To sound terribly ignorant, I didn’t realise Washington was a state until planing this trip. Guess what? It’s a state and I’m in it right now.
I was totally unprepared for how cold it is. Today it was in the mid 40s which translates to 9 degrees!! I’m so not ready for that sort of temperature. When I left Melbourne, the days were still in the mid 20s with the nights not dropping below the mid teens.
Weather aside, Seattle is a lovely city. The downtown part is built right onto the bay and you can look down a street to see shimmering water. Very pretty. Unlike Baltimore, Seattle feels like a much more sophisticated place. I’ve been fortunate on this trip to not be confronted with the levels of homelessness like I did the last time around. Seattle looks like a more affluent place and it’s snobby to say but I do feel more comfortable here then I did in Baltimore.
If only it wasn’t so cold!
After getting three hugs from Steve at the security gate, I had an uneventful flight from San Francisco and can recommend Virgin America. Their planes are brand new A320s. They’re kitted out with mood lighting (!!) so my plane’s interior was set to blue down the aisle and pink near the windows. Made me chuckle.
I meet up with Jared and Rich at the airport and we decided to take the bus into the city. When our appointed departure time came, we dutifully went outside to get on the bus only to discover the one that was there wouldn’t start. What can you do but be grateful it was only a bus that wouldn’t start and not a plane.
We finally made it into the city centre and to our hotel. It’s a nice place and it turns out nearly everyone else is staying here too. It was brilliant to see John, Jen and Bill before dinner and to then see Trina and Kelly in the foyer. I really have missed this guys and I didn’t realise how much until I saw them. The irony of the situation is that the Tim Sale forum is currently down. The thing that brought us all together doesn’t have server space at the moment and it’s very strange to know it’s not there. I know I haven’t been checking it in the last few days but I fully expected it to be there when I got home.
The other thing that amazes me about these people is how well we all get along. I feel so comfortable with them all and I’m usually not a social person at all. I love the fact that Trina and Jen come along. It’s just great to be in the company of people I admire and like so much. I suppose it’s also because they’re all happy to see me and it’s really nice to feel that.
Dinner was a hoot. Kelly, Trina and Jared were in cracking form and in the end my face hurt from smiling so much which is the best reason ever.
The “official” forum get together was after dinner and I got to meet the Arizona crew for the first time. It was also a fund raiser for the Hero Initiative as Christina has started working for them. We all got given a ticket and the first twenty people would pay $30 to get a three minute ink wash of a character from The Long Halloween or Dark Victory which were inked onto a large piece of paper to make up a communal piece before being cut up. I managed to sneak in at number ten and secured Commissioner Gordon as my character. (I wanted Poison Ivy but I missed out by a few people.)
Right now I’m tucked up in bed and charging the battery of my camera which is why there are no photos. Must get to sleep. Big day tomorrow 🙂