Washingcon: Sunday, July 15, 2007 (Part A)
Sunday, July 15 (Part A)
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An Early Start
The Indianapolis International Airport is slightly more than a two-hour drive from Paul's apartment, so Paul, Joe, and Danielle woke up around five in the morning in order to have plenty of time to catch our 10 AM flight. We left the apartment at 5:30 and hopped onto I-70 westbound.
Joe and Danielle at 5:30 AM
With a quick stop at McDonald's for breakfast, we arrived at the airport at almost exactly 8 AM. After going through security and their "having less than three ounces of liquids will make the flight perfectly safe" routine, we got to the gate, where we met up with Chaz (ßlackLeader).
The flight was scheduled to leave at 10 AM local, but due to some unforseen maintenance, we didn't end up taking off until nearly 11:30.
Seattle Airport
We arrived at Seattle/Tacoma International Airport at about 12:40 PDT. Because of our flight's delay, a number of conventioners were already at the baggage claim waiting for us when we arrived:
- Brice (DarthAndonuts)
- Brian (ShadowX)
- Kevin (SimonBob)
- Matt (Skulryk)
- Stephen (xfisjmg1)
- Trip (Mr. Accident)
- Will (GimeC)
Brian, Trip, Stephen, Kevin, Will, Logan, Brice, Chaz, and Joe at the Seattle airport
Jon (Jonk) and his fiancée Sabrina had already arrived as well, but they'd left to pick up a rental car.
We hung around for a little while as we were waiting for Sarah's (Sarsie) flight to arrive.
Apparently Trip is heavy, and you should get help to lift him.
Danielle in her hat
A baggage-kabob. The kabob actually spins when the baggage conveyer belt is running.
At one point, a number of people came past us, each struggling to push a crate of puppies across the airport floor. Brice decided to help one of them out.
Sarah's flight arrived at about the same time as Jon arrived with his rental van, so we split into three groups: Jon's van, Trip's car, and Brian's car. Jon's van was the first loaded, so we drove on ahead in search of a restaurant at which we could eat lunch, promising to call the others when we found one.
Lunch
A little bit north of Seattle, we found a Red Robin and decided to stop there. However, we had to wait on the other cars to arrive, so we decided to raid the Toys 'R Us next door in the meantime.
Jon, Trip, Matt, Stephen, Brice, Joe, and Sabrina at Toys 'R Us
Trip's car arrived soon afterwards, and they joined us in Toys 'R Us as well. We bought about six or seven balls and a frisbee. To make splitting the cost easier a spectacle of ourselves, we all lined up at the checkout, and had a separate person buy each ball.
By the time we were done checking out, we received word that Matt's car had nearly arrived, so we went over to Red Robin to request a table big enough for all of us. The remainder of our group soon arrived, and we were seated.
Everyone who'd arrived so far at Red Robin
Fun with straws
Logan refuses to be outdone as Jon salutes
The straw
We finished dinner and headed on toward the convention house.
A view from the window on Interstate 5
Marysville, our exit for the convention house. How appropriate for an EarthBound convention.
We got off the interstate at Marysville and began to drive the several miles of back roads to where we were staying.
Jon's car was in the lead, and we lost the two cars behind us to a light that had just turned red. Since we knew all the drivers all only had a very vague idea of where we were going, we pulled over into the center turn lane of the road and waited for them to catch back up with us. The second car ended up waiting behind us as well, and when we saw the third car catching up to us, we pulled back into the main travel lane... right in front of two police cars. The police followed us for the better part of five miles, and our drivers were on edge, trying to drive perfectly in unfamiliar cars on an unfamiliar road. Finally, the police cars both turned onto another street, leaving us to find the convention house in peace.
Unfortunately, that was easier said than done. We'd driven so far by then without seeing the sign for the road we were supposed to turn on that eventually we decided we must have missed the turn. Jon told us that the next intersection we came to, we'd turn around.
The next intersection was the road we were looking for. We mumbled amongst ourselves and made the turn.
Even once we'd found the street it was on, though, finding our house was still difficult. The road wasn't really wide enough for two cars to pass going opposite directions, there were dense trees on both sides, and the road was basically working its way down a cliff face, so the road was very steep. Most of the houses were set far enough back from the road that they weren't even visible to us, and few of the houses had easy to read addresses on the mailboxes.
Tulalip Shores Road
Eventually, though, we found where we were we were supposed to be staying, and managed to park our three vehicles on the tight, steep driveway.