet another glass of champagne!!

Lets get this 40th Party started!!

The flight to LA was a little bumpy and I did not get much extended sleep. The food was fantastic - I started on an 8 course tasting menu, but could only manage to fit in five.

On arrival at LA we had to change terminals so it was a short walk across there. This wouldn't have been too bad if we didn't have to haul our luggage with us. After re-checking into our Alaskan Air flight, the next challange was to find their lounge. These are not signed, so we wandered aimlessly for a while till we found a map which told us where the "secret stairs" were to access the secure door into the lounge. Why is it that no lounges ever have seats that are comfortable to sit in for hours at a time.

The flight to Seattle was smooth and luckily uneventful. We had another long walk to locate a shuttle to our hotel, and upon arrival, was upgraded to the "Music Room" suite, which has music paraphanalia throughout.

We asked the concierge where some tired travellers might get a light bite to eat at a good nearby eatery. He suggested french cafe called Presse and drove us there which was a couple of minutes away. This place was jam packed with people and after a 15min wait we were seated (better than the 45min quoted to the people behind us). We had a nice dinner then decided to wander back to the hotel ourselves in the light drizzly rain.

Tomorrow marks the start of my birthday celebrations. When I wake up it will just be entering the 28th at home and a good excuse to get the party started!!!