The Other Details

Like I wrote yesterday, I have other details to follow from yesterday's "awesome" travel fiasco:

Baggage
After the "way too early" flight got cancelled, I was up at the gate counter arranging for another flight. With my luck, I got a new girl. She was nice. So after she got my flights, she ripped off my luggage sticker. Since it was only 7 am in the morning, I was even more confused but didn't do much about it. Then after being led back to "Departures", I asked the guy do I need to pick up my luggage. He apparently didn't know, and started wondering the same thing. I also told him that the girl also took my luggage tag. So he said he'll check for me. Yeah. He printed me another luggage tag and told me I had to pick up my luggage.
Lesson Learned: When something seems fishy, ASK! If I didn't ask, I probably wouldn't have clothes for the next few days, and will have to deal with the Edmonton airport's lost luggage department tomorrow!

I5 Driving Experience
So, after a 10 hour travel catastrophe, I promised myself I was going to shop like I never shopped before (I shopped, but the finds were disappointing). I got to my hotel, checked in, and then went back down to the lobby to the car rental counter at 2:30. While doing the paper work for the car rental, I asked the girl how far it is to the outlet mall. She then said, "The one up north... on a good day, 40 min. Now (look at the time) maybe 2-3 hours." WHAT?! My shopping!!!!!!!!! She was nice, and checked her iPhone for traffic. She said it was clear and hurried with my papers. So I got onto Interstate 5. There were A LOT of cars. It was a freeway with a 60 mph speed limit. Ok. Yeah, out of nowhere, the speed dropped to 50 mph... and then 40 mph. At these sections, traffic was slow. No construction. No accidents. I was moving about 10-20 mph. These sections were when the freeway was approaching downtown Seattle, but it was not going through it, just approaching the exit to it. It's a FREEWAY. Keep the speed limit up so people can move!!! After this, the speed limit was 60 mph, but there were sections where traffic would just slow down for cars to come in. I made it to the outlet slightly over 1 hour. I'm not complaining. Then I went to the info desk at the outlet to ask when would be a good time to leave to head back into Seattle. She said noon. WHAT? Then she said, "Well, you might be ok after 8 or 9." Gosh. Asked another girl at the Fossil store, she said after 6 should be ok. So I compromised and stayed until 7:30. Oh gosh, it was a sea of red. I thought Highway 2 was a busy highway. It's nothing compare to the I5. I couldn't imagine what this road is like during the heart of rush hour.
Lesson Learned: The Anthony Henday construction detours that increased my travel time to an average of +15 min is nothing. No more complains. Why would anyone want to live in Seattle with this traffic?!