Sleeping in Seattle

Sleeping at SEA-TAC/Photo by Patricia Leslie

On the floor at 4 a.m. at SEA-TAC , but at least they had pillows.  If they had taken a right turn off Concourse C, they would have found sleeping pads (sans armrests) on couches. They missed the website/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Sleeping at SEA-TAC with what looks like a baby blanket, but where's the baby?/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Remind you of anything?  These were sea lions we saw (later, after the airport) from a catamaran on our way to Muir Glacier in Glacier Bay Basin, Alaska. The National Park Service Ranger on board the ship said the big one with his nose in the air was the King of the Lions. Thank goodness there were none of those at the Seattle airport (nor snorers) because from the boat we could hear this fellow bellowing.  I must say he was louder that all the security noise at check-in/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Remind you of ...us? We are all one big happy family anyway, just a bunch of mammals getting necessary rejuvenation. These are sea lions in Glacier Bay Basin, Alaska/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Day breaks at SEA-TAC/Photo by Patricia Leslie

From the airport, the Seattle landmark known as the Great Pyramid of the West?/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Day break is so purdy at SEA-TAC, I had to throw in this one, too/Photo by Patricia Leslie

To sleep or not to sleep in the Seattle airport?

I had a six-hour layover and rather than go to a motel and spend all that money and time, I thought I'd check it out, sleeping at the airport.

Was that possible?  Would "they" let me sleep at their airport?

I went online and found a handy site for sleeping at airports, called (strangely enough) "Sleeping in Airports" with SEA-TAC included, and off I went! 

Saving money?

Yup.

The website listed the best places for shuteye at SEA-TAC with sleeping “couches” and places to eat which stay open 24/7. 

I followed its suggestions for Concourse C but actually found more comfortable sleeping pads beyond C (exiting to the right at the end of the concourse) which wasn’t the quietest place to sleep (right beyond a 24/7 Security check-in) but given “security,” I figured I was pretty well covered and didn't have to worry about "security" all night with the cameras everywhere, and the passengers and crews checking in all night, darn them. 

(And nearby was a 24/7 restaurant.)

Bang! Bang! Clang! Clang! Thud! Thud!  Like at a train station, it was hard to sleep with all the security racket.

But now I lay me down to sleep and did cat-nap a while, waking every hour or so to check on my surroundings and to make sure I didn't oversleep (hardly) and miss my connection to Sitka.

Throughout the night, other sleepers joined me (where room permitted on the couches), and the population continued to change.

My worst complaint was my “pillow” made of my carry-on book bag and let me tell you, hard edges and corners of books do not make good bedfellows.  

To replace the travel pillow I lost last year (grrrr....Finn Air), I bought an American Tourister travel pillow this year, and it was so bad, I didn't care if I lost it, too, and so I did. ("Travel" pillows are not pillow pillows, if you catch my drift.)


The noise around me rose considerably around 4 a.m. when I made my final rising, feeling a little bit "scrunchy," but considering all that money I saved, "scrunchy" quickly disappeared. 

As I ambled down the concourse to my connection, I found sleepers on the floor, hugging the walls of the walkway in crooked positions, who, obviously, had not found the website, but they had pillows, at least, and there lay a person covered head to toe by a sheet and a pillow stretched out on one of those curving padded couches, I declare.

To my new friends on a tour of Alaska, sleeping in Seattle was a subject I mentioned more than once since I spent the “saved” hotel money about ten times over, chirping with every purchase:  “I’m buying this with the money I saved at SEA-TAC!” 

Before you know it, SEA-TAC may start a “sleeping fee” but, sshhhhh…not to mention ....

But, how about some pillow rentals? I'd pay for that!

Thank you, SEA-TAC, for letting me stay over!  

patricialesli@gmail.com

 

Update: Why I (used to) hate Dulles

Wikimedia Commons, Joe Ravi/CC-BY-SA 3.0

(Since this was originally posted in 2013, things have gotten far better for arriving international passengers at Dulles. Updated October 4, 2017)

Dulles' traffic is down. 

You don't say.

I can give you a few reasons:

1.  Inefficiency

2.  Sullen, mediocre staff

3.  Delays

4.  Time

On Saturday night I was one of about 300 deplaning from international flights at Dulles where "our time" was the middle of the night. Woe be to us.

I suppose it was a new experience for Dulles which must not have access to flight schedules so it didn't know 300 were arriving simultaneously to go through "passport control," and that is why only three of 24 lanes were open for U.S. citizens for "processing."   I was in the second line of between 10 and 15 lines, likely 30 deep each, at least.  I took photos, but, alas, I was thwarted by the Dulles' staff. Surprise.  Read on.

After 25 minutes a man in the first lane called out to an attendant:  "Can't you get more people here to process us?  My goodness, you only have three lanes open for all these people!"  She looked deaf, blind, and mute.  It was 7:55 p.m. EST and 3:55 a.m. Moscow time.

Five minutes later another lane opened to accommodate the hundreds of people.  Babies cried.  Spouses exchanged irritations.  Children asked "Why?"

It took 40 minutes for me to be "processed."  How long would you estimate the people in the last line waited?  That, in addition to another passport check and declarations of goods brought into the U.S. at another station beyond the first.   

This did not happen last year at National Airport where processing was uneventful and fast.  Maybe the Dulles' staff can attend classes at National Airport.

When I got to Moscow last week and some Brits found out I was from Washington, they rushed to tell me their horrid experience at Dulles when they visited the U.S.  "It took us two hours to get through passport control," they said.  Oh, really.  At the Moscow airport, we sailed through with three persons in lines at most, and were "processed" quickly.

The only time I ran into any security problems on my trip was at Dulles.  No questions (or police) at the Kremlin, in Red Square or anywhere else in Russia.  Not even from the Russian military I often shot.

When I photographed the throng of people and crying babies in the middle of the night at Dulles, I was rushed by "Mahder" who demanded I delete my pictures of Dulles and said she would watch me to make sure I did it.  Why can't I keep my pictures to show your inefficiency?  I asked.  She said she could not say why. 

One of my pictures was a stand-up advertisement in the last line we could read about 1,000 times which said:  "What are you waiting for?"  And on a brochure Mahder handed me:  "You're in a hurry.  Global Entry Makes International Arrivals Fast & Easy."  Ha!  Ha!  The joke was on us.

Dulles thinks it's the only airport with security in place and that's why no photos are allowed?  If you think D.C. is a police state, it will be confirmed for you on a trip to Russia where security is lax, and people laugh on the streets and are happy.  As Derrick from Britain said before the British Parliament voted to stay out of the Syria mess: "America attacks everyone, and that's why America is a target."

The only piece of good news from the night came from the bus driver who said the traffic to Dulles was so light on the bus line from Tysons to the airport, the fare had been cut from $5 to $1.80. 

I can tell you why.

You have heard the expression "I hate Duke." 

Well guess what.

patricialesli@gmail.com