My regular reader may have noticed I have not posted anything for close to a week. Well, there’s a reason for that: I am currently in a hotel room in Seattle on the last full day of my trip to the Northwest. I went to the Hillsboro, Oregon branch of my company to help a colleague set up a usability lab (a huge success, by the way) and then took off Friday afternoon to come to Washington for a couple of days.
My biological clockfinally adjusted to the different time zone yesterday, which is great… except I fly back tomorrow and will have to re-re-adjust. It was worth it, though – this was my first trip to this part of the country and I think I’m in love with the area. I’ve listed some highlights of the week below:
Powell Books at downtown Portland. After a great dinner with my boss (who also made the trip out) and colleagues, I found out that the biggest new and used book store on the west coast was less than a block away. Powells Books in Portland is 4 stories of new used and rare books and they had to shove me out the door in order to lock up at the end of the day (they close at 11). If you’re in the area and like to read or collect books it’s a must-visit.
Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle. This is the place where Starbucks opened its first store, and if you want to be exposed all of Seattle’s culture in one place, this is it. Tons of niche stores, great fresh food, grocers (some who will ship fresh fish anywhere in the US) and the best clam chowder on the face of the earth make this a place I will try to get back to in the future.
Twin Peaks. Yup, the pilot for the classic show (and one of my favorites) was shot less than 30 miles east of Seattle. I was able to eat lunch at the Double R Diner, visit The Great Northern, experience the beauty of the mountains and the waterfall outside the hotel, see the great big log, and check out locations from Fire: Walk with Me. The coffee was as good as Agent Cooper claimed – “black as mindnight on a moonless night.
The Science Fiction Museum. Part of the Experience Music Museum in Seattle (founded by ex-Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen), the SF Museum is wicked cool, with the opportunity to see original artifacts and models from shows and movies ranging from Alien to Land of the Giants to Star Trek to Minority Report. Even with it’s much smaller size I thought it was superior to the sister music museum, but then again, look at me. I collect models of fictional starships, for pete’s sake.
Photos from this and many other sights I’ve seen are all on my flickr feed which you can view here. Enjoy, and I’ll post again once I’m in the Eastern time zone.