The Emerald City
Our yellow brick road from Aldergrove to Seattle passes by Seattle Premium Outlets (which is nowhere near Seattle actually; it’s in Tulalip next to a ginormous Indian casino and a Walmart… Tulalip has EVERYTHING!). It is tempting to believe that an alien abduction created the lost time in our road trip to Seattle (it didn’t seem like nearly 7 hours), but in reality, it was Coach. Good thing we stopped there too. Nothing created a better impression for our young company than when Melissa took out her brown business card holder (the pink one was for the green purse) to offer her business cards to our prospects!PR practioners of experience know that the use of certain adjectives to describe a product or business often means that the product or business lacks that certain attribute. Thus was the case with the Quality Inn in Seattle Center. Aside from the free parking, there were few other quality elements one could identify. Although, I do believe it is the closest “hotel” to the Starbucks on the corner of 99 and Denny. But I guess if one has to name a hotel, “quality” is a better word than “smelly,” “skeazy,” “loud” or “shaky” — all apt adjectives for this particular “inn.” We were by far the youngest guests and part of the few who did not stroll the halls with walkers or oxygen tanks.
Once we got to our rooms and unloaded our gear, we gathered in John G’s room to make the final preparations for both our first-ever client meeting and our first-ever group pitch. Room service was provided by Zeeks Pizza. This may get lost in translation, but one of the funniest moments was watching Melissa order our pizza. We all figured the easiest thing was to order a combination pizza. Zeeks has two. One is called the Wood Butcher. We had the other one: the Puget Pounder. Melissa could not say “Puget Pounder” and was laughing so hard she was crying. BTW, the garlic in the Puget Pounder is omnipotent. Thankfully, it kept the vampires out of our rooms while we “slept” in the Quality Inn.
One nice aspect of our hotel was the view of the Space Needle from Melissa’s room. From John G’s room, the view was into the kitchen of an apartment unit across the narrow alleyway. The number of dirty dishes piled in the sink of that kitchen were matched only by the number of liquor bottles arranged on top of the fridge. Still, John G’s view surpassed that of John S, whose room looked onto a highway.
Thursday morning began with a quick trip to Starbucks. Whereas Harvey’s is located inside Home Depot, this Starbucks was located inside a Shell Station. Nevertheless, it had the right coffee prescription to rinse our breath from the garlic of the night before.
If you love coffee, and enjoy coffee houses, then we know the place in Seattle for the best cup. But that will be saved for another post.
