Jen's Seattle Adventure - Thursday

So there's me, feeling sassy. LOL I took it for Alex, since I always make him take pictures for me to see and I categorically refuse to have my picture taken. So there I am in the standard hold the camera out and up Myspace style. Enjoy. You know you are!


But anyhoo.....enought of that.


Okay, here we go...what you came here for: Day 1 of Jen's 1st Solo Vacay! It's really an exercise of good news/bad news.



Good News:
The day started off great. Matt & I took Hunter to school, went out for a nice breakfast, and took a drive to see if we could find this herd of elk that keeps coming out of the mountains. We got to the airport, got me checked in and through security. The great thing about the Bozeman airport is it takes very little time to do all that. I showed up at 12:30-ish for a 1:45 flight, and I had about 50 minutes to kill after I got through security. So I had plenty of time to play Sudoku on my Nintendo DS while I waited. Then we got on the plane.

Bad News:
Now call me kooky, but a plane taking off should not look like a bunny rabbit. Once it's up it's up is my philosophy. Apparently, my pilot is not a member of that same school of thought. We got about, oh, 15 feet or so off the ground and then dropped allllll the way back down to the runway. Then we took off. Um? What the fuck was that? Everyone on board was a little nervous after that. It appeared to be let your 4 year old fly the plane day.

Good News:
We made good time in the air, though, and actually arrived in Seattle a bit early. I always love flying into Seattle because it's always so pretty. I could totally see myself living here one day. Awesome, awesome stuff.

Bad News:
Apparently, not only can our pilot not take off, but he cannot land, either. We go to land on the runway and if you picture skipping rocks on a pond....we were the rock. We bounced not 1, not 2, not even 3, but 5 TIMES BEFORE WE MANAGED TO KEEP 'ER ON THE GROUND. Sooooo less than amused.

Good News:
I go down to baggage claim, and my bags arrive in LESS THAN 5 MINUTES. Amazing! I'm never gotten my bags so quickly in my life. I even managed to find a luggage cart to assist me with my 2 suitcases and 2 carryons. Then I head over to the Thrifty Rental Car counter to get my prearranged for rental.

Bad News:
You knew that was coming, didn't you! When I get there, they inform me that they will need to authorize my credit card for $150, which is twice the amount of my rental. Hmmm, alright. So I present my Visa Check Card. Then I'm told since it's actually a debit card, it needs to be authorized for $250. Excuse me? Needless to say, I do not have $250 available to be authorized and held on my card. Then they tell me that the rental that I have a confirmation of as being $73.46 inclusive of all tax, charges, and gifts for the owner is actually going to be $114.85. Say it with me now: what the everloving fuck? Apparently there was some additional per day surcharge. I'm not sure I want to continue at this point. So I tell them I'll come back. I go to EVERY OTHER RENTAL COUNTER. Can't get a car for anywhere near that price, which I kinda knew would happen - this is why I went with Thrifty to begin with. Sigh. So now I need to figure out this authorization thing. I figure I'll just transfer enough money to cover the authorization out of savings for now then put it back later. To do this, I need the internet. SEA-TAC has wireless. Brilliant. So I pull out my laptop...it's $8 to use the internet. Excuse me? But what can I do? Nothing. I get that taken care of, go back to the rental counter, fill out the paperwork, get on the courtesy shuttle, and go get my car.

Good News:
I choose a compact car for price. I was afraid I would end up with one of those miniature mobiles that Chevy calls the Aveo. I drove one as a rental before, and I thought I was going to develop some anxiety disorder. Way too small. Lucky Jen, though, I ended up with the Nissan Sentra.

Bad News:
By now it's fairly dark, and it's raining holy buckets. I drive into downtown to see if I can't at least try to get some good night shots for my photo class. Yeah...NO. Did I mention it's also now RUSH HOUR? It is. Oy vey. I drive by Pike Place Market and the Space Needle, but can't find anywhere to park that's not a million dollars and it's raining monsoonally now. So I figure, oh well, I'll just head to Bellevue, since my dinner reservation is at 8:30 and I want to get settled in and shower at the hotel.

Good News:
I saw quite a bit of downtown Seattle and some of the different neighborhoods. The Space Needle looks AWESOME lit up at night. I can totally see myself living here someday. I think that Matt & I will have to come here sometime for a little vacation.

Bad News:
How did I come to see so much of Seattle? BECAUSE I WAS GIVEN REALLY, REALLY, REALLY BAD DIRECTIONS TO BELLEVUE! Directions that I followed to the letter then went "Um, where the hell am I?" So I had to stop for directions, but first I had to find a place that was open. Oy. I finally found a hair salon, and a lovely girl not only gave me GREAT directions that were so simple I was able to recite them off the top of my head while driving, she also drew me the most adorable little map. Thanks, hair salon girl! Jen arrives at SEA-TAC: 2:40. Jen arrives at her hotel in Bellevue: 7:30. Nice.

Good News:
My room rocks. The bed is amazingly comfortable, I have a balcony, I overlook the pool AND the courtyard, awesomeness. They even have robes in the room! I've never stayed somewhere that has that. Go me!



Bad News:
Since the Nazis have vacated Germany and taken positions with the Department of Homeland Security and the TSA, I couldn't bring a lighter or matches. I'm sure most of you had no clue, but there are 3 times in life when I reeeeally just want a cigarette:

1) I'm bar hopping
2) I'm playing pool
3) I'm extremely stressed/frustrated.

So here I am. Sitting in a smoking room. Cigarettes on the counter. No incindiary device other than my sparkling personality. Which is not lighting my cigarette. So I go down to the front desk, and ask for matches. There are NO matches in the entire hotel? Whaaaa....? But I don't have time to dwell because I need to get my happy arse in the shower so I can make it to dinner.

Good News:
The Melting Pot. If you have one near you, YOU MUST GO. It is so freaking awesome. I loooooove it. Way expensive, but I'll get to that in a minute. First we'll break it down for you.

The Drink

Mmmmm, the Yin Yang. I want to bathe in this drink it is so good! Godiva White Chocolate liqueur, Stoli Vanil Vodka, and vanilla ice cream. Then to make the symbol on top, they use dark chocolate shavings, white chocolate shavings, and the dots are dark & white chocolate buttons. Ah crap...I want another one now just thinking about it! LOL I was going to order a second at the restaurant, but they're freaking $11 each. Couldn't justify a second one...

The Cheese Course

Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm. They make the fondue right at your table for you. The center of your table is like a flat top range to keep things going, very cool! I got the Quatro Formaggio Cheese Fondue. It has Provolone, Asiago, Fontina, and Gruyere cheeses, white wine, basil pesto, and roasted pepper marinara sauce. My waitress also put some Marscapone cheese in mine, too. They serve it with chunks of sourdough & pumpernickel breads, carrots, cauliflower, celery, and Granny Smith apples. Awesomeness!

The Salad

No picture here because we've all seen salad! LOL It was a delicious Chopped Caesar Salad, though. It was your basic Caesar, but instead of croutons it had parmesan crusted pine nuts. Mmm Mmm. More awesomeness!

The Main Course

For my main course, I chose the Fondue Feast and the Mojo cooking style. The Mojo cooking style was a Caribbean-influenced bouillon with orange & lime juices, chopped garlic, and cilantro. The Fondue Feast included: Filet Mignon Medallions, Porcini-rubbed Strip Sirloin, Breast of Chicken, Tuscan Herb Breast of Chicken, Black Tiger Shrimp, and Sun-dried Tomato Marscarpone Cheese Ravioli. The ravioli was striped! You can kind of see it in the picture: one's green striped, one's red striped. It also came with red potato wedges, broccoli, button mushroom caps, and zucchini. It's so much food! You just drop the meats/vegetables (which come to you raw) into the fondue pot and cook 'em for about 2 minutes. So good and so fun!

The Chocolate Course

Mmmmm. Again, so good! I chose the Special Event fondue where you get to sort of make up your own. I chose dark chocolate with Grand Marnier. MMMM MMMM MMMM! My waitress flambeed it tableside, too. So cool! The serve it with strawberries, pineapple, bananas, oreo-crusted marshmallows, graham cracker-crusted marshmallows, pound cake, brownies, and cheesecake! Fabulous.

Total cost of dinner, with tax & tip: $75.00

So that was my Thursday!