Friday
The first full day with all the Reids in the same house. Yesterday Greg cooked the evening meal and today Maggi takes over the role of head chef.
Before we go shopping we need to go down to Pike place and pick up the hire car I’ve booked.
Overnight I slept on the sofa in the main room. Despite the fact that there are no curtains and blinds on the windows and it’s daylight at 4 am I slept through until woken by the children. Unfortunately this happened to be at 5:30.
Everyone who had flown in the night before came into the main room by 6:am along with Sadie and Carrie. The only people who didn’t appear just happened to be our hosts. They remained firmly tucked up in bed.
The dishwasher doesn’t work properly, because it refuses to expel all the water and so leaves a slimy mess in the bottom. Maggi and I try to clear it but prove unsuccessful.
Around 9 am Maggi and I decide we have had enough of clearing up for others and set off on a walk to Downtown Seattle to fetch the hire car.
Downtown Seattle
Maggi and I first of all headed to Highland Drive so we could look out over Seattle and enjoy the view. While we sat on a bench we heard a strange noise behind us. We turned to see a rather chubby looking woman in running gear lying on the sidewalk with her companion leaning over her. As she rose her mouth was covered in blood. I don’t think she had sustained any bad injury, more of a problem was probably the shock and embarrassment.
As we passed through the neighbourhood of Belltown towards the centre of Seattle the number of homeless people increased. It would be easy to be frightened walking through this area for a woman on her own.
We arrived at SIXt car hire about an hour early. We waited for one of the operators to be free. When we stood in front of the counter the woman did they didn’t have the car we ordered. She continued by saying we could have a more expensive car at a discounted price. Perhaps our car would be available at midday
We exited and wandered around the Pike Place area. We eventually found a place where we could buy a sandwich and then returned to SIXt.
This time the queue had grown. Only one person served the 4 people waiting for cars. Unfortunately she wanted to chat and ask where they intended to go etc. Eventually we stepped forward and she remembered us. I’ll upgrade you for free. We drove out of the garage with a Jeep Wrangler hybrid.
The Jeep
When Maggi and I popped into the house on the way to the shops all the kids ran out excitedly to see the new car.
We shopped and cooked in the afternoon. In the evening we ate and then cleared up. The others watched The Bear, but no one gave any positive reviews of the new series.
Only one of the adults did nothing and it follows a pattern. I wonder if the person thinks nobody notices the lack of assistance given to the team. I feel embarrassed for the individual.