I've done some forshadowing in a few of my earlier posts about how this trip was low-key life-changing, but I kept putting off writting about it... No longer! In this post I'll tell you a little about why I was so impacted by this trip to visit family as well as where the picture I use for my about me came from!
BEFORE THE TRIP
My family had been planning this trip to meet with my dad's side (the weird side) of the family for at least a couple of months by now. Originally they had planned for me and my big sister not to go; I was in college and she was working as a banker, so my parents didn't want to interupt our very important lives with a trip across the country. On most occasions, I would have been fine to stay home. Happy, even. But not for this.
Everyone was going to go visit my grandparents, Nana and Papa is what we call this set, and Nana and Papa are getting dangerously old. When I heard I was going to be left home while my family visited them for what could be the last time (any time could be the last at this point) I was righteously outraged. 'I may be in college, but I REFUSE to sit at home when I could be spending time with my ancient grandparents!'. Of course I don't really talk like that, but I had my foot down nonetheless! Plus my favorite cousins were going to be there.
Luckily for me my parents are always very understanding and rational so we worked together to form a plan: my big sister and I could accompany them on their trip, but only for a glorified weekend. Then we would fly home together and get back to work. The main thing about this plan was that we would all be there while visiting Nana and Papa and all the other cousins. Most of the trip was going to be visiting other people and hanging at a beach. I would be there for the part that mattered, and then go home. That works for me!
All things said and done: eveyone would fly over together, we'd meet some cousins at a hotel, go hang with dad's parents for two days, spend an evening with an aunt, then my big sister and me would go home while the others played on a beach.
TRAVEL
Once the plan was worked out and the tickets were bought it was only a matter of waiting. But the wait lasted a hot minute and in that time I dropped out of college. That didn't change much aside from the fact that now I could have gone for the full trip (about a week) but we already got tickets for my flight back, so that was out of the question.
Anyway, the day came around and everyone (except my big sister who lives seperately) got into a car and drove to the airport. I'm pretty sure that at this point the government had just shut down and there was talk about air traffic controllers not getting paid. That made me a little worried. We got to the parking plot safely and bussed over to the main building of the DIA in all of it's circus tent glory.
Mom had pre-ordered a spot in security or something and we found the enterance, but my big sister was nowhere to be found. She was supposed to meet us at the enterance to security a few minutes before our appointment and instead arrived a few minutes after. It all worked out in the end though, security was fairly easy for us. Except for my big sister. One of the employees that scan the bags pulled her aside to inspect her bags. The gaurd asked if she had anything sharp in her bag. My sister, being the innocent citizen that she is, said no. She is always very careful to follow rules and hates to break them. It is against the rules to take sharp objects onto planes, so she made sure not to carry anything like that. She thought.
After she said no, the gaurd pulled a small switch-blade out of her purse. Whoops! My big sister apologized and explained how she forgot she had that and forgot it was sharp and whatnot. The security officer understood, but had to confuscate the weapon. Thinking she was done, my sister reached for her bag, but the buzzer beeped again and out came her other bag. Uh oh. Inside the officer found multiple containers with too much liquid. Toothpaste, hair product, face wash. My sister was devastated. That was expensive!
This event hit her hard since, like I said, she hates to break rules. She cried with the defeat and told us how she forgot that the bag with all the liquids was carry-on and not check-in. Absolutely valid mistake, and valid crashout. That will never stop me or my family from mocking her about it though.
Aside from that, travel was pretty good. I wore eyeliner and bangs (classic) and since this was the Denver International Airport none of the security personel who saw me and my driver's license cared even a little bit (whiich, I'll admit, I was a little afraid of). The plane ride was nice despite my little sister's panic attack. 'The plane keeps going up! Their taking us to space!' Cyberpunk Edgerunners calmed her down though. She converted her fear into vineboom sound effects everytime a character performed indecent exposure which was pretty much every scene with the white-haired lady that David simps for (she's a bit of a prude, I always go along with it because it's fun, but I have my own opinions).
Yeah. The flight was fun and went without troubles mostly. Then we landed in Seattle I think.
TO THE HOTEL
My parents always stress big when we travel. This trip was no different. They become little beacons of not-fast-enough and everything-is-bad. Personally, I like to enjoy life no matter where I am or how I'm getting there, but that's why I'm a bum. So you have me and my middle sister having fun while everyone else is stress-bouncing off of eachother and snapping at any comment of appreciation or any sign that someone else might be enjoying themselves. Fun fun fun... Food helps.
The Seattle I think Airport was maybe not as big as DIA, but it had a different architectural style that lent itself very well to liminal space photography. I especially liked the parking garages. As we exited the main building to bus down to the car rental place, I saw an amazing art gallery through a large open window. It was magnificent. Shapes and colors oh my. My family refused to look at it :( Too busy being stressful anxious haters I guess smh.
At airports there are also many interesting people. I remember seeing an old lady smoking on a rock wearing drug lord chic. There was also a kid that used his suitcase as a scooter (goals). But my family didn't care. They only wanted to get to the hotel. Maybe they were tired or something, but that's no excuse to hate everything. We bussed to the rentals, drove through the streets for a long time and saw pretty lights and fancy underpasses. My parents commented on how dirty everything was while I appreciated the grafitti. Finally, we made it to the hotel. It was an extremely average hotel, but the layout was interesting and the carpet pattern was nice. Our room was big and had enough beds for all six of us, two queens and a pull-out couch bed. We slept well.
AT THE HOTEL
I wrote this once already but then something strange happened to my computer and I hadn't hit save yet... I had some good stuff here but I forgot what it was, I just wanted you to know that.
Our hotel was a bed and breakfast, I'm not sure of the brand. Most days I like to wake up early, but that day I was tired from travel and everything that goes along with that so I didn't get up until my parents opened the curtains and the bright sunlight of the day hit my face. Most days Washington is not a sunny state. Most days it's a soggy, gray state. But today (and for most of the trip, the Washington sun smiled at us.
Luckily I wasn't allowed to sleep in too late since breakfast was over by 8 or 9am. My parents and one of my siblings informed me that they had already gone and eaten and they let me sleep as long as possible. I headed downstairs with my dad I believe and I got my food. At the end of our meal my cousins, who we were planning to meet here, pulled up and got their breakfast as well and sat at our table to talk with us.
It was fine, but I low-key have social anxiety (at it's worst in cases like these with people I've known but not for a minute) so I was stressing and tense. The lame thing about stressing like that is that I'm not at my best socially so I get even more anxious. Anyway, we talked for a bit and then (thenk goodness) the conversation was over. We went back upstairs.
I wrote all that but I don't think it's important. I kept it anyway, thanks for reading that bit. I kind of want to write the events in a novel-like style that's all artsy and stuff, but I'm too lazy for that so you just get this kind of writing instead. Holy mother of tangents wth am I writing rn? I guess it's sleep time for me... Catch you tomorrow.