15th Sept
Pre-travel dayThis morning we woke up at 0630 and I set out to complete my Peloton workout while Rob showered and started cleaning (we like to leave the house clean and tidy for when we get home).
After I was finished we had breakfast and then cleaned the rest of the house and did some laundry. Rob did his Peloton workout before lunch and then cleaned the last bathroom.
We had lunch at our local cafe and then returned home to pack, this took us an hour or so and then we were ready to go.
We left the house at around 1500 our estimate to airport was just over 2 hours but we stopped to top up the charge on the car near Fleet where we picked up a snack from Starbucks and actually arrived at 1800.
We had booked the Hilton Garden Inn (not the one attached to T2) using our Hilton points and so the only charge we had was for parking which is currently £15 per night.
We walked to a garage just around the corner (the hotel is walkable from the Hatton Cross station for info) and got subway plus some chocolates and crisps as we didn’t want a big meal after lunch.
We then watched TV in the room before bed.
16th Sept
Travel Day
We were awake at 0630 again as we weren’t sure how busy Heathrow would be and we were leaving the hotel by 0730.
We parked in long stay car park which I think cost us £150, it was quite busy in the section we were directed to but we found a space near a bus stop in the end.
The bus trip itself was scary as the driver moved off before everyone could put their luggage on a rack and her driving was a little erratic too!
We arrived at T3 where there was no queue for bag drop they printed out boarding cards (we had them on our phones) and then security took maybe 5 mins and we were into departures by 0815, very smooth despite hearing how busy Heathrow is all the time now.
We had booked the No1 lounge (cost around £60) so headed towards the lounges, we had to wait to check in for a few minutes and were directed to a table (which was next to the doors to the kitchen) and told to help ourselves to the buffet.
Sadly, it had a very small selection and there was toast as far as I could tell which seemed odd but I didn’t bother to ask.
We both had sausage baps and I had pancakes from the machine plus some mini muffins.
We also had tea, coffee and coke but it was definitely not the same experience as the virgin lounge!
We stayed at the lounge until 11, walked to the gate where we literally walked straight on to the aircraft which was a bonus.
We departed on time and were quickly given drinks and pretzels once in the air.
Lunch followed soon after, I had pea, mint and cheese pasta (an odd combination but it wasn’t too bad) and Rob had chicken and bacon in a wine sauce.
Covid seems to have impacted economy food, we got the meal plus bread and a chocolate pot. No salad or cheese and crackers
Later we had an ice lolly despite the aircraft being set to below zero temperatures and I had it regardless.
With about 4 hours to go they brought round “cheese toasties”, neither of ours were remotely toasted and so we didn’t eat them. They also apparently contained onions but they didn’t mention that when handing them out.
I watched Turning Red and A Star is Born plus several episodes of Brooklyn 99.
Afternoon tea served before landing which was two finger sandwiches (cream cheese and mozzarella with tomato chutney) plus scone and a small chocolate.
We landed at 1330, baggage collection took ages (this happens before immigration in Seattle) and we took about 1hr30 to get through.
We requested a Lyft and it arrived quickly, the cost was around $60 inc tip. The drive was stress free and took around 30 mins.
We arrived at Homewood Suites by Hilton and checked in; we had a 1-bedroom suite which was very spacious although we looked out onto I5 which was quite noisy and bizarrely we had a balcony (which wasn’t mentioned anywhere on the website).
In typical arrival night fashion, we didn’t want to go far to get food, so we went next door to Romios where we got pizza and some cheesy garlic bread which was really good.
We stayed awake until about 1830 which felt really late given the 8-hour time difference and was a similar time if we had been in Florida.
