About eighteen months ago whilst exhibiting at Global Pet in Orlando, Florida, we were approached by a company called Mud Bay, who have a chain of pet stores in and around the Puget Sound (Seattle) area. They were very enthusiastic about taking the doggy products but despite following up the contact after the show nothing more came of it.

At Global Pet 2010 the folk from Mud Bay came on the stand again. They explained that they'd gone through a bit of restructuring and introduced two new colleagues who had joined Mud Bay from senior positions with Starbucks - so we guessed they were serious about growing their business!

One thing lead to another and by May we were seriously discussing the prospect of sending someone out to do a product presentation to their store managers and to visit some Mud Bay stores and present the products to staff members. By June the trip was confirmed and ‘yours truly' (Heather Giles) had got the job! Coincidentally we also had a free business class flight to use which had been awarded to us by UKTI on the back of winning Somerset's "Exporter of the Year 2009".

By about a week before I was due to leave we still hadn't had a confirmed order from Mud Bay, so had to wind them up a little bit. Imagine our surprise when we received a $25K order by return, bearing in mind they are taking only canine products it was pretty ambitious for a ‘starter' order!

Once the order had come in I started to plan my trip! Flights had been booked and I had decided to stay on for a few extra days to get in some sight-seeing, especially as Puget Sound is well known for whale watching!

I flew out on July 6th from Heathrow and my first business-class flight was a mostly pleasant experience, despite the British Airways cabin crew who in general are perfectly polite and helpful whilst still leaving you with the impression they'd rather be doing something else! My neighbour in business-class was the General Manager of the Waterford Castle Hotel & Golf Course and as I gave him plenty of free advice about what to feed his dog, I may call in the favour if ever I get to visit Ireland!

I arrived at Seattle airport at the end of the day feeling rather jaded and was pleased that my hotel, the Radisson, was right opposite the entrance to the airport complex. I settled myself in my very comfortable hotel room and decided to go straight to bed in so as to be rested for the following day's work.

Radisson Gateway, SeaTac