Holiday Inn Seattle, Wa

... Rick Steves suggests staying in Bacharach, which looks just beautiful--bit it *is* the furthest south/farthest away from other sites. Such dilemmas.....<br><br><br>Overal plans: <br>Germany<br> Arrive in Germany, see lots of castles, taste wine and cheese, relax. We will be here for 3 nights, but as I mentioned--we are not yet ...

... 8217;t have enough coins for the 8.90 Euro fare. And the ticket windows with people weren&#8217;t open yet. I tried to get change from a nearby shop, but they wouldn&#8217;t give me any. So I had to buy a couple separate Snicker&#8217;s bars just so I could get enough change in coins to buy the ticket. All of this took a while, so I was glad I left early.<br><br>It was a long half hour ride to the airport, and I was happy getting off the train, knowing it was the last one. It was weird ...

... from New Orleans and works for Marriott. She's moving to Seattle as she just got a job with the Marriott here as an event planner. I asked if she was in New Orleans when Katrina hit and she said yes. In fact, she'd just moved there 3 months before. She lives downtown but on the 3rd floor of her apartment building so didn't have any damage but didn't have power, etc. She moved to Texas to work for a month at a ...

... and gels in preparation for Security. &#8220;Uh, Valinda, you can only have one bag,&#8221; I told her. <br><br>&#8220;No, really? I didn&#8217;t see that anywhere.&#8221;<br><br>&#8220;I&#8217; m pretty sure you can only have one bag, quart sized or smaller, and all your items in it have to be three ounces or less.&#8221; Before she started freaking out about what she&#8217;d have to throw away, I volunteered to take a bag through for her. I don&#8217;t do baggies anymore. I ...

Completely boring day, nothing really to say, many ...

... it was like someone had turned out the lights, it was only 800ish and dark. We grabbed our bags and than found the Waikiki shuttle bus, which we only had to wait for about 10 minutes, and than it took us and other to our hotels. Our hotel was one of the last because we were right on Waikiki beach. Our Hotel name was Queen Kapolani, and it was actually a really nice hotel. We got to our hotel short around 9 and didnt sleep till almost 11pm, thats 2am back in Canada.

... We arrived at the dingy coach station, and after walking along a strip that looked like one of the streets from 'Taxi Driver', picked the hotel that looked the least seedy (all windows intact? no guy sleeping in the doorway? thumbs up!). Early the next day we rapidly fled the red-light area in the direction the local youth hostel. The further we walked the nicer the city became, until we were eventually strolling past leafy parks and ...

... unless we wanted to wait until after 9:00, the sunset over Seattle would have to wait. We left the needle and walked the 100 feet walk to the monorail. For a few bucks, you can ride to Pacific Coast Mall. Went to the Thai Ginger restaurant for a late dinner. The drink menu was almost as interesting as the food! Joe drank a Cucumber Margarita and I had a pressed pear martini. We ate crab fried wontons, prawns wrapped in crispy noodles and deep ...

After visiting Mount St. Helens, our next stop was another active volcano which hasn't erupted in a while - Mt. Rainier. We stayed at DreamWeaver cabin (gorgeous!) and visited the Mt. Rainier National Park, where we hiked and enjoyed the spectacular scenery.

... out here." "Yeah, what's your major?" "Art History," she replied, eagerly awaiting my reply. Although my teeth began to chatter from the cold, we spent a few pleasant minutes talking about art and who our favorites were. She liked Monet. I liked Van Gogh. We both liked Dali. A voice came over the intercom and she stood to walk away, but not before reaching out, shaking my hand and saying, "Well, it was a pleasure talkin' to ya." "No, no. The ...