Seattle Washington 2009 BellaOnline Gathering

Every year BellaOnline holds a gathering to support our editors. We choose an interesting location - Las Vegas, Orlando, - and we meet up together to discuss earning income on the web, building traffic, self publishing and other topics. Every one of these gatherings has involved us running around like madwomen to see all the sights, walk 10000 miles in blazing heat and wearing ourselves out.

In 2009 we all voted to meet in Seattle, stay put in one spot, and to have a peaceful, serene gathering in a quiet location!

The JetBlue flight out was early for me. 8am flight out from Boston! In fact when I got to the airport the entire plane was full and I was in a center row. The only way to get a window so I could sleep was to upgrade for $40. I hemmed and hawed and finally did it. I had NO sleep and was exhausted. It turns out it was an exit row so I couldn't recline! It figures. Still, with my headphones and my "sleepy time playlist" on my iPod, I slept most of the way. I got to see lovely clouds to look at before I fell asleep.













Flight prices were insane, I had to pay $550 for a flight that usually can be found for under $300. I had to come in Thursday to get even that price, too. I was supposed to be meeting a friend from California so I booked us a lovely room in the SeaTac Marriott which has a pool, hot tub, sauna, etc. Unfortunately my friend wasn't able to come out, so I stayed alone.

Check-in was quick and easy, the lobby area was very lovely.







The room was quite nice. I thought wireless internet was free, but it's actually $13/day. Ah well, I definitely need my internet.











After catching up on all my email it was time to get some food. I took a walk through to take photos of the pool area on the way to the restaurant.

















By now I was famished (no food on JetBlue). However, the restaurant wasn't open. I went over to the bar. Not only were they open but EVERY person had a laptop out! Aha! I ran up to my room to get my laptop and found a table overlooking the lovely pool area. It was great. I had a delicious salmon with miso glaze. The TVs were all running stories about first Michael Jackson being taken to the hospital, then he was in a coma, then he was dead. It all cycled through during my lunch.







I went back up to the room to change into my swimsuit. I took the stairs down from the 5th floor. Oddly the rest of the hotel looks very clean and polished and nice, but those stairs are grungy!





Then I enjoyed the hot tub, went for a swim, and then went over to the sauna.







Strange, the lockers were all locked shut. I called the front desk and was told they were removing all the lockers. They would bring me a bathrobe to put over my things, and said I should just leave all my stuff (camera etc) outside the sauna door. That it'd be fine there. A bit bizarre, but ok :)

I don't think anyone else even knew the sauna was in there. I was all alone for the half hour or so that I was there. I did try out "hot yoga", doing yoga poses in my sauna-for-one. They wouldn't let you put water on the rocks, to steamify it.











Then back to the room to check on email. Fortunately our Etiquette editor was able to come out and join me for dinner. We had a lovely time! I had the cobb salad which was lovely, then I was lured into their chocolate lava cake dessert. Bad, bad. I didn't even finish half of it.











Then I headed back to the room to install and try out my new webcam. I had to try installing it 3 times in a row and finally I was exhausted. Time to get some sleep!

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Lisa's 2009 Travelogues Main Page
Lisa's Travelogues Main Page