The Trip Chapter 1 - The Beginning
The alarm went off painfully early on September 13th. Normally I hit the snooze button more times then I care to admit but for some reason I bounded out of bed on the first buzz this morning.
Any guesses as to why?
Oh ya! I'm going to Disneyworld today!!
Flew into the shower and then got the girls up and dressed for school. I got my uniform on and consulted with HG about a secret plan. I was only working until noon today much to my boss's dismay so why don't I swing by the school and pick the kids up on my way home? That way we can get across the border before the lines get crazy. Okay, plan approved!
Work was painful to say the least. Having to actually work on the day you are leaving on vacation is a bad idea no matter how you look at it. I eventually made it to noon and high tailed it out of there and went and picked up the kids and their homework and then we headed home to do the last minute packing. I figured we could be on the road by 1:30 or 2:00 at the lastest.
Wrong. Apparently we had more "last minute packing" to do then I thought.
Finally loaded all the suitcases into the truck and eventually hit the road by 3:15. Oh well, better then if we had waited until the kids were out of school to leave.
Here we are just about to shut the trunk and head out. Okay, by "we" I mean "them". Someone had to take the picture!
Where was I? Oh ya - we're now finally in the car. Tuned the radio to the news station so we could hear what the border line ups were like. We have one that is reasonably close to us and we like the American guards there. They are nice unlike the ones at the other crossing. Then the traffic comes on. Crud. There is a 2 hour line up at "our" crossing and only 20 mins at the other one. Oh well, we headed east to go to the other one.
There is one particually nasty guard at that one but what are the chances that not only will he be working but that we'll get in his line up?
Apparently they are pretty good because yep, we got him.
Once he gave us crap about 2 cookies we were taking across the border. Wanted to know the ingredients and wasn't too kind in asking. HG was shocked and wasn't sure how to answer and kind of stumbled which made it worse. I think he was about to cry when I stepped in and explained that they were chocolate chip ones that were bought from a store and I wasn't sure about the exact ingredients. He quizzed us for awhile longer and finally let us through. Needless to say, we don't like him very much.
So this time we were less then thrilled to get him. I don't think I have ever gotten the same guy twice and when I do, it had to be him didn't it?
Once again we were given the third degree and came dangerous close to a body cavity search! Next time we are heading to the nice border no matter how big the lines are!
At least now we are finally in the same country as Disneyworld!
Drove for about an hour and then decided to stop for dinner. We were hungry and figured if we stopped then by the time we hit Seattle rush hour would be over. Rush hour in Seattle is ugly. Vancuver is bad too but Seattle is worse!
Went into Olive Garden and chowed down and then back on the road. Next stop - Seattle!
Here is where things got a little tricky!
We didn't make hotel reservations because we couldn't remember the name of the hotel we always stay at and besides, we've never made ressies before and have never had a problem. Surely we wouldn't have trouble on a Thursday night in September.
Wrong!
At first we couldn't find our hotel and then we realized that the fancy new road around the airport was going straight through where our hotel should have been! Uh oh! Oh well, there are tonnes of other ones, we'll just stay somewhere else.
First hotel - no room for you!
Second hotel - no room for you!
Third hotel - no room for you!
Fourth hotel - no room for you!
Fifth hotel - no room for you!
Are you noticing a pattern here? Seems every cruise ship known to mankind was leaving Seattle in the morning so every hotel room was booked tonight!
The kids are tired and are panicing and crying. HG is mad and so driving like a mad man and I am trying to keep things light and airy "We'll find somewhere, its okay. Really it is." Of course even I wasn't buying it.
After another hour or so of checking hotels we finally found a very old motel in a less then desirable area of town that had a room for us. I have no idea what we ended up paying for it and it didn't really matter. All I needed was a place to lay down for a couple of hours - we were leaving at 7am the next morning.
Got up the scary, broken stairs without hurting ourselves and swung open the door to the room. Nearly passed out from the smell. I am pretty sure someone had died in there at some point.
"Its fine everyone. We'll just turn the air conditioning on and it will be fine in a couple of minutes"
I think I was trying to convince myself of this just as much as them.
The girls went into the bathroom and there was a large hole in the wall! They were to scared to "go" in there. Tough. You have to pee! Mean mommy came out and made them go in there before bed.
Finally got them tucked in and then pulled back the sheets to get into my bed.
YUCK!!! ICK!!!!! I AM NOT SLEEPING IN THAT!!!!
Let's just say the sheets had not been cleaned since the last people used the room and from the looks of things they enjoyed the hotel way more then we were.
Time to sleep in my clothes on top of the covers. No way I was getting in there and the kids were asleep and there was no where else for us to stay.
I layed there all night praying to fall asleep and hoping this was some sort of bad dream.
After all this was not the way our dream vacation was supposed to start!
Mickey take me away! Please!
Cant help it -- I get a little freaked out about sleeping where Thousands of other people have stayed
I don't blame your girls for not wanting to go in the bathroom
no more lurking promise 
