Friday, 11th May to Sunday 13th May: The End.

Last day of our amazing adventure.

We were slowly up and at them from 9ish. HardKillah made us breakfast and assured us that all would be okay if we missed our flight.

We will never know how Maim and Cora have the same sized feet yet Maim wears skates 2 sizes smaller than Cora. Well, not for now.



Unfortunately, while there was a bit of a glitch at check-in, we were all set to go. The flight to L.A. was relatively event-free. We then had a 6-hr stopover at LAX. We killed some of that time on the airport shuttle. Then we had a couple of beers at the bar. We walked really slowly through the 3 shops in our terminal. And I'm pretty sure out of sheer boredom, I bought a new camera from a vending machine in the terminal.

Slowly, slowly the clock ticked over but eventually it was time to board and head back to the South Pacific. Sheer luck had us sitting in the middle section of the plane with 4 seats between the two of us. Before we had reached cruising altitude, it was radio silent between Maim and I as we looked to our consoles for enough entertainment to keep us awake until dinner. Once the dinner trays were cleared, it wasn't long before we had both passed out and slept through the next 6-8 hours.

We then had a brief stopover in Auckland before catching our final flight home to Melbourne. I left Maim at Duty Free, anticipating a giant queue at Immigration. Boy was I wrong. I sailed through in possibly the quickest time ever and ended up waiting at the luggage carousel for Maim. Turns out the quick and easy fancy Australian passport isn't so quick and easy! Once we had our bags, it was straight through customs and out the door where Brother Ford (one of) was waiting to collect us and take us home.

The end.

To our dear American friends, new and old, see you in September. *grin*

Thursday, 10th May: Winding down

Today, Cora introduced us to crack. Not really. She introduced us to Stumptown Cod Brew Stubbies. This coffee was so strong that soon after having half of it, I thought I was going to die. Then I got really, really tired. I had to abandon all efforts and give the rest of mine to Maim.

We headed to the Pikes Place Market where we stopped in at Piroshky-Piroshky for some delicious Russian baked goods. We then headed to Nordstroms on a mission to find some hipster shoes for me. In the end, we found hipster shoes for both Maim and I.

We then headed to Fremont to see Lenin and browse a gigantic thrift store.

Cora and I were really tired by then so we headed back home for some R&R. Maim and I had some packing to do while Cora had some napping to take care of. After all, they had practice again that night.

By this stage, you would think that we would be old hands at knowing what 50lbs feels like. We wouldn't really know until we got to the airport on Friday.

I tried to check us into our flight to L.A. but was experiencing all sorts of difficulty. Our itinerary had us on an American Airlines flight but the small print said operated by Alaska Airlines. When I tried to check-in through American Airlines, it wouldn't allow me to do so because we didn't have allocated seats. Troublesome. So then I rang the airline where I had a frustrating conversation with a robot. Then I called Alaska Airlines and spoke to the robot's cousin who confirmed my flight but then gave me an inaudible confirmation number. After all that, we decided to try our luck by checking in at the airport. We had a 6 hour window of opportunity to make it to L.A. in time for our flight home.

We went with the girls to the Rat's Nest and while they headed to practice, we headed to King's Hardware for dinner. We met up with the girls after practice, said goodbye to some, and then headed home before going to the Unicorn Bar for a couple of drinks.

While we hadn't yet come up with a handy mash-up name, it had become very apparent that HardKillah were our American equivalents. This was cemented by Cora and I both retiring early (I think it was about 1:30am) while KillahMaim stayed up watching YouTube videos.

Bless.

Wednesday, 9th May 2012: Washington State

Killah took the day off today to join us in a road trip out of town. Having taken a quick poll at practice, Cora determined that we would head to Deception Pass.

However, on the way to Deception Pass, we stopped by at Fast Girl Skates again, this time for some quick maintenance on Maim's skates. And then we were off. But wait. On the way to Deception Pass was an outlet mall and I had been bitten by a shopping bug. After a 30 minute pillage at Under Armour, we were underway again.

The drive to Deception Pass took us very close to the U.S. - Canadian border but there was no chance in hell that HardKillah were going to go through border crossing hell again. Not that Deception Pass is in Canada.

Crossing Deception Pass took us to Whidbey Island, where we drove through Oak Harbour, stopped briefly in Coupeville, and nearly froze our faces off at Fort Casey State Park. Then we drove to Clinton and caught the ferry to Mukilteo. I may have made all of that last bit up but that's where my Google navigational skills are telling me that we went.

It was then time to head back to town, grab some dinner and get ready for practice. Yes, if you're counting, this is the 4th day in a row of practice that I've mentioned. Tonight, the Rat City All Stars scrimmaged against the Puget Sound Outcasts. It was an extreme privilege to be allowed to watch the All Stars scrimmage as these are normally closed door sessions. Nevermind that VRDL are also in the West Region and we are now the competition. Good thing we had charmed our way into the captains' hearts. ;)

All jokes aside, we had been given the task of providing feedback to the Captains after scrimmage. Whoah. Talk about daunting. Provide feedback on one of the teams that you admire? No pressure! Eep.

After scrimmage we headed to the Ballard Den for a post scrimmage snack and de-brief.

Tuesday, 8th May 2012: Errr...?

I need to blog before my memory fails me.

We had a relatively late start to the day, moving at a relaxed pace and catching up e-mails and league business. I feel like I'm saying that a lot. Possibly because we knew the holiday was drawing to a close and it was nearly time to head home and face reality, whatwith the Great Southern Slam fast approaching in June and general league house-keeping.

Anyway.

Cora, Maima and I headed over to Fast Girl Skates and perused the shop. It's funny who you run into at skate shops. Also at Fast Girl that day were Quadzilla, a Gotham Girl and a New York Shock Exchanger.

I think we did some thrift shopping around Capitol Hill but who can say? I was now in my 5th week of not really knowing where we were. And just quietly, all the N, S, E and W did not help either. One of the quirkier shops that we found was a thrift shop - located above a home-made ice cream shop - that was also a computer repair shop.

We were also on a mission to find me some jeans. While there was plenty of opportunity for jeans shopping in New York, I just wasn't feeling it. I just didn't do very well with the shopping in New York. But a trip to Northgate Mall, The Sports Authority and Target and my shopping drought was broken.

We then headed back home to meet up with Killah and get ready for practice.

That evening we went to Rat City league scrimmage and watched HardKillah's home team, the Throttle Rockets, scrimmage against the Derby Liberation Front We then watched a bit of Grave Danger scrimmaging against the Sockit Wenches.

After practice we headed over to Hattie's Hat with Cora for some dinner and were joined by Primp, Peno and Method.

Just a quick note...

Maim and I are now back in Melbourne and back at work.


I will be updating the blog with our Seattle shenanigans and a log of our journey home. I will also be updating posts with some photos.

The aim is to have this done by the end of the week but we shall see...

In the meantime, here are pictures of cute dogs that we encountered on our trip:

Homeward bound... almost.

So we're due to leave Seattle in just under 24 hours, pending a slight check-in issue with American Airlines.

Here is a message from our Seattle hosts:

Greetings International readership!