Anticipation

You know, before the Outlander TV series was even a twinkle in Ron Moore’s eye, Outlander was all about the books and Diana Gabaldon. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m as excited about the TV series as anyone and maybe more than many, but I first experienced Outlander through the magic of Diana’s pen, well keyboard really, and that is still the primary experience for me. Delightful as I find pictures of Sam, Matt’s #POTD and Terry’s costume classes, it still comes down to the magic of the words.

You can imagine how excited I was when Random House announced plans for an Outlander Retreat to celebrate the long-awaited release of MOBY — more properly known as Written in My Own Heart’s Blood. Luckily, when the appointed day and time arrived to purchase tickets — which sold out in 15 minutes — I was able to secure one, although not without some assistance from a Random House angel due to some technical glitches.

Next Stop —Seattle

All spring I have waited for this weekend to arrive, contenting myself with Starz trailers , DG’s Daily Lines and tweets with Outlanders world-wide. Finally it is here! I woke up bright and early this morning and headed off on my Seattle Outlander Adventure.

First stop, the Airport!

Park n Ride Lot

There is a plane at the gate. Great Start!

Once I boarded my plane, I just had to take a shoe photo for Terry. For those of you who may not know, Terry Moore often tweets fabulous pictures of her shoes when she travels. I did the same in LA in January and she seemed to get a kick out of it. Twice makes it a tradition, right?

Well traveled shoe

During the 5 hour flight to Seattle, I amused myself with Twitter and reading my Kindle. Thank goodness for technology! Arriving at Sea-Tac, I made my way to baggage claim to wait for @LallybrochLaura with whom I was sharing a ride to downtown Seattle. As planned Laura landed very soon after me and we quickly found each other. If only finding our town car driver would have been so easy. But on the other hand, if it had, we would have missed out on a thrill.

Could the weekend have started any better?

As I was saying, Laura and I finding each other was smooth sailing, even though we had never before met in person.  The driver, not so much. However, during the course of wandering looking for our lost driver, we stumbled upon many other drivers also waiting for passengers. And it just so happened that Laura noticed one of them holding a sign saying ‘Gabaldon’. Immediately our eyes got verra big and no sooner had we processed the sight than we turned around and… just about ran smack into Diana herself. Not wanting to keep her, we contented ourselves with the briefest of introductions, handshakes and a ‘can’t wait to see you tomorrow’ remark. We also helpfully pointed her towards her driver and then continued the search for our own.

Luckily, a quick phone call resolved the missing driver situation and Laura and I were whisked downtown. Arriving at the hotel, I checked in and Laura stashed her bag in my room while we went in search of lunch.  One of the nicest things about my hotel’s location, is that it is right next to an elevator that whisks you from water level to Pike Market level very quickly without dealing with the hills for which Seattle should be famous. (San Francisco has nothing on Seattle.) We decided to have lunch at Lowell’s in Pike Market.  The food, conversation and view were all lovely.

Hotel Room

Caprese Salad with Beecher’s cheese

Lowell’s Chowder

Me and Laura

View from Lowell’s

The Mountain is Out!

After lunch, we walked back to the hotel and Laura headed off for her evening’s activities. The only thing left on mine is dinner with a friend.  Plan to call it an early night so as to be well rested for the main event tomorrow!

Stay tuned. We’ve only just begun! More to come on the big event tomorrow.