I left the house at about a quarter to 4 am for an early morning flight out of one of my favorite airports, the Ontario Airport. It's some much easier to fly out of this airport compared to LAX. Even though my flight was with Alaska Airlines out of terminal 2, I had planned to park at the other end of the airport at lot 5. When I pulled up, I noticed that the entrances for lot 5 was closed. Turned out that they're doing some renovations of that lot. According to their website, lot 5 will reopen in November 2023. Fortunately, they had opened a new lot 6 across the street for $15 per day. I wasn't sure if there was a shuttle running out of this lot, but I usually just walk it even if I needed to go all the way to the other end of the airport.
Parked in new lot 6
After getting through the TSA checkpoint and using the restroom, I walked throughout the terminal to check out my food options as I normally fly out of the other terminal. I found something interesting and different. It was a Farmer's Fridge vending machine. It looked like they were selling farm fresh salads. Meals purchased from here would help provide a meal through Feeding America to a local member food bank. They also had a slot for you to return the jar after you're done with your food. It was too early for a salad, but I wouldn't mind trying it out the next time I don't have such an early flight.
Interesting, no divider for the 2 on the right
I had a window seat on the flight up into Seattle. The guy sitting in the middle seat didn't seem to speak or understand English all too well. He never spoke a single word and I had to use hand gestures to let him know what the flight attendant was telling him to do. He needed to unplug his device from the seat outlet during take off and landing. He also spilled his drink to which I gave him my napkin. He tried to give it back to me after he was done wiping up his mess, but I kept having to tell him to keep it. Anyway, during the flight, I ended up finally watching the movie, A Man Called Otto. That was a good, but very sad movie. Make sure you have some tissue for this one. They did a good job with this movie.
Foggy morning
Flying out to Seattle
The plane landed at Seattle Tacoma Airport at about a quarter to 9 am. After getting off of the plane and using a nearby restroom, I made my way out of the airport at the lower level to catch a shuttle ride over to the SeaTac Rental Car Facility. For this trip, I had a reservation for a compact vehicle with Budget Car Rental. I was about 10 minutes early for my reservation, but the lady that helped me was able to adjust my reservation so that I wouldn't have to wait around. That also meant I would have to return my car a tad bit early when I return on Monday to avoid being charged extra for going over another day. She also told me about Tesla cars being available for rental as an alternative to gas powered vehicles. I'll definitely need to keep that in mind since I've now gotten quite accustomed to driving my Tesla Model 3. I was given a white Toyota Corolla. She said and wrote Camry on my rental sleeve, but I knew what she meant.
Waiting in line
White Toyota Corolla
The race packet pick up for Saturday wasn't scheduled to begin until 2 pm. so I had some time to pass before heading down to Tacoma. I took this time to go check out the Funko HQ up in Everett. I encountered quite a bit of traffic during the drive up. Prior to this trip, I've never driven up this way before except for one road trip up to Canada many many years ago. It took about 1 hour and 15 minutes to get there. Fortunately, I was able to find a parking spot across the building. On the way in, I saw signs that said that they would be open during renovations. Even with renovations, you couldn't tell inside as everything was still very well arranged. It wasn't as big as their Hollywood location, but we'll have to see how everything is after they're done with their renovations. I was tempted to buy a Funko Shop Exclusive, but then thought better of it since I could just buy them back home at the Hollywood location. That way, I would avoid having to transport it back home. While checking the place out, I noticed that that big Millennium Falcon Pop with Lando that was sold at the Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim as a convention exclusive was available for sale here. I guess you don't really need to panic if you've missed out on any exclusive items! Another thing that I had noticed was that almost everyone inside the store was using one of the kiosks to design their own personalized Funko Pop. Currently, that doesn't interest me one bit. Seemed a bit vain. After about 30 mins of browsing and taking pictures, I was successful at resisting the temptation to make a purchase and headed out back to my car.
Funko HQ
Goku/Kakarot
Sailor Moon
Naruto Funko
Godzilla
Old school Batman and Robin with Batmobile
Wonder Woman, Harley Quinn, and Batgirl
Bob's Big Boy and McDonald's
Hagrid
Hermione, Harry, and Ron
Harry Potter
Luke Skywalker and Wampa
Darth Vader and snowtroopers
Thor, Hulk, and Hulkbuster
Stan Lee
From there, I drove down to Bobby's Hawaiian Style Restaurant to have lunch. I only heard about this place through Guy Fieri's show, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. It would seem that they were a bit understaffed or currently a pretty small operation. First I checked in with the person at the cash register. She asked if I was dining in. Since I was, she gave me a menu and seated me at a table. She told me to return to the register once I was ready to order. Unlike the usual dine-in routine, I paid for my food at the time my order was placed. I ordered their supah loco moco and a pass-o-guava nectar Hawaiian Sun. The food was excellent, pretty much on par with what I can get when I visit one of the Hawaiian islands. I used their restroom before hitting the road.
Bobby's Hawaiian Style Restaurant
Guy Fieri
Menu
Supah loco moco
There wasn't nearly as much traffic heading south towards Tacoma. Before heading up to the race packet pickup at Point Ruston, I stopped off at a Target to buy some water and a sports drink for Sunday's marathon.
Water
Gatorade
The venue for the packet pickup was the Silver Cloud Hotel, more specifically, the onyx room. I was planning to turn into the parking garage, but I mistakenly turned early and ended up parking at the Waterfront Market. Fortunately for me, a car pulled out just as I came along. The traffic was quite chaotic as I walked over to the hotel. I guess I must have drank too much water as I had to make another stop at the hotel restroom. The packet pickup was quite uneventful with separate lines for the half marathon and full marathon. My friend, Sherry, was a couple of spots ahead of me in the line. While there was a table that was selling some race shirts, there were no other vendor booths that I saw.
Race packet pick-up
Race shirt
Since there were signs warning that parking was only for Waterfront Market customers, I did a once around to check things out before heading back to my car.
I then drove up to the La Quinta near the SeaTac Airport. The parking lot was a bit cluttered as it would appear that they're in the middle of renovations. I rang the bell and checked in at the front desk. I was assigned room #201. Normally, I would skip the elevators especially when I'm on the second floor, but it looks like they locked the door to the stairwell on the first floor.
I got settled into my room and relaxed a bit before going back out to pick up dinner. Normally, I would get my pre-marathon meal at a McDonald's. Since good mobile app deals are starting to become scarce, I've been looking elsewhere. I decided to drive down to the nearby Dick's Drive-In. I ordered my usual Dick's Deluxe x2 and a vanilla shake. I definitely prefer their burgers even over McDonald's Quarter Pounders with cheese.
Waiting in line
Dick's Deluxe x2 and vanilla shake
I ate my 2 burgers and laid out my flat runner for tomorrow marathon while watching the Dodgers game against St Louis with Kershaw pitching. It was one of the few times that I got to watch my Dodgers play on TV. It was a pitcher's duel with the Dodgers coming out on top with a score of 0-1 with a save by Graterol.
St Louis vs. Dodgers
Flat runner
Sunday 4/30
I got ready and left my hotel shortly after 4 am for the drive down to Tacoma. There was very little traffic at that hour, so it only took about 45 minutes to get to Point Ruston. It would turn out that most people parked as close as they could to the finish line over at the Dune Peninsula at Point Defiance Park. I'm a newbie to this race, so I ended up parking up the hill on Commercial St just off of Baltimore St. I did notice that there were some temporary no parking signs located closer to the corner, but not near where I had parked. I just hoped that my car doesn't get towed as I walked down to Farrelli's Pizza to catch a bus ride to the start over at Tacoma Narrows Airport. I believe I had gotten onboard the very first bus. On that bus was my friend, Xiao. It was pretty cool to catch up with him. It has been a while since I had last bumped into him at a race. We didn't leave until the bus was full.
Biplane
Virgin portapotties
1919 Model 37 Oldsmobile
1930 Ford Model A Deluxe Sedan
Early starters pre race photo
Early starters at the start line
Smaller Marathon Maniacs photo
Marathon Maniacs
PK, Karen, and Dan
Pacers
Marathon course map
Here we go!
Ready to cross the Tacoma Narrows Bridge
Karen
Welcome to Tacoma
Out and back on the Scott Pierson Trail
Dan running just ahead of Lorinda pacing 4:15
Crossing the 16 overpass
Leapfrogging these ladies for most of the 2nd half
Cade
More Marathon Maniacs on the course
Steve
Approaching the finish line
Finish: 5:14:32
Click here for my Garmin data.
I guess that was not bad considering I went into the race only wanting to keep it under 5:30. Slow progress is still progress!
I received my finisher medal to go with the 20th year reunion coin that I received at the turnaround point at about mile 19.5 on Dock St. Then I moved onto the grassy area to meet up with my friends that had finished ahead of me.
Finisher medal and coin
Side 2
Runner originally from Hawaii pushing stroller
I was pretty wiped out from this marathon. After taking a few post race photos with my friends and getting my race results, I started walking back to my car. Thankfully, my car was still there. It would turn out that a fellow runner also parked where I had parked.
Dog greeting owner
Post race photo with a few of my fellow Maniacs
During the drive back to my hotel, my right leg cramped up. That's not good and quite uncomfortable when I'm trying to drive a car on the freeway! Along the way back, I got off of the freeway a few exits early and dropped by Dick's to pick up a meal. My legs definitely were not cooperating as I was waiting in line to place my order. They were quite wobbly! Once it was my turn at the window, I ordered my usual Dick's Deluxe x2, but this time with a strawberry shake. Once I got back to my room, I found that both of my room keys would not open the door, so back down to the 1st floor to get my room keys fixed. I apologized to the employee at the front desk that I might had placed the keys too close to my cellphone. He responded saying that it probably wasn't anything that I had done and that their system was old. It was possible that the girl that had checked me in only activated my keys for 1 night. After getting into my room, eating my burgers, and taking a shower, I was super tired! I laid down in my bed and pretty much passed out for the rest of the evening. As I had eaten a late lunch, I didn't bother going back out for dinner.
Dick's Deluxe x2 and strawberry shake
Bob's Burgers Vampire Disco Death Dance
Monday 5/1
As the time approached 9 am, I checked out of my room and dropped off my room keys at the front desk. As I went out to my car, I noticed a couple of big rigs in the parking lot that were being unloaded. I hope this place gets a very nice makeover. I hopped in the car and drove down to the nearby Shell Gas Station to fill up the gas tank before returning the car. It was in the opposite direction of where I needed to drop off the car, but the prices were much lower than the gas stations that were closer to the drop off location.
Shell gas station
I dropped off the rental car at the SeaTac Rental Car Facility and caught a shuttle ride over to the airport. I then headed over to the Link light rail station. I still had money on my ORCA card, but as of right now, you still can't use the myORCA mobile app for tap pay. You can only use it to reload your card. Since I didn't bring my ORCA card with me, I had to use one of the kiosks to purchase my fare. I paid $6 for a round trip fare out to University St station. It was a pretty smooth and uneventful ride until I got into downtown Seattle. It looks like they were having rail maintenance done as we had to switch to the train on the other set of tracks when we reached Pioneer Square station in order to continue heading north.
Once I got off at the University St station, I walked down to 1st Ave and headed up to Pike Place Market. Even for a Monday, I don't think I've ever seen this place so empty. I walked through it to check out Uli's Sausage. It looks like this location probably did not survive COVID as there was no sign of it being open in recent days. Bummer.
Pike Place Market
I walked across the street and got in line for Starbucks as the line wasn't too long. When it was my turn to order, I got an Americano grande with their Pike Place Special Reserve coffee as well as a bag of it to take home for my officemates. While I was ordering, the customer that was ahead of me turned around and kept asking the employee to look at additional items. Initially, she helped that customer with a few items until she finally told that customer that she's helping another customer... me! Well, that distraction turned out to be in my favor. When I had left and started heading down to Ivar's Fish Bar, I checked my Starbucks account on the app to see what was charged on my account. I had used two of my gift cards and that was only enough to cover my drink. She forgot to charge me for the bag of beans!
In line to go inside
Bag of Pike Place Special Reserve coffee
Waiting for my drink
Americano Grande with Pike Place Special Reserve
My obligatory Sleepless in Seattle photo
Along the way, I stopped at one of the tables at the Harbor Steps to drink some of my coffee. Once I arrived at Ivar's, it looked kind of strange that there was no line or anyone at all. I thought that they might have been closed. I walked up to the counter and ordered my usual 4 pcs cod and a cup of white chowder. I know that there has been construction going on in the near vicinity, but in all of the years that I've been coming to Seattle, I've never seen this place, this empty!
Enjoying my coffee at the Harbor Steps
4 pcs cod and a cup of white chowder
After I was done with my meal, I started heading over to the Pioneer Square station to catch the light rail back down to the airport. By going to this station instead of the one at University St, I can bypass having to switch trains.
Going through the TSA checkpoint was a bit of a pain. Unfortunately, I got in the lane where you had to do the normal task of removing liquids, tablets, etc from your bags. They are now starting to implement more of those advanced machines were you don't have to remove anything. The screener pulled my backpack for additional inspection. That was a first. From what I could tell, the RFID timing chip on my race bib looked like a razorblade to them. They asked me more than once if I had any sharp objects in my bag.
After getting that sorted out, I started walking throughout the airport to check out all of the food options. My flight wasn't for another 4 hours, so I had some time to pass. I noticed two things: One, McDonald's was temporarily closed. I guess they're remodeling the place. Two, Funko was sold in the sodoPOP store!
McDonald's temporarily closed :(
They sell Funko in the airport?
After boarding the plane and getting settled in, I ended up finally watching The World's End. I remember seeing a bunch of scenes here and there, but I finally have the context as to what was happening. My friend told me that this was probably the weakest out of the 3 movies, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz being the other 2 movies. It was still a pretty dang hilarious movie with a bit of a twist at the end.
Ready to fly home
Flight home
The plane landed at Ontario Airport at about 8:20 pm. The walk back to my car over at lot 6 felt like it took forever! Along the way home from the airport, I decided to swing by the local Chick-fil-A to cash in a reward for a free Chick-fil-A sandwich. Today was the last day to use that reward. I got a frosted lemonade to go with it. Unfortunately, when I got home, I was informed that my room had a leak through the window from what I gathered was a busted lawn sprinkler. I had to get that in order before I was able to sit down and eat my late dinner. Thankfully, nothing important was damaged.
Chick-fil-A sandwich and frosted lemonade
Thursday 5/4
Once again, I noticed that there was a charge on my credit card from La Quinta. Unfortunately, I had booked my stay using Wyndham Reward points. It's starting to get ridiculous that this has become a regular routine for me, to call them to refund me the money.
Tuesday 5/9
As of today, the refund had not shown up on my credit card and I had yet to receive that promised return call from the manager. So I gave them another call this morning. It would turn out that a refund was initiated yesterday on 5/8. The person that took my call apologized and sent me an updated copy of the folio for my records. From past experience the refund should show up in a couple of days after the refund was put in by them.
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