Sitting in the airport ... again!

Having spent yesterday at The Ramada ... playing on t'interweb ... & catching up on sleep ... Sparkling Alice & Wolf Girl had to get up at 2am to catch the shuttle bus back to SEATAC yet again ...

The dynamic duo are currently blogging from their seats opposite the check-in desks ... which rather worryingly are not manned yet ... but having checked the board, it looks like our flight to Houston is leaving on time ... what will happen with our onward flight to Newark is anybody's guess as they are apparently expecting more snow this afternoon ...!

The only bonus of being delayed was that the girls got to watch the new episode of TVD in their room last night ... ;o)

Sleeping in Seattle ... again ...!

After saying goodbye to Chas & Ruby, Sparkling Alice & Wolf Girl checked into the Red Roof Inn near SEATAC, before having dinner at Denny's down the road & returning their rental car ...








Having re-packed their cases for their flight home ... the girls embarked on a relatively early night, in preparation for their 3.45am alarm call ...

Unfortunately, Alice's 'visions' were clearly impaired by the early hour, as although things initially went quite smoothly ... this all went pear-shaped when they got to the bag drop & were met by a Continental rep who kindly informed them that their flight to Newark had been cancelled due to the airport being under 2-3 ft of snow & therefore, shut to all flights ...!

After waiting in line for around 45 minutes, the check-in assistant advised Sparkling Alice & Wolf Girl that the earliest she could get them on a flight would be 6.10am the next morning ... & that flight would be to Houston ... at this point the girls got quite excited that they may get the chance to see Jasper on his horse ...?

However, she then went on to advise them that they would be picking up a connecting flight to Newark an hour later ... so that they could catch the 7pm flight to Birmingham ...

This unfortunate development meant that Sparkling Alice & Wolf Girl then had the dilemma of whether to spend almost 24 hrs in the airport ... or to try to get a room in a nearby motel ... they understandably chose the latter option & got on the phone ...!




10 minutes later ... having spoken to 'Kristen' on the phone ... they were waiting for the shuttle bus to the Ramada ...









Having checked in & phoned home ... Sparkling Alice & Wolf Girl did the only sensible thing ... & headed down to Denny's for breakfast ... picking up drinks & snacks for the rest of the day on the way back, to spend the day watching the movie channel ...

Fingers crossed that Benjamin will be able to control the snowfall on the east coast for long enough for the intrepid pair to get home without further delays ....

From Forks ... to Hogwarts ...

Sparkling Alice & Wolf Girl were up early on their last morning at The Cullen House ... not because they were eager to leave ... but because they had more shopping to do before they left Forks ...!



Alice was delighted to discover that it was gingerbread pancakes for breakfast ... having read about how fab they were in their room's journal ...!

Then, after saying "Goodbye" to the Cullens ... the girls finally left ... & headed to the Thriftway ... where they picked up a couple more things ... including another Twi-fan, who they took with them to Leppells ... where they'd been coveting a Twilight in Forks mug since they arrived on Monday ...

By now, Sparkling Alice & Wolf Girl were feeling a little like minor celebrities in Forks ... as most of the shop-keepers seemed to be recognising them from their trip last summer ... so much so that the girl in Sully's burger bar commented on it .. & the man in Native even re-opened the store after he had closed & gave them discount ...!



Just before 10am, the girls reluctantly dragged themselves away from their favourite place & headed through the stunning Washington scenery back towards Seattle ...

When you see the way the mist hangs in the trees like cotton wool ... you can really understand why Stephenie Meyer picked this area of the Pacific Northwest as the backdrop for her amazing stories ...

After a short pit-stop at Target in Silverdale ... Sparkling Alice & Wolf Girl drove back into Seattle to meet Chas & Ruby at the Harry Potter Exhibition in the Pacific Science Centre ... which although quite expensive ... proved to be very good ... & included outfits worn by Rob ...!









Sparkling Alice even managed to make one last Twi-related purchase in the shop at the end of the exhibition ....! ;o)

Decisions ... decisions ...

Our first morning at The Cullen House ... & Sparkling Alice is faced with the difficult decision of what to have for breakfast ... do I be good & stick to the fruit ... or do I be bad & have some of those delicious danish ...?

Even more difficult were the shopping dilemmas ....

do I like it ...?

do I need it ...?

do I want it ...?

can I afford it ...?

how much is left on my credit card ...?

will it go in my case ...?

When they'd finished their shopping expedition, Sparkling Alice & Wolf Girl went down to First Beach at La Push again, to look for Jacob ...

Wolf Girl spotted his paw prints in the sand ... & decided to follow them ...

... & found that they led back to his house ... where as the car repair business had dried up ... he had branched out into holiday lets ...

By this time it was late in the afternoon, & there was much discussion about where to eat ... as the girls had been informed that The Lodge had closed down last weekend ... various recommendations included The Rivers Edge (specialising in seafood & therefore, not high on Alice's list), & The Smokehouse (which also seemed to have a picture of a fish on the sign ...) ... so as there was a shortage of mountain lions available & all the grizzlies have hibernated ... Sparkling Alice & Wolf Girl decided to do the only sensible thing ... & grab a Bella Burger & Butterscotch Milkshake from Sully's ...!

Whilst there, they decided to purchase a second milkshake each ... to enjoy whilst watching Eclipse at The Cullen House later that evening ... having already watched New Moon the previous night ...!

Fun in Forks with friends ...

As they had travelled separately, the girls had arranged to call Chas once they got to Forks ... unfortunately, Wolf Girl realised they had not made a note of her number ... but Sparkling Alice had a vision of them visiting the Chamber of Commerce, & sure enough Chas & Sonia pulled in about 10 minutes after they had ...


Here we all are getting re-acquainted with the Cullen Clan ...









... being a medical student, Chas wasted no time in checking out Edward's non-existant heartbeat ...















... but after the excitement of this encounter ... she needed a calming influence ... so got up close & personal with a certain Jasper Hale ...

Wolf Girl had managed to negotiate a pact with the wolf pack, so that Sparkling Alice could join them on a trip to La Push at twilight ...

... & there was much hilarity, due in some part to the fact that Alice did not foresee herself falling over the driftwood on the beach despite the light of the new moon ...

... & the falling rain & temperature failed to eclipse the fun being had ...

... until it was time for Sparkling Alice & Wolf Girl to say goodbye to Chas & Sonia ... & head back to their beds at The Cullen House before breaking dawn ...

Time to visit the Cullens ...

Bright & early Monday morning, Sparkling Alice & Wolf Girl were up & packed, & on their way back towards the airport to pick up a hire car for their trip to visit their friends, the Cullens, in Forks ...

There was a little concern when Wolf Girl couldn't reach the pedals & couldn't figure out how to move the car seat, especially when Alice couldn't foresee which page the instructions were on in the manual ...! The girls also had slight issues initially with the size of the boot ... as it didn't look big enough to fit in the luggage they'd already got ... let alone allow for the amount of shopping that was likely to take place in Dazzled ...!





As soon as they had cleared the Thrifty forecourt, Sparkling Alice cranked up the music with the Streetdance CD to ensure that Wolf Girl stayed awake whilst driving ...











The dynamic duo were finally looking forward to seeing the Pacific North West as it should be ... wet & overcast ... however their hopes were dashed when the sun put in a rather untimely appearance as they were heading for Port Angeles!










... they needn't have worried as before long the inevitable happened ... & it started to rain in true Washington style ...












... & the girls were also delighted to find Crescent Lake coated in a rather eerie mist ....











At one point, Sparkling Alice & Wolf Girl got very excited when they thought they had spotted Damon sitting in a tree ... however, having performed an emergency stop ... they were rather disappointed to discover it was only an eagle ...

Happy Hour at Contour in Seattle ...

After a couple of hours back at the Ramada ... we were joined by our Hawaiian hunny, Chas ... who we'd spent many hours with on a San Diego sidewalk in June of last year ... patiently waiting for another glimpse of Peter Facinelli ...!

Having spent several years studying in Seattle, Chas knows all the best places to go & took us to one of her favourite places to eat ... Contour ...

Here we are ... enjoying a good girlie catch-up & some fab food ...