19 March 1998           3:35 PM

I'm waiting at gate S10 at Sea‑Tac, our lovely airport.  I made the bus to the airport by 2:10; very fast, considering I left my apartment about 1pm and it's two buses, a four-block walk, and fifteen miles to get from there to here.  But now I'm here! 

Lunch at Taco Bell express here at the airport.  Yummy.  Okay, I'm being ironic; it was what you'd expect from a Taco Bell Express at the airport.  Then I called everybody, everybody being Dad and work, to see if I'd forgotten anything.  I hadn't, except for my outdated Lewis & Clark ID; I still haven't picked up my SU ID card, so I use my LC card for "student discounts."  Not this time.  Oh, well.

I paid $136 for £75 British at the Thomas Cooke exchange booth at Westlake Center (on the way to the bus tunnel).  That's a $13 service charge.  What a rip-off!  But at least I've got money on arrival.  And the airport exchange rate, when I got to Sea-Tac, was even worse, $1.77 a pound, when the rate should be closer to $1.66.  Ugh.  But I found £2.21 in coin at home, from our '96 trip.  Tube fare at least.  Maybe.  So now I've got £77.21.  Wow.

So I'm waiting at the gate, and there are about two dozen high school aged kids waiting here, too, with chaperones.  It looks like I'm flying with some kind of youth group ... young Christians?

They're wearing sweatshirts.  Okay, I read their sweatshirts: HOOD RIVER VALLEY HIGH CHAMBER SINGERS.  They seem like decent kids, if not a bit high-spirited.  But then, they are going to London (I'm assuming), and so I know the feeling.

After a while, they gathered in a group and sang a few "songs" in the hall.  Very lovely harmonies!  More like church or classical music.  Obviously they're not a pop group.

A purple airplane landed about 4pm with the logo "Phoenix Suns" on it, near gate S10.  Could it really be the Suns in town for a basketball game?  It's off by itself, being unloaded on the tarmac, not a gate.

The singers are starting again.

My seat is 32G, on the aisle.  Which is what I wanted.  I can't see anything from the window seat anyway.  And I hate stepping over people if I have to make a run to the loo after sitting for eight hours.

It's 4:22; the lady at the counter said we'd begin boarding about 5pm.  Our flight leaves at 5:45 (or 17:45, in British).

Anyway, as we're waiting, here are a few words about what to expect on our journey, courtesy of Donald Goddard and his wonderful book Blimey! Another Book about London: