Seattle trip

Last week I went to Seattle on business. You can read all about the Educause conference on my work blog. But in between work things, I managed to do a couple of cool things in Seattle.

The fish market.

First, I took a little time to go down to the public market at Pike's place. I liked seeing the guys throwing the fish to each other. And the market itself was very nice. Plus, the weather was fabulous on that particular day, beautiful clear skies and lovely temperatures. I enjoyed walking around the market, I ate some food and then headed down to the piers just to enjoy the view.

That night, I met up with my friend Scott from Chicago and we went to see the Golden State Warriors play the Seattle Sonics at Key Arena. It was a preseason game, so not exactly a sellout. I wanted to get the cheapest seats possible and the ticket seller told Scott that they would be fine, as the arena is the smallest in the league! It turns out that the Sonics ownership is considering a move to Oklahoma City because the arena is so crappy.

Warriors in action.

So we were serenaded by some guys singing "Save our Sonics" all through the game. Actually, because Scott was still on central time and I had to meet my friend Jeff at another bar, we only stayed for the first half. The Warriors didn't look that great, although they did come back to win the game in OT. But in the first half, they didn't seem to be clicking, and one of the new guys, Austin Croshere, looked pretty out of place. Also, Baron Davis was still taking *way* too many outside shots, let's hope he gets over that soon. By contrast, the Sonics rookie, Kevin Durant, looked just great, although I hear he got injured after the game and may miss the beginning of the season.

After I left the game, Scott went to his hotel, and I walked about 20 blocks in downtown Seattle to meet Jeff at a bar called Fado. It was a really nice night, and a very pleasant walk, and I enjoyed seeing that much of the city. I walked past the hotel where Jeff was staying, the Hotel 1000, which was *way* nicer than my Holiday Inn, somewhere on the outskirts of Seattle. Anyhow, Jeff and I had a couple of drinks, the bar was very nice, and then I headed back to my Holiday Inn.

The next evening after the conference I went to a reception featuring the former ITLP'ers. This was at the Hotel W, which is very fancy. Lots of good food and wine.

Apple reception

After this reception, I went with a group from the University of Washington to the Apple reception. I just want to say that the people from Washington are a really bad influence on me! The Apple reception was very exclusive, you needed to be on "the list" but we were all able to get in. It was in the coolest bar in Seattle, the Chapel, which is formerly a mortuary chapel. Again, there was lots of food and alcohol, so I was pretty well plastered by the time the entertainment, Don Felder from the Eagles, came on. I must say I was unimpressed by how much he talked, but it sounded pretty good when he finally played some old Eagles songs, accompanied by his Apple Powerbook (I think).

We left the Apple reception and headed to another bar that looked sort of Moroccan or something, and I had yet another drink! It was getting later then, so some of the more lightweight people headed home, but I stayed with the bad influence people and we headed to yet another bar, this one that served food, as I had a real need for food by then. This bar was very nice, and the food was very good (I think I remember liking the food). By then it was after one a.m. so I finally got some common sense and headed back to my Holiday Inn, in a taxi this time. Needless to say, I didn't make the earliest sessions the next morning!

Helen in Jet

The last night in Seattle, I went to a conference even at the Seattle Museum of Flight. That was a lot of fun. It's a very cool museum, with one side devoted to WWII and pre-WWII flights. We spent so much time there, we didn't realize that there was more to see. On our way out we noticed the other side of the museum, so we stopped in. That's where all the cool stuff was! I got to sit in the cockpit of a fighter jet of some kind, and they had lots of exhibits related to space travel.

I headed home on Friday to see Bruce Springsteen in concert!