First Day in Bellevue WA

The day of arrival (May 30th 2006) was an interesting day. I was supposed to take a 6pm flight to Seattle Washington, but the flight was delayed for an hour than another hour and finally a half hour more making a total of 2 1/2 hour delay. The delay was mainly due to the rain storm in Chicago. When I arrived in Seattle, it was 11pm. I had to take a shuttle train to the baggage claim area, but when I got there there was no LED showing Alaska Airline #29. After a couple of minutes, one of the flight number changed to #29 and my luggage appeared. I picked up my baggage and went to the Enterprise car rental booth, but there was no one to serve me. The sign says that the place closes at 11pm. Great start!

I called Homestead Hotel, and asked if they offer a shuttle service. No luck. I took a cab, and after 15 minutes of ride I arrived at the Homestead Sutdio Suites Hotel in Bellevue. I went to the lobby, and there was no one there. The sign says,call the hotline. I called and someone arrived shortly. I then checked in, and they gave me a room #361. The city may be not big enough to serve customers 24×7 on some of the most demanding businesses such as rental cars and hotels. It was 12:30am PST (or 2:30am CST), a time far passed my bed time. I went straight to bed.

I woke up at 7:45am, took a quick shower and head to T-Mobile building. Before I head out, I sent an email to Tellabs administrative person to arrange a car delivery to Homestead hoping to get a car when I return from work. T-Mobile was 5-minute walking distance from the Homestead Suites, so it was breeze to find a place. There were 4 T-Mobile buildings around the area, but I was lucky enough to find the right one in the first time. I arrived at T-Mobile a far before the meeting time (9:30am), so I walked down a long stairs to a Starbucks Coffee shop and got a Caffe Latte and a Ham & Cheese sandwich. The first day at T-Mobile was a breeze, basically going over the introductory stuff. People were nice, relaxing environment and best of all they offer free soda and coffee (all year long) to all of their employees (and consultants!) 🙂

I’ve got a call from a Enterprise, and told that they cannot deliver a car without my signature. So, they offered someone will pick me up, and have me pick out a car at their location. I’ve arrived at the rental place at around 5pm, but there weren’t much choices from Compact class. I upgraded myself to Luxary, and picked out a Buick Lucerne — the only luxary there at the time, no mid-sized cars either which I would have picked.