Saturday, December 31, 2011

Seven in Seattle

Wow! After a busy December things are finally beginning to get back to normal. Where to start? Well, maybe in Seattle. My family drove to Seattle on the Thursday before Christmas so that my dad could do a wedding for some friends of ours. They put us up in a hotel for two nights.

Well, let me just say this...there are seven people in my family. For some reason we tend to be rather loud...messy...expensive...We stick with places like, well Motel 6. The kind of places that have faded signs with peeling paint, hard beds, and one room for the seven of us. Places that feature thick gray slush dumped over biscuit shaped rocks as a delicious choice for our breakfast.

The Hotel Sorrento was not Motel 6. The Hotel Sorrento was a tall building with a waterfall in the front, concierges who parked our car and opened the doors for us. The Hotel Sorrento was a place with tall ceilings, brilliant chandeliers, plush couches and crisp, uniformed receptionists. The Hotel Sorrento was exactly the opposite of most hotels we stay in.

WE got out of the car and dragged our many suitcases into one of the fanciest hotels in Seattle. Two receptionists were involved in a hurried conversation as they exchanged worried glances at our family. Now this is just a guess, but it probably went something like this:

“Oh my gosh, look at the size of that family!”

“Where did you say their room was again?”

“Floor two, but we put them the farthest back so it will decrease our chances of hearing them.”

“I know, but floor two, really, a few more floors up and we'd hardly notice they were there.”

“I doubt anybody could ignore a family that big.”

“And they have two rooms, too. The parents won't be able to control their own kids, look at those little ones, they're crawling around on the floor.”

Well, we finally managed to get to one of our rooms. We opened the door. It was dark for about five seconds and then somebody found a light switch and the whole room was flooded with light. We looked around. Then Claire asked, “Is there a reason why there is a picture of those naked ladies on the wall?”

Now, I know that it's supposed to be a form of art and all and yadayadyada but I still don't see any reason to be walking around the hotel slapping disgusting pictures of naked women on the walls for people to be having nightmares about as they drift off to sleep. Well, my dad walked over and tried to yank one of things of the wall, but what do you know? They were glued on fast. By this time it was getting late, and so, with a promise to track down some tape my parents headed out the door to the wedding rehearsal.

The five of us waited....and waited...and waited. And I began to think that it was not the most brilliant idea when I promised my mom that we could handle everything. Emily and Ashley jumped from bed to bed, then, when they got bored of that they made a pile of loose sheets, blankets and pillows and jumped off the window sill into them. Finally it was 7:00. Claire was looking out the window when she saw Galen and Hannah, (the couple that were getting married), drive up and walk up to the hotel. Well, the five of us started knocking on the window to get his attention. They waved and smiled and we moved away from the window to get ready for dinner. All of a sudden we hear this banging on the window and there is Galen, holding onto the window sill and smiling happily. Well, of course, we did the natural thing, we let him in.

When my parents came back they were thrilled to find us, with the window open, talking to a strange man who had climbed to our room via the fire escape and, oops “catch you guys later” he had to go to his wedding rehearsal dinner.

So that was the first part of our trip to Seattle, and I'm sure you'll enjoy hearing more about it later, when I get around to writing it!

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