michelel72 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
michelel72) wrote2010-09-16 12:21 am
michelel72) wrote2010-09-16 12:21 am
Entry tags:
Notes from the road: 14th and 15th September
14th, Seattle:
It helps to tell the person you're meeting the time your plane actually lands, not the time it leaves the transfer city, as your meeting time.
Seattle's tram announces that the doors will open on "my" right/left, not "your" right/left. It's disconcerting, yet fun.
We passed Safeco Field during the 9th inning, give or take, according to the Sox fan who boarded along with several dozen other folks at that tram station. I wanted to yell "Hi Don and Remy!!", but I was pretty sure they wouldn't hear me.
We could have walked from the tram to the hotel, if I'd had a more detailed map, but I'm glad we took a taxi.
I got to see about two half-innings in the lounge where we got dinner. (Everything they had at that hour was vegetarian! And the nachos were quite tasty! And the music, which I think was the bartender's personal mix, was fantastic! Don't remember the name, but they're attached to the Holiday Inn Dexter North.) Because my DVR went wonky, that's more than my cat-and-house-sitter got to see.
15th, Seattle:
The Holiday Inn on Dexter North is fine for a one-night stay ... except for the VERY! LOUD! BANGS! that commenced at about 7am, randomly. It sounded as though someone upstairs was bowling.
The 2010-and-later Prius is just different enough from the 2004 to keep me confused. Including the way the headlights don't turn off automatically when the driver's door opens, dammit.
Unfortunately, one thing that hasn't changed is that their seats are designed with the assumption that humans sit with their backs bowed and heads tipped forward to look like turtles; that position triggers hideous headaches for me, no matter how hard I try to sit straight with my back away from the seat. Both planes had seats shaped just the same. I am not a turtle, dammit!
Serious props to Alamo for making it possible to reserve a hybrid online and actually get one, though.
Shame my reservation vanished between completion and printing, and stayed vanished, so that the two clerks had to swap — though it was nicely convenient that my original agent spoke German and so was better able to handle the other agent's customers, who spoke English quite well but sounded much more comfortable in German.
The Garmin GPS my mother brought is a finicky little thing.
The Whole Foods on Westlake at Denny is huge, OMG.
Obeying the speed limit when driving a rental car seems wise, and I went with that plan. Wow, 60mph seems so painfully slow!
A stretch of I5 north of Seattle is maintained by "LARC NUDISTS"? ... all righty, then.
Damn are some stretches of the drive to the border beautiful.
15th, Vancouver:
Why is it that, no matter what the terrain south of the border or where I cross, Canada is flat-flat farmland just north of the border?
I really, really miss my integrated navigation system. I don't have any kind of feel for where I am with the Garmin handheld.
The Cascadia is quite nice. Very pretty interior, posh appearance — and zero-waste certification FTW! (Though the pool closure is disappointing.)
We get a balcony. There's no screen for the sliding door, at all; that happens all the time on TV, since most scriptwriters are West-Coasters, but as an East-Coaster, I find that weird and unnerving. Mosquitoes!! Moths!! Weird creepy little jumping bugs!! (How is there no night insect life here?)
Stanley Park is huge and cool, based on a very brief drive through one corner of it. To be explored.
I noticed this a few years ago in one grocery store in Toronto, and now again here in Vancouver — the selection within a product category is much, much narrower than at my typical Stop & Shop or even Roche Bros. It's not quite as restrictive as a convenience store, but is that typical of all Canadian grocery stores (compared to US ones)?
The problem with sharing a hotel room is that you can't really refuse to let the other person watch a show without seeming churlish, so you have to sit through time-filler dreck like the finale of "America's Got Talent". Even if you're able to spoil the other person (with their active consent) regarding the "winner", what with the West Coast broadcast delay. Make the awful people go away, please.
Of course, you can miss some of that by insisting you want to go pick up something local rather than resorting to Subway, which you can get at home.
I like The Dish on Davie. Mom likes their ham and cheese sandwich, and I'm loving their veggie lasagna. Even though it has (I suspect) eggplant. It's really, really good. Probably the best I've ever had.
And on the upside, while the damn streeeeeeetched-out show is still going, Canada has the best commercials ever. Chair Pants! Food Lift!
It helps to tell the person you're meeting the time your plane actually lands, not the time it leaves the transfer city, as your meeting time.
Seattle's tram announces that the doors will open on "my" right/left, not "your" right/left. It's disconcerting, yet fun.
We passed Safeco Field during the 9th inning, give or take, according to the Sox fan who boarded along with several dozen other folks at that tram station. I wanted to yell "Hi Don and Remy!!", but I was pretty sure they wouldn't hear me.
We could have walked from the tram to the hotel, if I'd had a more detailed map, but I'm glad we took a taxi.
I got to see about two half-innings in the lounge where we got dinner. (Everything they had at that hour was vegetarian! And the nachos were quite tasty! And the music, which I think was the bartender's personal mix, was fantastic! Don't remember the name, but they're attached to the Holiday Inn Dexter North.) Because my DVR went wonky, that's more than my cat-and-house-sitter got to see.
15th, Seattle:
The Holiday Inn on Dexter North is fine for a one-night stay ... except for the VERY! LOUD! BANGS! that commenced at about 7am, randomly. It sounded as though someone upstairs was bowling.
The 2010-and-later Prius is just different enough from the 2004 to keep me confused. Including the way the headlights don't turn off automatically when the driver's door opens, dammit.
Unfortunately, one thing that hasn't changed is that their seats are designed with the assumption that humans sit with their backs bowed and heads tipped forward to look like turtles; that position triggers hideous headaches for me, no matter how hard I try to sit straight with my back away from the seat. Both planes had seats shaped just the same. I am not a turtle, dammit!
Serious props to Alamo for making it possible to reserve a hybrid online and actually get one, though.
Shame my reservation vanished between completion and printing, and stayed vanished, so that the two clerks had to swap — though it was nicely convenient that my original agent spoke German and so was better able to handle the other agent's customers, who spoke English quite well but sounded much more comfortable in German.
The Garmin GPS my mother brought is a finicky little thing.
The Whole Foods on Westlake at Denny is huge, OMG.
Obeying the speed limit when driving a rental car seems wise, and I went with that plan. Wow, 60mph seems so painfully slow!
A stretch of I5 north of Seattle is maintained by "LARC NUDISTS"? ... all righty, then.
Damn are some stretches of the drive to the border beautiful.
15th, Vancouver:
Why is it that, no matter what the terrain south of the border or where I cross, Canada is flat-flat farmland just north of the border?
I really, really miss my integrated navigation system. I don't have any kind of feel for where I am with the Garmin handheld.
The Cascadia is quite nice. Very pretty interior, posh appearance — and zero-waste certification FTW! (Though the pool closure is disappointing.)
We get a balcony. There's no screen for the sliding door, at all; that happens all the time on TV, since most scriptwriters are West-Coasters, but as an East-Coaster, I find that weird and unnerving. Mosquitoes!! Moths!! Weird creepy little jumping bugs!! (How is there no night insect life here?)
Stanley Park is huge and cool, based on a very brief drive through one corner of it. To be explored.
I noticed this a few years ago in one grocery store in Toronto, and now again here in Vancouver — the selection within a product category is much, much narrower than at my typical Stop & Shop or even Roche Bros. It's not quite as restrictive as a convenience store, but is that typical of all Canadian grocery stores (compared to US ones)?
The problem with sharing a hotel room is that you can't really refuse to let the other person watch a show without seeming churlish, so you have to sit through time-filler dreck like the finale of "America's Got Talent". Even if you're able to spoil the other person (with their active consent) regarding the "winner", what with the West Coast broadcast delay. Make the awful people go away, please.
Of course, you can miss some of that by insisting you want to go pick up something local rather than resorting to Subway, which you can get at home.
I like The Dish on Davie. Mom likes their ham and cheese sandwich, and I'm loving their veggie lasagna. Even though it has (I suspect) eggplant. It's really, really good. Probably the best I've ever had.
And on the upside, while the damn streeeeeeetched-out show is still going, Canada has the best commercials ever. Chair Pants! Food Lift!