Ian Rambles
Well positioned hostel right next to Pike Street Market.

Just before we left I got myself a quick haircut. A free ranging barbershop discussion and I managed to impress the barber because I once saw jimi Hendrix live.

Fiona's Journal
Got up at 7am to finish cleaning the RV. Of course, I hadn't got it done to my satisfaction by the time Ian was itching to get going. I wedged myself in the galley area and carried on as Ian drove down the highway to Langley at 110kph. I just can't overcome my upbringing in the matter of returning holiday accommodation spotless.
At the hire centre we were first in line and soon in the Minibus being driven to the US border. That was the only part of the day which proceeded with efficiency. As we waited at the coach stop we could see the slow moving line up for the border check point. Our coach arrived and we piled on and joined the queue of a dozen buses waiting to be processed. It took three hours before we were back into the US and driving the hour or so into Seattle.
Our hostel is called “The Green Tortoise” and is heaving with young, and not so young, backpackers. It is a lovely old ( by US standards ) property with high ceilings. The bathrooms are clean and tiled with big ceiling showers. The bunks are sturdy and spacious. There are communal spaces, shared computers – and George quickly worked out that he could borrow board games from behind the front desk.

Sunday July 27th

An excellent breakfast to start the day with “make them yourself” waffles, toast & jam, fresh fruit, chocolate brownies hot out of the oven and two cups of coffee. Ian went to the barber just round the corner from the hostel and got an excellent haircut and beard trim, accompanied by equally excellent conversation apparently, while the boys and I wrote postcards and finished packing. Then we caught the bus to Seattle's SEA-TAC International Airport where we hit our first hiccup of the journey at the check-in desk. North Western Airlines could not put us on a flight into Japan without seeing evidence that we had booked our passage out of Japan as well. We had originally booked a ferry from the South of Japan to Taiwan but had received an e-mail while travelling through California to say the ferry company had gone bust. Ian had then booked, on-line, a flight from Okinawa to Taipei instead but, having no printer with us, we had no written confirmation of this booking. We blocked our check-in lane for half an hour while Ian dug out a lap top, found a secure broadband service and paid for it, logged on and dredged his memory banks for the necessary links and passwords to reach the documentation we needed. NWA staff were very patient and helpful and were happy to transcribe the information off the screen and then check us in. Going through customs involved some fairly thorough bag searches and we were “patted down” but the staff were not unfriendly. Once in the departure lounge we exchanged our 450 US dollars for 43,500 Japanese Yen so it seems that 10,000 Yen is worth near enough $100 dollars or £50. If I think of the 10,000 yen note as a £50 note and the 1,000 Yen note as a fiver, I shall have an idea as to how much I am paying for things.
Our flight took off about 3.30pm, on Sunday 27th and in 10 hours time we will land in Tokyo at about 5.30pm on Monday 28th , 26 hours later. How weird is that!

Arthur's Log:
Mum's getting obcessive about cleaning the RV so that the people at the RV place told us that it was time to go.

The coach trip to Seattle was so slow over the border that I could connect to other peoples WiFi.

Customs are a pain in the arse. They say that they are keeping America safe - but its more they are keeping America paranoid.

I love Seattle. truly vibrant. We walked through the market with stall holders touting their wares and people buying their supplies.

I've decided to come back to Seattle one day - and stay in the Green Tortoise again.

George's Musings
Enjoyed playing war board games. I would have ;liked to have seen the first ever starbucks - somewhere in Seattle.