Lacey to Sea-Tac Airport
Today was our last day, and all we really had to do was to get the car returned by 4pm, then do all the tedious airport stuff.
Once we were showered and dressed, it was a bit easier to evaluate the packing progress, and by the time we left everything was crammed into three suitcases (one of the two small ones we brought, and the two larger ones we bought). That left one small suitcase empty…
We had breakfast at the Denny’s opposite the hotel in Lacey — it was busy and we had to queue. I resisted the Big and Bountiful Meat Lover’s Breakfast on this occasion, and had the smaller yet more expensive two egg breakfast. This sounds small, but includes bacon, sausage, hash browns and toast, which pads it out a bit. Since it was brunchtime, Debbie felt justified in having a "six mini cheeseburger" meal. This was a slightly cheeky description, as a mini cheeseburger turned out to be chunk cut out of a normal sized cheeseburger. Nonetheless, a mini cheeseburger would have made an ideal normal sized cheeseburger for a dwarf. Indeed, one could feed a moderately large family of dwarves with the six mini cheeseburger meal.
Next, we had to get to Sea-Tac airport, via a mall — so Debbie could stock up on Clinique products at US prices, and so we could get some clothes at US prices to fill that empty suitcase. I had identified three candidate malls on the way. The first one didn’t appear at first glance to have the kind of department store that might stock fancy makeup, so we drove on. Then, I spotted something I hadn’t noticed on the map: "Supermall of the North West". In this country, we reasoned, they don’t call something "Supermall" without good reason. We decided we didn’t need to see the other candidates, and made a beeline for the Supermall.
The first shop we went into had a sale on, and I piled up some shirts and some jeans. The sales assistant insisted that even though I wasn’t American, I could still get 10% off if I applied for a storecard. She was wrong, but since I spent the time filling in forms, she kindly gave me 10% off anyway, which was nice. While this fuss went on, Debbie consulted the mall’s Guest Information booth about makeup.
What Debbie found out was that this mall was more of an "outlet mall", and there was nowhere that would sell her the makeup she wanted. This put an end to our Supermall adventure, and just as soon as we managed to find the exit (not easy), we were back on the Interstate and heading for the Sea-Tac Mall instead.
The Sea-Tac mall had changed its name to "The Commons", which caused some confusion, but we didn’t take long finding a Macy’s, where Debbie bought enough makeup to last a year. We also found time to go to a Best Buy electronics shop, where I bought the Nyko iTop "iPod button relocator" I’ve been curious about, before getting back on the road to the airport.
The Supermall may well have been in the shadow of Mt Rainer, but it was at the Sea-Tac mall that we actually noticed it.
We were bang on time at the Hertz car return. We should have got a discount for our promptness. The receipt reads in part:
SEATTLE-TACOMA AIRPORT
RENTED: BOSTON DT
RENTAL: 07/11/05 11:30
RETURN: 08/06/05 15:56
MILES IN: 15618 OUT: 10916
MILES DRIVEN: 4702
That’s some mileage, right there. That’s more than half of what we do in our own car in a year.
Check-in was reasonably painless, and by the time we had made our way to the gate, submitted our fingerprints to the magic leaving-the-country security machine, perused the duty free shop, and eaten (prepacked Japanese), it was time to get herded onto the plane. At this point, I put my watch back to UK time, meaning it was Sunday morning, so Saturday’s entry ends here.