The Journey Home

So today's post covers Friday and Saturday as we make our way home from the USA.

Though first I thought I'd mention the Westin Lift control, we have started to take it for gratned by now, but it is quite impressive with images of the City and the Hotel changing as you select which part of the hotel you wish to visit: Here is an image of it, taken on our last morning:

The Lift Control in the Westin

Breakfast

So to move on to our day. We woke at 5:00am on Friday morning (5:00am Pacific Time; 1:00pm British Summer Time (BST)).

I wrote the blog post about our day in Vancouver. Then at 6:30am we showered, dressed and packed. 

We left the hotel at 7:00am and walked straight down Stewart St to Pike Place Market and our breakfast in Lovells. We arrived at 7:15am. It is a Friday so what better than starting breakfast in a fish restaurant. 

To make sure I eat a Friday meal I opted for King Lox Salmon & toasted bagel, this was served with cream cheese and a onion and caper salad.

Smoked Salmon Bagel

Drew went for the Market Breakfast with bacon, eggs sunny-side up, hash-browns and white toast. Which, as you can see, was very well presented indeed.

Market Breakfast

As ever we had Orange Juice and Coffee to wash down our breakfast.

We left Lovell's at 7:50am and walked back up Stockton Street to the Westin. 

We spent the next hour preparing for our departure and making sure we had everything ready for the journey. 

Taxi to the Airport 

We left our room at 9:15am and caught the lift to M floor, which is below the Lobby level (like much of Seattle the hotel is on a hill, so half of the hotel has a floor more than the rest) to the Taxi area. 

Taxis are waiting as soon as we come down the lift to the basement floor and we are off to the airport. 

We arrive at the airport at 9:40am!! This is, of course, not possible for a car keeping to the speed limit, but for a taxi going at 80mph in the 60 zone this was easy!!  It was best not to look quite how close to other traffic the driver came, the back of the driver's seat became my friend as I watched that rather than look our the window. Still we arrived perfectly safely. 

Seattle Sea-Tac

Seattle Sea-Tac is a busy airport, with flights provided by 12 different airlines (at least I saw that many, there may have been more). We found the Virgin Desk, in among the Delta area (they codeshare) and we checked in at 9:50am 

As Premium Economy passengers we have a fast lane to security. Normally this process is not so obvious as the premium lane goes in a different direction. This time however we had to walk through the almost empty premium lane past large numbers of queuing passengers in the normal lane. It did make me feel a bit guilty, but I didn't feel tempted to go back and join the queue. We were through all the 'fun' of taking metal off and emptying our pockets by 10:05am, a lot quicker than if we had been in the other queue. 

Next we had to take a shuttle to South Satellite from which Virgin Atlantic flies. Luckily the Airport Lounge we have booked is also in South Satellite, so we could settle in for our three hours of internet and snacks before boarding.  

Snacks in the Lounge

While here I completed two more blog posts (Helping Captain Jack to send his one and the Vancouver to Seattle one) and load up the last our of photos onto Flickr. 

It is a lovely airy lounge with lots of food, but given the time of day (10:30am - 1:00pm (or 9:00pm at destination time!!), and being fed on the plane we just had crisps, pop-corn and Drew manages a few 'small' cakes.

Virgin Atlantic

We board on time at gate S9, the gate next to the lounge, which is very convenient. We leave the gate 3 minutes before time and are in the air soon afterwards. 

It seems as comfortable as ever in Premium Economy. The flying time is due to be eight hours and 15 minutes tonight, less than the 9 and a half suggested on the booking. 

I like watching the journey on the video screen. Tonight, we leave Seattle and travel over parts of Canada we visited in the week. We flew over Everett (see Wednesday) and Merritt and Kamloops (see Monday) before heading further north past Vernon and Revelstoke (Sunday evening/Monday morning.)

Then it was over the Rockies (see last Friday) and further north over northern Saskatchewan and northern Manitoba above Hudson Bay and then over Greenland, then the Atlantic. 

Dinner is served at 3:30pm (11:30) we begin with a lovely fresh feta salad, there is a tangy vinaigrette to pour over it and as it is still Friday I have the mushroom teriyaki. Drew also chooses this option. 

Dinner in Premium Economy

Drew has both tarts and I have his bread roll. It was a very nice meal, just enough to sit on the stomach while I dose for the next part of the flight. 

By the time dinner is over we only have 6.5 hours of flight left. (12:15am BST) I sleep until 2:15pm. Then I read for two hours and then rested my eyes again from 4.00am until 4:45am when breakfast was served. 

The breakfast was only fruit, orange juice and coffee, I normally like something more substantial first thing! There was also gunk in a pot (yoghurt) and crumbs (Granola) but that isn't my kind of food. So, breakfast was far less satisfying than I had hoped. 

A very light breakfast

We fly in over Scotland (Tobermory) and down beside Liverpool to London. Landing at 6.45am - a good night's flight. 

While I slept and read Drew watched films: Ready Player One, Rampage, Jaws and Fahrenheit 451. 

The captain welcomed us back to London on a fine autumnal morning (it is still August!!) and we were into Heathrow Terminal 3.

Heathrow

We walk to passport control which takes about 20 mins - it is now 7:05am. We queue for the electronic passport control and are through by 7:15pm. We have collected our bags at 7:20am - quicker than on some previous returns. 

We walk to the Heathrow Coach Station and we visit the Caffe Nero in the bus station. I have a Bacon and Egg roll and Drew a Mozzarella and Tomato Panini. We both have coffee.

Home 

Bacon and Egg Roll (front) + Mozzarella and Tomato Panini

We board the pre-booked 201 to Cardiff at 9:10 and head for home. The bus left on time and was quite quiet. 

We had a very pleasant and uneventful journey. So, we arrived in Cardiff at 12.30pm. 

Here things didn't go quite to plan. We walked toward the bus stop to catch the 132, but it became the road was closed off. We soon became aware that the Pride parade was between us and the changed bus stop location in Greyfriars Road. Instead of the 12.42pm we caught the 1:03pm and get home at 1:35pm 20.5 hours since we left the hotel in Seattle 'this Morning'.

But we are safely back home after a superb holiday, and who can ask more than that.