Holiday to Pacific West Coast in Jun 2012: Day 27 – Las Vegas to Seattle

By Nige on June 30, 2012 at 10:00 pm
Type: Post
Story: Holiday to Pacific West Coast in Jun 2012 Category: Travel
Tags: Alaska Airlines | Hilton | Las Vegas | Madame Tussauds | Rainforest Cafe | Seattle | Starbucks | Venetian

In some ways we are looking forward to getting back into a normal climate.  We have started to get used to the heat in Las Vegas over the past few days so we will have a bit of a shock when we get off the flight at 6:30pm tonight.

We are also starting to think about heading back home and getting back into some sort of normal routine.  The holiday has been fab (still got a few days to go).

Started the process of setting up a new company to move our consultancy work to – Pepper Planet Ltd.  The dot co dot uk domain has been secured and I submitted a bid to buy the dot com, but I don’t think the owner was too impressed with my $25 bid since he didn’t respond!

We started the day with our last swim at the Beach which was great and then we gave away “Jim” (our inflated tube) to a family with a lad who looked like he was about 10 years old.  We watched them get into the lazy river and do one lap.  They were very appreciative.  It feels great to do a good deed.

We had our breakfast buffet, which turned out to be brunch buffet since it was the weekend.  So that meant prime beef as part of breakfast.  Wowser…  what else can I say?

We hung around Starbucks for a while after checking out.  We just about fitted everything into bags and hand luggage.  But the key focus after that was Murray’s match against Baghdatis.  We were looking at the scores coming through the Wimbledon app, and Vick was listening to the commentary through the same app, but they were out of sync, so Vick was getting worked up that Murray had a break point, and I told her that he had already messed that up and it was deuce again!  Anyway good that he came through in the end.

The flight with Alaska airlines to Seattle was fine – nothing spectacular but no issues either.  Well executed flight.  We laughted at the number of categories of passengers that they asked to board the flight.  Firstly it was passengers who had children (as you would expect), then they had passengers who were only using the under seat space for luggage (the flight was full), then there was a call for military passengers, then there was the call for MVPs, and 75k executive club members, then we had other passengers who were in the back 20 rows.  Finally they reached our category, the Brits and other scum!  [Harsh but we laughed at that at the time]

It took no time to get through Seattle arrivals and baggage etc.  We took a taxi in and we had the most amazing evening in Seattle!  Our previous experience of Seattle was not brilliant, but it’s amazing how that can change so quickly.

The hotel we checked into was good – we are on the exec level and we have a good view.  The rooms are small, expected for a big city.  We asked for advice from the front desk and concierge for an Asian restaurant – they identified the Wild Ginger but from trying to book on the Internet they couldn’t get a reservation until 10pm.  As it happens we had tried the same at the airport.  Anyway we took a chance and turned up and they managed to fit us in.  What a tremendous restaurant and what a great decision.

It was the best meal we have had on our holiday, the best waiter we have had, and by far the best restuarant we have (probably) ever been to.  They have been in business for 23 years, it’s a big restaurant on multiple levels, and Jeremy, our waiter was really friendly and we had a great recommendation for a red Syrah.

The position of our table was on the Mezzanine floor, at the end of a platform overlooking the tables below.  Wow!  The food was tremendous.  Quite often the main dishes aren’t as good as the starters, but in this case the main courses were brilliant.

We gave Jeremy a big fat tip, and we all shook hands about 3 times.  It was all great.  And the weather wasn’t anywhere near as cold as we expected either!

End of a brilliant day/evening.  Looking forward to a trip around Seattle tomorrow now.

Stats for Day 27: 10 miles.

Plan for tomorrow is to check out Seattle.  Thinking about Pike Place, Pike Market etc.

Holiday to Pacific West Coast in Jun 2012