Spring Break

One of the perks of going to school is that you get a spring break. Now as a college student and working full time I shouldn't really care as I will have to work anyways. However, I have always felt I should do something, take time off work and take a spring break. The other fun part and reason for a vacation is that spring break is always around my birthday. This year my spring break is March 9 - 13th, and my birthday is on the 12th. I had already requested fri the 13th off but with my spring break realization I took the 12th off as well. So now I have the 10 - 13th off and could take a couple more days if I wanted. 

The next step is where I should go. I was thinking something basic like drive over to San Diego, spend some time on the beach and window shopping. If I did that I would also want to go watch a talk show. Maybe Ellen, she always gives away free stuff, or I think Craig Ferguson is in LA, I think he is hilarious. That made me think about traveling to Chicago. I would love to be in the Oprah audience, I'm not sure why but it is on my list. But I don't know what else I would do there. Are there attractions in Chicago? I bet I could find something. So Chicago just dropped to the bottom of the list. Another location I thought of was Seattle. I have had this weird obsession with Seattle for years, I don't know why. I even thought for years that I should move there even though I had never visited. 

I looked up flights to Seattle. Round trip about $200, not bad. Then I looked up hotels, at first I couldn't find one for less than $85 a night. That would make it too expensive. I kept looking and found on hotwire.com a room for $50 a night. So that's not too bad. I figure 3 nights so $175 for hotel plus the $200 for the air, that's about $400 plus food and cab fare. Ok, honestly, if I had $500 I should put it toward my debt but if I waited till all my debt was paid and I had 'spare' money I would never travel. The more I think about it, I really want to go to Seattle.

So I looked up some more info. It's about 15 miles from the airport to downtown Seattle. Then I figure all the places I want to go are in walking distance. So I just need to taxi to the hotel which isn't bad. And then when I go downtown there are several places (of course including the space needle) within walking distance. And then I even have a friend who, I think, lives near Seattle. Which obviously I don't even know what city he lives in so he isn't that close of a friend. But maybe I could hook up with him to do something while I'm in town. That's kind of variable though. 

So I will keep looking into it, really doing the math to see if I can afford it. But here is my real concern. If you know me you know I am obese. I fear flying because I do not want to get there and they say, sorry you have to buy a second seat. I couldn't afford a second seat but loosing the money for the seat I did pay and the hotel, I wouldn't know what to do. I know I am big and I don't want to crowd someone else sitting next to me, especially for a flight that looks to be almost 3 hours long. But I can't afford a second seat. I would rather just drive somewhere if this was the case. I tried to look up some information about it but there are no specific specifications and appears to depend on the agents you are working with. The last time I flew was about 3 years ago. I was about 50 lbs less and the seat belt was tight. I know I would require a  seat belt extension but does that mean I need a second seat? I don't think I remember it being too uncomfortable but I was sitting next to my brother so it wasn't a problem getting in his personal space. Maybe I will ask him. Honestly I had sworn off flying, thinking too big to fly but its been three years and I really want to travel further than my local states I can drive to. By the way driving time to seattle 22 hours each way. Do you think I could loose 50 lbs in 2 months? No I don't think so either.