This trip was made only 2 days after we had arrived back in London from our short stay in Kuala Lumpur for Ben and WeeKin's wedding. Jet lagged but excited about going to America for the very first time, he overlooked that he had promised Mei a blog post about this trip. So this entry has been ghost written by Mei using Olie's photos and whatever memories he can recollect.
Touch Down
Day 1 Olie met up with colleagues at Heathrow airport, sunk a few beers then boarded his plane for a 10 hour flight. Arriving at his destination around 4pm, the Seattle winter conditions were a bit of a shock. After a train ride to the city centre and hotel check-in, the group met up with German and US team-members at a famous local seafood restaurant and Olie experienced his first seafood chowder. A trip to the local Blues bar was knocked back by the bouncer as the group did not bring along their passports for ID and therefore, the hotel bar ended up being the fall back destination for post-dinner drinks.
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| Rocky Mountains and frozen lake on route to Seattle |
Sightseeing in Seattle
Day 2 sightseeing commenced around Seattle with a trip to Pike market for breakfast.
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| Pike (fish) market |
EMP Museum
As the city is known for its music history, a trip was made to the EMP (experience music project) museum to learn about the lives of Jimmy Hendrix, Kurt Cobain / the story of Nirvana, and the special effects behind the movie Avatar.
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| Seattle Guitars |
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| Stage at the EPM |
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| Avatar Exhibit |
The Space Needle tower was visited as one of the 'must see' attractions of the city. However, the trip up the tower was deferred in favour of the Sports Bar across the road where many litres of beer was consumed whilst watching the NFL play-offs and absorbing some local culture.
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| Olie and the Seattle Space Needle |
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Beer Tower - evidence of boozing
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Snow in Seattle
Day 3, Olie spent his morning in the gym, the sauna and the spa and went for a walk to the Science museum but was disappointed as the target audience was kids. However, due to the weather conditions, no buses, 2 hour wait for taxis, Olie was restricted in what he could do and ended up spending the rest of the day at the local pub meeting more colleagues for dinner and more drinks.
Work not play
Days 4 - 6 were reserved from the work conference, a series of company sponsored dinners and boozing; with the final night being especially hazy in Olie's memory as they were celebrating a colleague's birthday but included some early morning wanderings around the snow-covered streets.
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| Seattle at night |
Flight to New York City
Just 2 hours of sleep later, Olie made his way to the airport in hope of catching his 7:30am flight to New York City. However, just 30 minutes before scheduled departure, the announcement was made that the flight was cancelled due to snow and the next available flight was 7:30am the following day. Left without many other options, Olie took the 50% discounted hotel rate offered by the airline for the local Best Western and slept until early evening.
Stuck in Seattle
Day 7 and feeling hungry, Olie was informed by the hotel that due to the snow, the hotel restaurant was not able to receive supplies and were out of hot food. The only option for a hot meal was at a nearby diner whereby the hotel offered to supply a free shuttle service. After eating at the diner, Olie was keen to ensure he caught the shuttle back to the Best Western and when a van approached, Olie raced outside and face-planted in the snow...and then realised that he had been chasing the wrong van.
Injured in pride and knee - Olie eventually made it back to the hotel and complained bitterly about the snow (that he had been so excited to see just 3 days before).
New York New York
It was Day 8 when Olie made it to New York City and started sightseeing straight away to make up for the lost day. Times Square, Broadway and the Empire State Building were visited, with the view from the Empire State Building at night being captured in many photos.
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| View from the Empire State Building |
Snow in New York
Day 9 and woken up by an early phone call from Mei (the time difference to London resulted in catching up over the phone at odd times), Olie was excited about spending his final day in Manhattan visiting more places. However, he realized that snow had followed him eastward and the city streets were covered in white powder. Taking a 3 hour bus ride around the island, he did not see any of the key sights - Statue of Liberty (blocked out by heavy cloud cover) and Wall Street Bull (covered in snow), but at least there was Central Park - the only enjoyable place to visit when it is snowing.
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| Olie alone on the tour bus |
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| Hard Rock Cafe |
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| Ice-skating at the Rockefeller Centre |
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| Central Park |
Journey Home
Overall Olie was not as impressed with the trip as he had expected, mostly due to the weather - too much snow and snow boots were not brought along; and also he missed Mei a lot! The plane back to London was delayed by 2 hours to allow the wings to be sprayed by anti-freeze and Olie had to settle for a bag of Reese's Pieces (peanut cups) to cheer himself up.
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| Ice covered plane wing |
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