My Trip to Seattle

[eyeball]

After spending a couple of days having a really nice visit with family in Seattle, definitely a fun place, my wife and I took my Mom to Sea-Tac to catch her plane back east. Mom has mobility issues and she'd arranged for an attendant to meet her with a wheelchair and they allowed me a pass to go with her through security to her departure gate. Isn't it always a hoot watching little old ladies and their stuff being swabbed for explosives? It seemed a tad paranoid though when they also swabbed and even searched the airport wheelchair the attendant had just put her into and pushed her around in but I figured, what the heck do I know about this stuff?

So after finally seeing Mom off and getting back to where my wife was waiting and walking her to where I'd parked, the el Grande coffee I'd finished kicked in and I decided I better go back to the departure entrance to use the can. I know this must seem like a little more information than you need but it is what it is. Anyway after finishing my business, sorry for the visual, and in an otherwise empty washroom I suddenly found myself surrounded by three Homeland Security Police decked out with bullet-proof vests, guns and stuff hanging out everywhere and little ear-plugs with curly wires that disappeared down their collars.

The one on my left gave me a kind of a hard stare then shrugged at the two between me and the door, one of whom murmured something to someone somewhere else through a tiny little mike. Nobody said a word to me. Maybe it's just me, but it sure seemed odd that all three of them all needed to go to the can at the same time. Everyone then sort of slowly turned and moved out the door and down the hall into the main lobby, them still all around me and rather obviously and uncomfortably close, towards the door outside where they turned back and I kept going, hair standing on end.

Maybe it was the drive north through Seattle morning rush-hour that gave me a sense of being in the Matrix. The coffee and adrenaline probably helped too.

[Derek 2.0]

I suddenly found myself surrounded by three Homeland Security Police decked out with bullet-proof vests, guns and stuff hanging out everywhere and little ear-plugs with curly wires that disappeared down their collars.

And now you're on the watch list, if you weren't already

For shits and giggles, apply for a NEXUS pass.........then you'll know

[The_Squid]

I like Seattle...

[bush_cheney2004]

Maybe there was terminal behaviour or other actions that got their attention, unrelated to your bio break.

Good thing it wasn't YVR and the RCMP !

Edited October 16, 2015 by bush_cheney2004

[On Guard for Thee]

Maybe there was terminal behaviour or other actions that got their attention, unrelated to your bio break.

Good thing it wasn't YVR and the RCMP !

YVR is fun, and the RCMP let you go to the bathroom all by yourself.

[eyeball]

And now you're on the watch list, if you weren't already

Probably some rat reporting me dissing Dubya or something.

For shits and giggles, apply for a NEXUS pass.........then you'll know

I can just see Homeland Security's threat assessment report on my application now...suspected perp left a stink bomb at Sea-Tac.

[eyeball]

Maybe there was terminal behaviour or other actions that got their attention, unrelated to your bio break.

Maybe when I left the airport for the parking lot and came back. Good thing they didn't pull their Agent Smith routine before my break.

[Guest]

YVR is fun, and the RCMP let you go to the bathroom all by yourself.

As long as you're sensible and leave the stapler at home.

[The_Squid]

Maybe when I left the airport for the parking lot and came back. Good thing they didn't pull their Agent Smith routine before my break.

It's because you looked Canadian....

[SpankyMcFarland]

Seattle is a civilized spot. I first visited it properly a few weeks ago, having driven through it on the way to Olympia many years previously. There's a good atmosphere, friendly and informal despite the many great companies that are from here. Even the hobos are fairly well behaved. Pike Market is something to behold and the surrounding mountains, islands, sea and lakes are extraordinary. The powers that be need to do something about the waterfront to get the traffic out of there but otherwise I have no complaints. Great beer too.

[eyeball]

Its a great place, even more laid back and left-coastish than BC in some ways. The uptight touches seem far and few between but do stand out, like at the airport. Then there was the Patriot missile battery I saw along-side some power-plant I drove by on 9/11/02. At the border crossing a few hours later we were suddenly surrounded by a about half a dozen people dressed like Darth Vader with machine-guns aimed at us. I was in an ambulance bringing my son home and we were told to go park by a building and wait. We waited and waited and we finally had to go to the can (is their a pattern here?) and stepped out of the van which prompted the SWAT team's sudden appearance out of nowhere.

I've actually only made a handful of trips south of the border and seem to have a habit of bumping into the authoritahs.

The first time was when I was about 5 years old on a trip to Niagara Falls and the US. When we stopped at the border on the way back my Dad answered no to the question, "did we stop to buy anything"? Me being the honest tyke I was piped up with, "But Dad, what about all the beer in the trunk". The thing I remember the most was Grandma who was in the back seat laughing her head off and giving me a hug and Dad's stink-eye in the rear view mirror.

Edited April 6, 2016 by eyeball

[overthere]

YVR is fun, and the RCMP let you go to the bathroom all by yourself.

Except for that Polish guy. I hear he emptied his bowels and bladder, neither in the washroom, after being greeted by the RCMP.