It's 10:45pm and the kids have finally stopped talking. They're still up but seem to have calmed down and are currently watching Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Rodrick Rules. I think they can relate with the craziness of the Heffley family.
They say a typical person uses between 7000 & 20000 words in a day. I'm pretty sure Josh got a week's worth in today. And the other two weren't far behind. I underestimated how excited they are for this trip.
Anyway back to the trip. The trip down went pretty smooth. We flew thru the border with the only issue being that we weren't driving fast enough up to the booth. Yup, the border guard gave me heck for not going fast enough after the car in front of me left. True I went a little slow, but we had a moment of panic when we could only find 3 passports. We found the other 2 and had no issues. The rest of the trip went smoothly to Renton. Only one emergency bathroom stop was all that was needed.
And we managed to avoid the dozen or so police cars that were out patrolling today too. Way too many for my liking, but they were doing their job keeping speeders off the highway.
We booked a hotel in Seattle for two reasons. The first was so that we wouldn't have to wake up super early to get to the airport in the morning and the second was so that we'd have a place to park our van while we were in Florida. Most places were around $10/day for parking, and the hotel/parking combos were pretty close in cost. But not Holiday Inn Renton. It was $124 for a night's stay and unlimited parking! What a deal. Plus Holiday Inn tends to bring a level of comfort knowing that they're typically of decent quality.
For every good company, there's still going to be a weak link and we may have found it. The room is a little cramped, looks a bit rundown (even a fresh coat of paint would help) and the toilet makes a weird sound every time you flush it. We took a dip in the pool (it's outdoors) and while the pool had a decent temperature to it, the hot tub was nothing more than a lukewarm bath. There's no pullout couch for the 3rd kid to sleep on like they promised on the phone, so the 5 of us get to share 2 beds. I guess you get what you pay for and it's not horrible, but it's definitely not a place you'd want to have an extended stay at.
The funny thing though is that the kids absolutely love it. They love the pool and think it's so cool that they get to stay in this "terrific" hotel. And that's all that matters, well as long as Tawny doesn't go and sleep in the van tonight.
From dinner to the end of the night we had our usual fill of games. We played what's your favourite ride waiting for our dinner. We played 101 ways to leave a hot tub (modelled after 101 Ways to Leave a Game Show). And then we played "I'm glad I'm your buddy", made famous by Uncle Glenn and Lucas McDonald.
We also got to witness an Abby meltdown as there was a fly near our table at dinner. She is so afraid of flies. Absolutely terrified. She couldn't concentrate on dinner until Josh killed it, which he did with a packet of sugar and then he promptly put that packet under her chair. I thought she was going to jump on the table.
Oh, I almost forgot the most important part of our trip down ... our code names for the Florida trip. As you can see the blog is by Sprite Time and Big Squeezy. (Those are Tawny and my code names.) Joshua is Mr Charger (he's quite proud of his new LT Charger jersey), Caleb is Agent C (with the glasses to work it), and Abby is Rockstar (with her new pair of Converse shoes). We're waiting to hear what the Buzza clan has worked out and we'll spring it on the Keatings tomorrow at the airport.
Hopefully everyone falls asleep soon (I think Tawny is the first to do so) and we get a good rest before a big day of travel tomorrow.
And just remember, sometimes things are inexpensive which makes them a good deal and other times they're just plain cheap.
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