kevin_standlee | Traveling Fan

Today I flew from Reno to Seattle on Alaska Airlines. It was a very good flight: traveling in first class is something I could get used to, although in this case it was primarily because I had a lot of extra stuff to carry, so the two-checked-bag allowance made the bigger seat almost incidental extra expense.

I was running so far ahead of schedule that I almost was too early, but the check-in desk opened just as I got there. With my first class ticket, I went though a shorter queue, and even though I had to once again take out my computer, camera, and put my shoes through the belt, I was still through Terrorization only 15 minutes after dropping my bags. That gave me loads of time to have breakfast before heading down to the gate, where I still had an hour to wait for my flight

While I was waiting, this Alaska flight (operated by Horizon Airlines) came in to the next gate over. I was intrigued to see that Alaska decided to paint one of their Horizon planes in a "heritage" paint scheme. This was Horizon's paint scheme the first time I ever flew them, on a flight from Sacramento to (I think) Portland many, many years ago.

Here's a new piece of travel kit for me: a cool bag for transporting refrigerated medication.

Ozempic is supposed to be kept refrigerated. This bag will keep it cool (I carried it in my backpack) until I could get it to the hotel and the refrigerator there. While in the past I've just skipped a dose for short trips (and I would have only missed one dose in this case), I wanted to test out the kit on this trip because in October I will be away for three weeks and I'd rather not skip that many doses.

After an uneventful and comfortable flight (aside from clouting my head in the forward lavatory because the ceiling is so low — I know, first world problems), I claimed my bags at Sea-Tac (and well done to Alaska for getting those bags unloaded so quickly), walked over to the Link light rail station, figured out how to buy a ticket to downtown ($3 single-ride ticket as I wasn't going anywhere else today), and went up to the platform.

A train came along presently (they run ever 15 minutes). Based on the crown on the platform, I worried that I'd have to stand, but there was enough room for everyone, especially because people didn't move down the platform to the ends like I did.

The stop for me was Symphony. I came up to street level, having seen on the map that it was only 250 m from there (three blocks) to the Crowne Plaza.

But oh, what steep three blocks it was! I stopped at each corner to get my wind back and was glad I only had to haul those bags (which totaled around 40 kg including my backpack) those three blocks. I staggered into the Crowne Plaza and asked if I could check in early. The front desk clerk smiled and said, "Thank you for being an IHG Diamond member, Mr. Standlee. We've got you taken care of.

And that they did, with a suite upgrade! It took me a few minutes to figure out how to work the elevator. Instead of a call button, you scan your key card, which tells the system to which floor you are going, and it dispatches an elevator that goes there and only there (and where other passengers are going). It's probably very efficient, but of course you can't use it to go floor to floor unless someone else has a key for that floor.

Here's what awaited me inside the room. Had I known this was what I was going to get, I might have booked here instead of where I'm staying during the convention, even though it would require more walking to get back and forth from the hotel to the convention center.

Here's the view from the bedroom. Besides the Space Needle, you can also see the Sheraton Grand only a few blocks away. I booked my room in the Sheraton because it's the Worldcon party hotel and I thought it best to be relatively close to where Montreal's nighttime activity was happening, although I'm unclear on how many of our parties I'll be able to attend thanks to my sleep schedule.

It is a very nice room; comparable to what Cheryl got us at the Doubletree in Victoria a few months ago, although this room doesn't have a balcony.

It's a decent bathroom as well, including a bathtub. I think I may take a bath tonight, as we don't have a tub at home, only a shower.

Mind you, I expect that had I booked this for the longer stay during all of Worldcon, the chance of getting this nice suite upgrade would have been much lower. In my experience, the shorter the stay, the more likely you'll get upgraded.

After unpacking and checking messages, I went out to see how hard it will be to move to the Sheraton on Tuesday. The answer, fortunately, is "not so bad." It's only three blocks, all downhill, and nowhere near as steep as the climb up Seneca Street to the Crowne Plaza was.

I then walked down to the Sephora to confirm that I had understood the map properly and to figure out how long it would take to get there. After that, I located a Walgreens that wasn't too far away. I'd forgotten a couple of toiletries items that were easy to replace there, and I also bought some milk and soda. Across the street from Walgreens was a Chipotle, and I got a burrito to take back to the hotel. I was pretty tired already, and besides, having such a nice room, I wanted to get some use out of it.

Anyway, that was the trip to Seattle. I do not expect to update daily on this trip, for the reasons I've already given.