6/4/02 10:31 PM Pacific

Well since writing my last bit on the plane quite a bit has happened (just as you would expect it to). The rest of our flight to Seattle was smooth and easy, though long. We both napped and woke with sore necks. Somewhere over Montana the clouds finally broke up and we began to see some mountains, which was very exciting. A bit later on we found out that we would be landing in a little over 30 minutes and then the Cascades appeared beneath us. They were beautiful and majestic and gorgeous and I want to live in sight of them in the worst way. Then they were behind us and we began to see the cities and towns of western Washington, building up to Seattle. As we made a wide turn over the city to head in to the airport (to the South) we got to see the Space Needle and downtown. Then we were speeding over the suburbs and touching down.

Without very much difficulty we disembarked and got down to the baggage return and collected our three bags. Then we went over to the Hertz counter to check in. Though the clerk tried to convince me to upgrade to the Lincoln LS I resisted and we got our Ford Mustang. He told me that the car we were getting was brand new and only had 5.4 miles on it! How cool is that? So we go down to the appropriate level of the garage, get the key, and go to find our car. It was dark forest green and smelled great.

Minutes later we were leaving the parking garage to get on I-5 to go North to Seattle. The traffic was no worse than I-480 during rush hour and the scenery was about 3,000 times better. When the Puget Sound came into view, and then the Olympic Mountains, our excitement grew. The rest of it reminded me a lot of driving through the Denver area—rising and falling terrain, a major city, and mountains in the distance.

With very little difficulty or stress Lauren navigated us North to a promising exit. I went the only way I could off the ramp and proceeded along Olive Street. Not too much later we found ourselves entering the Capital Hill area of town, which told us that we were going the wrong way (East instead of West). So around a block and we were going back west on Olive. Then we get back to where I-5 had dumped us out and find out that there was no way to go any further West. So I make a quick turn to the left and the next street over is Pine Street—where we had wanted to be all along :-) That was worth a laugh and we made it down to our hotel about seven or eight minutes later.

2 B kontinewed...