Our Awesome Asian Adventure: Part 1 (Pre-Japan)

When I started this blog I wanted to make it a goal to regularly update it and not have it turn into the same timing with which I write in my journal (pretty sure my last entry was over a year ago). I'm not a fan of having to sit and write for hours in an attempt to update everything that has happened. Well... since going on vacation to Japan for two weeks I think I will make an exception for my distaste in writing long posts  because I want to remember every detail, good... and bad lol. 

So here we go...

Day 1: Saturday February 9, 2013

Today was the beginning of our "adventure" as I now like to call it. We flew out of Oklahoma City to Las Vegas and then on to Seattle. When landed in Seattle around 8:30 at night and stayed the night in the airport in hopes of catching a Space A military flight over to Japan. Sleeping/sitting in those insanely uncomfortable airport seats for 8 hours is something I could go without doing ever again. At 4:30 a.m. we meet for roll call only to find out we didn't make the flight. (Small fact leading up to this trip.. Brandon is the best trip planner ever! I love being married to him because whenever we go anywhere I just go lol.. I don't have to plan or think about anything. He always has it all figured out down to what places we will eat for the entire trip. For this trip he had been tracking the military flights to predict our chances of making it to Japan for months, so for us not to make this flight was a shock and something we were totally unprepared for.)

So at 4:30 in the morning after having no sleep for almost 24 hours we were stranded in the airport with no where to go. This was not the way I had hoped to start our trip. Luckily my trusty trip planner found a hotel online that would allow us to check in at 7 in the morning. That trusty Red Roof Inn was instantly my best friend offering me a shower, a place to brush my teeth, my own bathroom, and a nice bed with fluffy pillows.

Day 2 and 3: Sunday and Monday, February 10-11

After catching a couple hours of sleep we decided to head out and see the sights of Seattle.

Our first stop naturally revolved around food. We ate lunch at Merchant's Cafe where we had salmon fish and chips. Best fish and chips I've ever tasted!! It is supposedly the oldest restaurant on the West Coast in its original location. It is also said to be haunted which of course made Brandon want to go poking around. (He has this weird thing with wanting to see a ghost)

Next we took a walk down to the pier and took a stroll through the infamous Pike's Street Farmers Market (This was my absolute favorite!! Brandon kept laughing at me because all I kept saying was "This is awesome!" I was on sensory overload. It's too bad Enid Farmers Market isn't as exciting.)

  

The produce here was amazing!! We bought fresh apples and pears for breakfast the next morning.

We made our way to way to the Space Needle which was a nice "cross that off my bucket list" moment. Next is an important tip for anyone ever visiting Seattle... There are no restaurants worth eating at open after 7 p.m on a Sunday night in downtown Seattle. We spent a good two hours walking around looking for a place to eat.... ended up in some sketch parts of town and I pulled the "I don't feel safe" card and convinced Brandon to go back to the hotel and order room service. All in all a really good day minus the cold pizza we ate for dinner.

The next morning was Brandon's 27th birthday. What an old fart! lol jk.. It always makes me laugh that Brandon regularly forgets how old he is and needs me to remind him. I'm not sure what we are going to do when both of us start forgetting how old we are. 

We spent the day in Seattle again (killing time waiting for our next attempt to fly out on Space A Tuesday morning)

We made our way back down to the farmers market where we grabbed THEE BEST clam chowder ever! (I am blessed to have a husband who loves to snoop out the best food spots in whatever part of the world we happen to be in at the time. Hopefully this blog doesn't turn into me just blabbing about food... but I have to say I have eaten some awesome food since Brandon came into my life)

Next we went on an awesome tour of the underground tunnels in Seattle. I'm not much of a history buff but apparently Seattle was burnt to the ground and they just built on top of the old city. Really cool to see and even cooler that we didn't run into any rats like the tour guide kept telling us to watch out for.

Next we had our special dinner reservations for the birthday boy's big day at Anthony's Pier 66. Phenomenal!!! Beware more food pictures...

Seattle it's been great but we are ready for Japan!! Kissing the West Coast goodbye!!!

Or so we thought......

Long story short... We check out of the hotel at 3:30 a.m. and head over to the airport for the 4:30 roll call. I literally thought my heart was going to beat out of my chest I was so nervous. 4:30 rolls around and we are number 31 and 32 of 33 passengers who were allotted seats for the flight. We grab our "golden ticket" aka our yellow seat of paper with Brandon's name on it and run to the check in line. While waiting in line a duty passenger (someone on orders to go to Japan) shows up which means the guy behind us has to give up his seat to him. We are five minutes away from checking our bags and crossing our fingers no more duty passengers show up when.... our worst nightmare.. A duty passenger shows up meaning there is only one seat available. Needless to say that was the biggest emotional roller coaster I've ever been on or want to be on at 4:30 in the morning.

So what is our next move... we randomly decide to buy a one way ticket to Japan and catch the Space A flight back to the States at the end of our trip. After Brandon spends hours on the phone and I sit and think about how this trip just got a whole lot more expensive than we anticipated.... 

But!!..... Japan here we come!!! 

Part 2 of Our Awesome Asian Adventure to come... eventually hahaha.. (it's taking a little longer than I anticipated to write about this trip)