Tokyo Diary - Day 1a - Kennewick to Seattle

Geoff and I left home at 5:30 in the morning to start our drive to Sea-Tac Airport. We made a quick stop at Albertson’s to fill our pop mugs and buy some zip-ties to ‘lock’ the luggage and we picked up some pop-tarts they were ‘pushing’ at the check-out. These made a fine breakfast.

We almost made it to Seattle without a stop but nature finally won and we took what looked like a promising exit. Yet after a mile we still had not come across a gas station or any other rest room. Just as I turned around to go look in the other direction, I spotted a porta-john in front of a home being built. A welcome blessing.

We were back on our way in short order and it was not long we were driving through the airport. Ooops. I had followed the signs right to the airport and not to the parking lot where we were going to leave the car.

So, around the airport we went and back onto the freeway. Following the directions this time, we pulled into the Best Value Airport Inn. They had the best price I could find for airport parking at only $5.95 a day. At the airport they want $15 a day to park your car and the next best price I could find was $10 a day.

After parking the car and paying we were on our way to the airport in their shuttle van. Within minutes we were dropped off at the airport and on our way to check in.

We got in line to check in at just a little after 10:00 a.m. We were plenty early. Our flight was not scheduled to leave until 12:45 p.m. The line appeared long but it moved rather quickly. We moved to the next available check-in counter, typed in all our info, and watched our boarding passes print out. A clerk then came to check our passports and tag our luggage.

Once checked in we made our way to the departure gate to wait for a couple hours. I should have called home to say all is well, but I had left my cell phone in the car since it is useless in Japan and am to cheap to use a pay phone. WiFi was available but at $10 to get access I decided to pass.

When they started boarding it was rather humorous. They called for all first-class passengers to begin boarding. A few minutes later the gate clerk announced, “Only first-class passengers should be boarding now, It is a large plane, ladies and gentlemen, there will be plenty of room for everyone. You can tell if you are first class because there will be a large ‘1st’ printed on the ticket.”

We were seated in short order and bound for Tokyo!

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