Seattle Stay

Greetings from Seattle! Yes, this week I have transported myself from my quiet little town in Oregon to smack dab in the middle of downtown Seattle.. surrounded on all sides by big city life. Rather than spend my evenings looking out at quiet farm land, my view is skyscrapers and the Puget Sound from my 35 story hotel.

But don't get me wrong, I am not complaining.. I like Seattle. Well... I like it to visit, not to live. It's a fun city.. lots of shopping (especially around the hotel with Nike Town and Gameworks across the street), movie theaters, restaurants and awesome views.

So why Seattle? It's a work trip, for a 3 day training conference. A gathering of west coast web developers and designers where we can learn all the latest trends and emerging technologies. For outsiders listening in, these sessions would be like listening to Russian, with speakers going on about CSS, AJAX, Web 2.0, XHTML, Photoshop adjustment highlights, Web Accessibility, etc. But for those of us in this business, it is an exciting and scary opportunity to see what may be coming to affect our sites in the very near future. Already, I have a large list of things I want my team to start experimenting with when I get back to the office on Thursday.. They hate it when I go to these things.. I get all sorts of ideas that they then have to deal with.

Seattle so far has been busy. No real time to rest and catch up on sleep as there are too many restaurants to try, too many areas to explore, too many things to see! Last night I was near the Space Needle at one of my favorite little spots called the Icon Grill. They make an amazing Mac and Cheese. (Yes, I went to a restaurant for Mac and Cheese!). Tonight, after our evening session, it was dinner on the waterfront, a treadmill run looking out over downtown Seattle from our 35th floor health club and a wonderful hot tub soak.

Tomorrow: Day 2 of Web Design World, and more Seattle fun.. may have to go spend some loot at the waterfront "pirate" store, as my family is in full "pirate mode" after seeing Dead Man's Chest this past weekend.

Ahhhhh.. business travel.