Weekend Get-a-Way (get comfortable, this epistle is LONG)

Roger flew to Seattle the weekend of his birthday, March 16th, and since mine was on the 7th, we combined our celebrations. It was so fun playing tourist.

We stayed at the Hotel 1000. (Thanks Adam and Alisa for the referral.) While taking the kids to McDonald’s one morning for breakfast, I picked up the local paper. The local section had an article about how Seattle’s hotels are really struggling. Occupancy rates were down 40%. The article recommended ‘bartering’ among hotels to get a good deal. That’s all I needed to hear…I now had a mission to get the best rate ever. And that I did. Regular rates were over $300/night. I obtained our accommodations for $125/night!

Hotel 1000 is a cool, hi-tech hotel in downtown Seattle. The hotel had an Asian, Contemporary flair, my favorite. The room was breathtaking. I loved the soft clean lines of the furniture and accessories and it had a great view of the bay. One may wonder what a hi-tech hotel offers. We came to the conclusion it meant:

1)a large flat screen plasma TV that could be seen either from the king-sized bed or the large oval bath
2)a GLASS wall separated the bedroom and bathroom
3)a remote button that controlled the privacy shade that rolled down for bath privacy
4)a deep soaking tub and a separate, marble-walled shower stocked with Molton Brown toiletries
5)a bathtub that filled from a hole in the ceiling — and without splashing…pretty cool.
6)A bedside collection of Thoreau essays
7)infrared sensors, which scanned the room for body heat so that housekeepers didn’t accidently walk in on guests. Apparently, knocking was so last-century.
8)A weight sensored wet bar and refrigerator
9)no bed bugs (that’s important, since Roger just told me we’re going back to Mongolia the end of May!)

I’ll bet no one knows what #8 is. When we checked out of the hotel, the lady reviewed our invoice and said, “I see you had something from the wet bar.” I answered, “No, we didn’t use anything from the refrigerator or wet bar.” She politely answered back, “Madame, I see you ate the snickers bar and pretzels”. I thought to myself, “How did she know I PICKED UP the snickers bar and pretzels when I got a sugar urge at 11pm the night before, but decided against it and placed the items back in their respective places”. She informed us that all the items in the room were weight sensored….meaning they knew everything we touched during our stay. It was kind of freeky knowing someone was monitoring our every move. I felt we had been in a James Bond movie. I could have been content to stay in our room all weekend, but we had places to go and sites to see.

Roger arrived Saturday night. With GPS in hand, I picked him up at the airport (thanks Alisa for letting me use your car for the weekend). We had a fine dinner at Salty’s, a local favorite. On Sunday morning we woke up earlier because we HAD to attend Alisa’s ward meetings. You see, Alisa had volunteered me to play the organ for her meetings because they don’t have an organist. The congregation sings with someone playing the piano. I managed to get through that, then all of us went to Adam and Emily’s for lunch. The kids played together and we had a very relaxing time. We enjoyed visiting with Alisa, Sheldon, Adam and Emily….I especially loved the adult conversation since I had been immersed in toddler language the past 10 days.

Then off to visit “Underground Seattle”. This was a leisurely, guided walking tour beneath Seattle’s sidewalks and streets. The story goes: “Seattle had a fire in 1889. Started by an overturned glue pot, the fire spread rapidly and a drop in water pressure soon overwhelmed the city's firefighters, ending in the destruction of 33city blocks. Not an unusual event for that time. The reconstruction of those city blocks, however, followed a course that was most unusual.

In order to avoid flooding and sewage problems, city officials wanted to raise the levels of some of the streets to keep them away from nearby Elliott Bay, but the people in charge of reconstructing the buildings managed to outpace these plans. The result was that throughout much of the downtown area, many of the streets ended up being as high as 32 feet above the ground floors of the surrounding buildings and people literally had to use ladders to climb up or down to get across the street. To remedy these new problems, various bridges and sidewalks were eventually built, effectively burying the ground floors. Then, in the early 1900s, a plague hit and the entire area below the streets was condemned. The area thus became a prime venue for illegal activities such as bootlegging which thrived for many years with the old store fronts still intact.

The tour began at Doc Maynard's Public House, a restored 1890s saloon located in Pioneer Square. In the square, there is a 50-foot totem pole and the statue of the real pioneer, Chief Sealth, (for whom the city was named.) Here we were given an introduction to what life was like in Seattle during the 1800s. It wasn't pretty back then. The city became home to the original Skid Row (Skid Road).

There were a lot of unsavory characters hanging around town in those days. One of the more colorful groups were the women known as seamstresses (we would call them prostitutes) who spent a lot of time helping gentlemen into and out of their clothing as any good seamstress would do. The Gold Rush of 1897-98 had a lot to do with Seattle developing a less than stellar reputation. With all the steamships going north, Seattle became a jumping off point to the Yukon River in Western Canada, and it was around this time that the town's population swelled”.

Roger and I pondered the difference of how Seattle was first settled compared to how Salt Lake was settled. To see the filth and lack of planning of Seattle’s beginnings was a sharp contrast to how Salt Lake City was organized. We counted our blessings as we pondered the divine nature of the Salt Lake Valley. From the beginning, it was clean, organized and had purpose. Our testimonies deepened as we were humbled remembering the strength of the Utah pioneers. Both Roger and I have pioneer heritage in the SLC valley and we supplicated gratitude to our forefathers.

On Monday we dashed to the Boeing factory. It is located in Mukilteo, Washington, 25 north of Seattle. The Everett, Wash., facility is home to the 747, 767, 777 and 787 Dreamliner production lines. The Boeing factory is the world's largest building by volume (472,000,000 cubic feet). The site's main assembly building is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest building in the world by volume, or 13,385,378 cubic meters. We saw airplanes being built. The Boeing Everett plant is so large that it requires its own fire department, security force, fully equipped medical clinic, electrical substations and water-treatment plant. Storm water is controlled through a system of engineered wetlands and holding ponds, the largest of which can hold 20 million gallons (75 million liters), enough water to float an ocean-going ship. The aircraft fueling area has room for five airplanes, and pre-flight areas accommodate 26 finished jetliners.

Each day, parts and subassemblies come to the plant from all over the globe. More than a thousand suppliers ship components by truck, rail, air and ship from throughout the world and all 50 states. The largest parts are received at the Port of Everett, Wash., and then are loaded onto railcars that climb a 5.6 percent grade - the steepest active standard gauge in the United States.

After the Boeing tour we quickly drove to the Agosy Locks Cruise in downtown Seattle. The cruise connects the salt water of Puget Sound and the fresh water of Lake Union via the Hiram Chittenden Locks. We enjoyed the live narration of Seattle's history, while viewing the historic waterfront. We learned that the spectacular city skyline view is one of the world's largest shipping terminals. The weather was overcast so we weren’t able to see the majestic Cascade and Olympic mountain ranges. But we did see the "Sleepless in Seattle" houseboat community!

The weekend ended too soon. I dropped Roger off at the airport and had a lonely drive back to Alisa’s. My loneliness was abruptly challenged when I walked in the door. I was no longer lonely, for there were 2 lively kids awaiting my return.

Things I observed during my stay with Alisa and Sheldon:
1. Alisa and Sheldon are very committed and they work together in parenting and strengthening their marriage relationship e.g. weekly date nights, give and take with parenting responsibilities
2.Sheldon is one top-notch ‘hands-on’ dad and husband
3.Alisa is amazing adjusting to motherhood times 3
4.Alisa is a 'subject matter expert' in provident living e.g. food storage, meals on a budget, saving with coupons, prioritizing financial wants verses needs, consistent discipline (most of the time)and the judicious allocation of discretionary time and finances. As the kids grow up, she can include "CFO for large 24/7 company"in her resume.
5.Alisa is getting ‘pay-back’ with Ciara! Ciara reminds me exactly how Alisa was. Sheldon might be getting ‘pay-back’ as well….I’ll have to talk with Karen, Sheldon's mom, about that.
6.Alisa and Sheldon are striving to create a faith-based home, where they seek the Spirit daily to attend to the needs and challenges of raising a family in the 21st century.
7.DJ offers awesome prayers. They are from his heart. Each prayer is never the same. He is truly thinking when he prays. Ciara is following in his footsteps…it may take longer for her…but she has a great supportive team helping her along the way.
8.Love is felt within the walls of their home.
9.Kind words are spoken between husband and wife
10.Husband is VERY patient with post-delivery mother
11.Post-delivery mother accepted graciously and arose to the task of an unexpected C-section, relying on the strength of her faith in God.
12.Their commitment to serve others e.g. neighbors, work colleagues, and ward family is building character and testimony. I witnessed an increase of character and spirituality.
13. Sheldon is VERY patient answering mother-in-law techy and computer related questions.
13.I am so in awe at this family! I love all of you!
14.Jackson Joseph Frei is so cute!