So, with regret, Guise will not be spending summer, or his birthday, stateside.

I already know about the relevant clearances needed to get into the US and about flight routes. I already know that I want to avoid traveling through Charles De Gaulle (Paris), and that I should expect travel times around 15 to 26 hours if I want to leave from my local airport. I already know about needing a US Dollar account and debit card, whilst bearing in mind that the exchange rate means I’ll have to have slightly more spending cash than last time when I came back with over a grand spending money left.

However, the planning for this years trip has been slightly more complex. As you may recall, last years trip to San Jose, CA, really revolved around two factors: being close to the Fanime convention and being somewhere central to see Dio, as she was at the time the only local I knew.

This year, the plan was actually to meet up with as many different people as possible, which meant that the first obstacle was to find a place people could actually reach. I looked at geographically central locations, which actually appeared to be Missouri or Ohio. This struck me with two quotes:

Yakko:“All is strange and vague”
Dot: “Are we dead”
Yakko: “Or is this Ohio?

and

Bart: Branson, Missouri. My dad says it’s like Vegas — if it were run by Ned Flanders.

However, our mutual friend, Kristiane of The Pilver fame through a rather fortuitous curve ball and suggested Seattle, WA.

Apart from the media, I’d only seen Seattle from the waiting areas of SeaTac and from the windows of planes, but it seemed a beautiful place and there seemed to be a fair amount of interest in the place. It seemed the most feasible spot, and so the destination became locked.

This did add a few minor issues in my mind, but ones that would spring up most anywhere we would have ended up. You see, nobody actually lives in Seattle, with Kristiane being the nearest, and most other people will be traveling in. This raises the question of how much time will be with other people and how much will be spent on my own – I don’t travel with people/I don’t have people to travel with. I’m likely to be Seattle for around 10 days and I know we’re fixing a weekend, I’m unsure if people will be around for longer either side.

This also adds to the decision about locating a hotel and the cost. I knew I was going to go for a Hilton or Hilton affiliate, mainly because I’m a member of their Honours program, and also because I’m going on holiday and therefore want comfort. If I’m on my own, I don’t want to spend ages traveling downtown, where most of the good stuff will probably be, so I’ll have to stay downtown.

The cost of downtown hotels isn’t cheap though, the main downtown Hilton is very hefty – and would be unfair to any people just making the trip for the weekend – and even moreso if you want one with a view. This isn’t too bad for me, as I’m British and anything above about six floors gives a unique view to me.

So, for me, I’m looking in to the affiliates and aiming for at most about $170 a night, given the number of nights.

Then we’re working out dates. I wanted to travel around the time of my birthday at the tail end of June, given two choices of date: the last weekend of June or the 4th July weekend. Obviously hotel costs and personal plans could have prevented people being able to attend, I think we’ve pretty much nailed down the weekend. For me, I just have to get confirmation of my bookings for both hotel and air ticket.

I have to still work out things to do whilst in Seattle, though I have a short list of ‘kinda want to do’:

• Go on the Underground City tour

• Go on the Pike Place ghost tour
• Visit the Sci-Fi museum
• Visit the Space Needle
• Visit the original Starbucks
• See a Baseball game
• Visit the Seattle Metaphysical Library
• Hookers and blow
• Hang out at a mall

Of course, I still have to work out all the other little things like wi-fi, communication and transport links which all differ city-by-city and state-by-state. I need to find out all the who and when details.

However it does seem to be slowly building and hopefully the crescendo will receive a standing ovation and not just the sort of clapping reserved for relatives at a school play organised by the teacher who is into ‘environmentalist issues’ and interpretive dance.

Guise Goes Global – Seattle, WA – June 2010