Monday 20 June
I wake up in Holiday Inn Express, somewhere near JFK airport, not the city or time zone I was supposed to be at today, but oh well, lets just go with the flow.
The hotel does have breakfast but I have booked my taxi pick up before it starts. I manage to get a grab and go breakfast, not the best but at least its something.
My taxi arrives on time and its off on a new adventure, to Newark airport. As a bonus, the route is through Manhattan , so I get an unexpected sightseeing tour on the way to the airport.
I arrive at Newark in plenty of time, as it was early morning, the traffic wasnt too bad.
I check in and go through TSA with no issues. I have never been to this airport, so I had no idea about what food options or shops would be in the terminal and gate area.
The Delta terminal is small but there were some good food options. I got a Firehouse ham, egg and cheese sub for breakfast. I was a bit stressed out so I forgot to take a photo.
After having something to eat, I found my gate, and had a walk around the shop areas. I found the water refill station and refilled my water bottle.
About an hour before boarding, I went to Starbucks and got a coffee and a tomato mozzarella panni for on the plane.
This was my first flight of the day, Newark to Detroit and the plane boarded on time.
The doors closed and we started to push back from the terminal, but then we stopped. Oh no, really, whats going on? We sit there , in the middle of no mans land for about 15 minutes, the Captain announced a slight delay. But then a few minutes later the Captain came back said, many apologies, we have to go back to the terminal as there is a slight maintenance issue and we need to reboot the plane!! Omg, Im not the only one with a connecting flight in Detroit and I could see most passengers looking at their phones and getting stressed.
So we get pushed back to the terminal, the back doors are opened and the Captain powers down the plane. The we all sit in a silent plane and then it reboots and things start coming back on. The whole process takes about an hour and by this stage I know I have missed the connecting flight to Seattle from Detroit.
Anyways , finally we get going and are in the air. The flight crew were amazing. They went through the passenger list and found everyone who had a connecting flight and got gate information for everyone. During the flight they made announcements for all the different destinations, some people like me going to Seattle had totally missed the connection and we were told to go to rebooking. Some people were told, this is your gate number, they are holding the plane for you, so run when we get to the terminal.
Landing in Detroit, and everyone raced in different directions off the plane. I followed the line of people to rebooking and round two, different airport, different city, same procedure. Luckily this time, they were able to put me on the evening flight. Again Delta staff were amazing. Once I was sorted, I explained that I am international and needed to contact my hotel to let them know I would be a late check in. The Delta staff let me use the phone at the desk. I also had to ring the airport shuttle in Seattle and see if my booking from the previous night was still valid.
After getting everything sorted, I started to relax a bit and realized that I had about 6 hours in Detroit airport before my next and final flight to Seattle. I went for a walk around the terminal, got some food and found my gate. There were a few flights before mine at the gate, so I spent the next few hours alternating between resting in comfy chairs in various parts of the terminal and walking around the terminal. This was not how I planned to spend this day, but there was nothing else I could do.
It was such a relief when my flight info finally popped up at the gate area.
The flight was uneventful, I was just so done with travel at that stage, that I just wanted it all done.
Finally landing in Seattle, I couldnt believe that I had made it. By the time I got to bag reclaim, my bag was already out, which again was a relief. It seemed so long ago that I had given it to Delta staff at bag drop in Newark.
I had found a video walkthrough from the airport shuttle company of where to find them and had written down the route, so it was easy to find the pick up area. My pickup time was 11pm and I got to the pick up area at 10.45pm, perfect timing.
It didnt take too long to get to Seattle from the airport, I was checking in at about 11.30pm.
It was a really lovely hotel and room, its such a shame that I didnt have the days I had planned there.
I stayed at Embassy Suites Hilton, Kings Street Seattle, which is right next door to Kings Street Train Station.
I had a room on the 22nd floor, which had a great view of the city.
Even though it was late and I was so tired I had to repack my bags again. I found an amazing YouTube Channel called Grounded Life Travel. They are a couple who for the last number of years have been travelling around America on all the Amtrak routes. It was from watching their videos during the summer of 2021 that I decided to book the Amtrak train from Seattle to LA. They did a great packing video and showed exactly what they have in their carry on bags on the train. So using their video as a guide, I repacked my carry on, diving my things into what I could leave in the room and what I needed to have with me at all times.
Eventually after showering and having some snacks it was finally time to relax and get some sleep.
