Day One

At least I think this was all only one day, it could have been more. Looking back on it, I don't see how it could have only been one. It all started much too early (430a?) when the FP Gal left the house to take her parents to the airport. Relia woke about a half hour later, much too early, and that meant that I couldn't go back to bed.
Then the FP Gal called and told me that her parent's flight had been canceled and they needed to figure out the best way to continue. I used my travel agent experience to give them advice (which didn't help). Eventually they were bumped to a later flight.
Meanwhile, our ride showed up and we were off. We were ticked on a late flight (9p-ish) but were trying to fly standby on a much earlier one. At midnight, we'd logged onto NWA and made the change. Or tried to. Ended up calling and confirming but somehow that didn't go through. So when we got to the airport, we had to get that all sorted out and get checked in.
Off to the gate where Relia promptly made friends with everyone on the plane. This was part one of our flying strategy. Part two was to see if she'd sleep through the majority of it. On to the plane and everything looked well timed. And then we were delayed. A mechanical problem that kept us on the runway for an hour. She winked out just as the flight took off. She slept for an hour and was very good for the next two hours. A bit of struggling near the end but nowhere near the nightmare I was prepared for. The only minus was that the lady in the aisle seat never left her seat so we didn't have a good chance to get up and move around at all.
Into the airport, and immigration (or customs, I get them confused) went smoothly. Got out baggage and found some space for Relia to run around in. Also found a free SmartCarte, at least we couldn't figure out a way to pay for it. The FP Gal thinks it was subsidized by the Canadian gov't. If so, thanks Canadian taxpayers! Picked up the car with no trouble and left for Seattle.
Did you know that the use something called 'kilometers' up there? No seriously. Apparently they are composed of 1000 'meters'. A 'meter' is some undefined measure of length. Each 'kilometer' is something like 3/5 of a mile. The system is designed to trick Americans into speeding. To add to the confusion, our car only had miles listed so we had to convert. Or just drive the speed of the other cars.
Which we did until we got to the border. Well, actually we did then too. Unfortunately, that speed was something like 1/2 of a mile per hour (roughly 8 kph or something like that). The border features a lovely grassy area where passengers can get out and have a leisurely picnic and a nap while the driver moves forward at a glacial pace. It's very pretty and I'm guessing the that the Peace Arch is one of the most photographed border crossings in the country. Seriously, what else are you going to do there?
Finally got through (our border agent was from northern Minnesota) and kept going south. Stopped in Bellingham for lunch. This is a lovely town about 20 miles (72 km) from Canada. It's a prime spot on my wish list when I someday convince the FP Gal to move so we had to check it out. I think she was impressed.
Then down to Seattle. Traffic was going the other direction so we had a smooth time. Checked into the hotel, met with Heidi to get the pack and play (crib). We checked in about 7p local time. That means that we were on the go for about 14 hours. Then we all collapsed.