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Seattle

7/30/2022

12 Comments

 
Picture
Our vacation in Seattle didn’t go as planned.
 
If you’ve guessed that this had nothing to do with anything on my end, you’re right.  
 
That’s because I prepare, and often over-prepare, for trips that last more than a day. Years ago, I had a boss in Hollywood who literally packed her suitcase for the Cannes Film Festival in the back seat of a car while being driven to the airport. She laughed about it, but I swore that I was never going to be anything like her.
 
Indeed, I’m prone to making detailed packing lists, which include hair ties, mint tea and exactly how many pairs of underwear to roll up in my large duffel bag. There’s also triple checking my wallet to ensure I have the right identification to board a plane. These days, my COVID vaccination card comes along, too.     
 
But before doing any of this, I needed to confirm that my best friend and another dear friend, who both live in the Seattle area, were going to be around.  
 
In fact, hanging with them was the reason for this destination.
 
That’s because I hadn’t seen either of them for a very long time—one when I got married 17 years ago, and the other in over a decade. Taking in the sights of Seattle was going to be fun, but really, just the cherry on the cake.  
 
Both said yes.
 
That meant the Hubster could now buy plane tickets. Also, I could scout for an Airbnb. Since I’d planned to spend a lot of time with my best friend, I booked one near her place. We couldn’t stay with her because her house is undergoing massive renovations, but I wasn’t worried.
 
I expected the accommodations to work out.
 
In fact, I was especially pleased with my host’s excellent communication, who confirmed availability in the affirmative less than 30 seconds after I emailed her to see if her listing was open. That should have been a warning, but I was
so happy to find a townhouse close to my best friend—and at an amazing price of $50 per night—that I ignored my
gut instinct.   
 
The first snag happened a few days before our non-refundable flight.
 
My best friend told me someone close to her had attended a super-spreader event. Despite being vaccinated and taking precautions, he now had COVID.  By week’s end, she had the virus as well, and was feeling so rotten that she had to be taken to a hospital emergency room in the middle of the night.
 
I did get to see her, because we took an Uber from the airport to her house to pick up her mini-van, which she had generously offered us during our time in the area. 
 
But we couldn’t hug, and only spoke briefly through our N-95 masks. We had been planning to have dinner that night and in a few days, go sailing at a nearby lake. Neither was going to happen now.  
 
The next stop was the Airbnb. 
 
In some ways, the description was accurate: we dropped our bags in a light-filled bedroom in a townhouse. But sitting in cheap canvas chairs on the balcony, we watched termites as they plainly came out of the woodwork. Also, while the amenities were pretty much as advertised, I was taken aback by an inch-sized cigarette hole burned into one of the bed sheets. A few other things: the place was lick-and-promise clean, but the carpet was deeply stained; the stairs were much steeper than pictured, and the neighborhood was a hard-scrabble one.
 
Still, our smiling host stopped in every day, although she never stayed long. We assumed this place generated extra income because she didn’t seem to live there, and also had a long-term tenant in another bedroom. When I saw the light of the big TV on in the living room in the middle of the night, I figured the renter liked late-night viewing. 
 
We spent the next few days in Seattle, and this part was terrific.  
 
The weather was picture perfect—blue skies with puffy clouds and temperatures in the low 80s. First on our list was the Museum of History and Industry, better known as MOHAI and adjacent to a large marina. This proved to be a perfect starting point, because it was here we learned about the history of Seattle, including early industries that included logging and fishing. I also enjoyed MOHAI’s take on the 1961 World’s Fair, which was held in Seattle, and both of us loved the touring Ansel Adams exhibit.
 
Later that day, we headed to the elegant Smith Tower, Seattle’s first skyscraper and for decades, the tallest building west of the Mississippi River. An upscale bar and restaurant are on the 35th floor, and after a gourmet snack, we walked around the open-air viewing deck for a clear, 360-degree view of Seattle.
 
The next day was a visit to Volunteer Park, home of a stunning historical greenhouse and botanical garden that we strolled end-to-end. Beautifully maintained multi-million-dollar homes in this area sit on streets shaded by mature trees, giving the location an aura of tradition and gentility. We also ventured to the very crowded Pike Public Market, founded in 1907 and one of the oldest and largest continuously operating public markets in the United States.  Across the street, we had lunch at Maiz, a hole-in-the-wall tortilleria where I had the best beef tacos in my life.
 
But I was especially looking forward to our next day.
 
We were going to get up early and grab a ferry to Vashon Island, a 20-minute ride away from Seattle. This place is also where my other dear friend lives.
 
But upon returning from the Public Market, I got a text. 
 
My friend had gone to a large gathering the night before, where she had hugged and talked and interacted with many people she hadn’t seen in months. Now, she reported, many of those friends were feeling sick and testing positive for COVID. Even though she was negative, did we want to take the chance? 
 
Given our age and other health considerations, the answer was no. 
 
We spent our last few days doing unscheduled stuff, including a trip back to Volunteer Park where the Asian Art Museum is located. That was wonderful, but I would have preferred to see my Vashon friend. We also found a terrific Thai restaurant near our Airbnb, and had a relaxing picnic in a nearby park.
 
Before heading out for breakfast on our last and final day, our Airbnb host showed up. We found out then that we had been staying in her bedroom, and that it was she who had been coming in every night to watch TV before falling asleep on the couch. We also realized she was pregnant. 
 
That’s when I decided that while I could never stay there again, I couldn’t write a negative review.
 
As a friend who also hosts for Airbnb in another city wrote me, “I think a pregnant woman working two jobs and giving up her bedroom for $50 a night really needs the money.” So, instead, I focused on the cost of the townhouse.
 
Now that I’ve had time to think about our time in Seattle, it wasn’t awful.  It just wasn’t what we had planned. 
 
To this end, we turned a lemony vacation into lemonade. And for that, I’m grateful.
 
Have you ever taken a holiday that took an unexpected turn, either for good or bad?  I look forward to your comments!
 
12 Comments
Susan J.
7/31/2022 11:51:06 am

I think it was 1985 - a trip to visit family in Utah, where so much went comically wrong. The car broke down outside St. George, and we spent the night TRYING to sleep at the side of the highway while 18-wheelers went zooming past us all night. In the morning, my mom's friend and I actually hitchhiked to a small town down the road while my mom and grandma stayed behind in the car. We somehow got the car to the mechanic there, who was a super-friendly middle-aged man named Harlan, if I recall right. It took hours in the 117-degree St. George heat, but he got it fixed, and we were on our way to Sandy, Utah, where my grandmother's sister lived. Well, the car had other plans, and broke down once again in the 117-degree Utah heat. Back to Harlan's we went for another few hours of melting while we waited. The second time was a charm, and off we went. I don't remember all the other silly, little, weird things that went wrong on that drive, except the end, when we pulled up into my Great-Aunt Opal's driveway: Out of nowhere, the rear-view mirror just fell off. No one was even touching it; it just popped off by itself - a fitting ending to the adventure-filled catastrophe we'd all just gone through to get there. The rest of the visit was pretty ordinary. :)

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Hilary A Grant
7/31/2022 01:51:57 pm

Oh my! You stopped me in my tracks with remembering that the temperature was 117 degrees. This is a great, but also horribly comical, story! W/ the rear view mirror, I think the car was just telling you guys that it was DONE. :)

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Jim Nolt
7/31/2022 12:20:45 pm

Well, well, well, Hilary... trips seldom go exactly as planned, but you had your share of unexpected happenings. Covid is still with us, and I stick generally still stick close to home. Two friends from Florida recently visited two other friends in Arizona, and before the week was out, all four had Covid. Fortunately all were vaccinated and boosted, but it put a real damper on the trip! Everyone... take as much care as you can.

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Hilary Grant
7/31/2022 01:49:47 pm

YUP, still with us so, we pretty much stick close to home as well. Good to know that inside a passenger airline w/ a mask on is still one of the safest places to be because of superior filtration systems. We're also lucky to be in a relatively rural area, so a lot of folks are spread out here. It all depends on what sort of risks you're willing to take. We are more careful than most but not all. :)

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Fran Phinney
7/31/2022 12:32:17 pm

How about my trip to Hawaii that was supposed to have happened in January 2022. My friend was sick but not from Covid. Random things were wrong and she didn’t feel well enough to travel. We were told we could postpone our trip by both the airline and the hotels out in Kauai and Honolulu. We just needed to rebook the flights by the end of June. That’s what I was told. My friend was told she had till the end of December to rebook the flights. Turns out she was told wrong. What they were saying is that we had to complete our trip by the end of December 2022. That won’t do - we want to go the exact same time in 2023 (which is January), as we were going to go in 2022. We are busy with holidays etc. before then and it’s way too hot to go now. Hawaiian airlines was adamant that they would not let us travel even In one direction in late December returning in January. So luckily for us my friend had bought insurance that probably wouldn’t do any good because it only cost you $35. However she inquired and after a few weeks we just got notice that we had full refunds. Not only for the airplane tickets but for the hotel in Honolulu. The one in Kauai is still waiting for us to let them know when we want to show up.
Of course we realize anyway, no matter how it worked out, that we would be paying more for a ticket now and probably more for the hotel rooms - however the $35 insurance is a good deal in this day and age. Therefore I suggest you make the investment for any future plane tickets and buy the damn insurance! I can guarantee something will go wrong with any plans you make. I’ve had two vaccines and two boosters which were supposed to be good through August and I still got Covid on the first of July. This is likely because everybody is going to get this particular strain. It’s fast moving and not too bad. For me it was just a cold and cough, the same as I get every January- only I tested positive. So our only dilemma is when to book for our next try at getting out to Hawaii. That will be determined in the next few weeks.

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Hilary A Grant
7/31/2022 01:55:38 pm

One reason I've always booked airline tickets on a credit card is because if there's an issue w/in 90 days, you can let the credit card company duke it out for you. I also think airlines want to welcome everyone back even w/ COVID still out there, so, glad you got that refund w/out too much hassle. I, too, have been vaxxed as much as allowable, and will heading for my third booster come September. If at all possible, I don't want to get sick AT ALL. :)

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Larry Grant
7/31/2022 12:49:48 pm

We definitely do "winging it" well. Seattle is a beautiful city with lots to see and some really good food. My halibut tostada from Maiz was truly outstanding.

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Hilary Grant
7/31/2022 01:58:51 pm

Maiz was amazing (word play intentional). :) I think vacations always need to have wiggle room built in, no matter what. :) xo .

PS. For those who are interested, here's the Maiz website--https://www.maizseattle.com/.

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ANDY
8/4/2022 01:15:28 pm

Indeed you made a delicious “lemonade” with your “lemons.“

The saddest memory of an “aborted trip” I can recall was the afternoon of July 16, 1981. My boyhood pal Eli and I were in my father’s 1974 Chrysler Newport en route to Eisenhower Park in East Meadow to attend a free, open air concert to be given by Harry Chapin. We listened with astonishment and disbelief as the radio news announcer reported that Harry had died in a fiery crash on the Long Island Expressway earlier that afternoon. He was driving his 1975 Volkswagen Rabbit when it hit a semi-trailer truck. I can’t recall what we did instead after turning around on the highway, but I know we were quite sad for a long time.

A stickler for details and accuracy, I know you won’t mind my gently pointing out the following:

The Century 21 Exposition (also known as the Seattle World's Fair) was a world's fair held April 21, 1962, to October 21, 1962, in Seattle, Washington. Its motto was “Living in the Space Age.” Twenty-four countries participated and nearly 10 million visitors attended.

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Hilary
8/4/2022 03:40:10 pm

First, thanks for pointing out my mistake on the World's Fair date -- I'll see if I can go in and revise it.

I've loved Harry Chapin ever since his first album Heads and Tails came out. Especially, of course, Taxi. Re: the accident, I read not long after that Chapin was a terrible driver, and friends and relatives were not surprised that he had perished in a car accident. It was more a question of where and when.

BUT... Having just written this, good to know that his widow got a sizable settlement in the case.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Chapin


i'

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Kim Fonturbel
8/6/2022 01:38:11 pm

Hi Hilary! Oh my goodness to Covid surrounded vacation stopping your in person friendship get togethers! You two sure wing it well. Sounds like a Wild trip to Seattle, glad you saw sights and made awesome memories!

One travel gone unexpectedly was travelling to Tahoe for Thanksgiving, in our station wagon filled with 5 of us. It broke down,,,in the snow. Night's mountain darkness, snowing, roadside, felt like quite a predicament... then along came a greyhound bus-in operation- they pulled over and picked the 5 of us and our Thankgiving pink bakery box cake up. What a memory!

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Hilary
8/7/2022 11:22:21 am

That sounds scary! I don't do traveling at night anymore, but glad the Greyhound operation came along and was able to pick up guys up. Looking forward to my solitary plane ride in November to spend time with Katie in LA. :)

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    Hilary Roberts Grant

    Journalist, editor, filmmaker, foodie--and a clown! 
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