Back from Seattle

I interrupt posting the pictures of our tour in Sicily for a short moment, while I publish the pictures of my recent trip to Seattle.

I was in Seattle (actually in Tacoma) for one week workshop with a firm specialized in WPF, IdentityMine. I spent three days with Jonathan Russ, who is without any doubt one of the most talented developer I ever met, and at the same time a very good man, always ready to take time to discuss ideas or to explain concepts. It was a great week, and my only regret was I couldn't meet Nathan Dunlap and Robby Ingebretsen because they were both out of house. That said, I met other members of the team.

After 3 days of intensive work, I took one day on my own to go and visit the city of Seattle. It was a wonderful day, very sunny (against Seattle's reputation) and the people were really nice. I first took the bus in the morning from Tacoma, in front of the hotel (I was staying in the Marriott Courtyard Downtown, excellent hotel!) The bus trip is 3 U$ only, and the bus is very comfortable. Arrived in Seattle, there are many stops, and I decided to go down quite near from Chinatown. I then walked down to the seashore, and visited the piers, in particular "Ye olde curiosity shop", a very interesting shop full of souvenirs and tourists, but also a few interesting things to see like 2 (supposedly real) mummies, shrunken Jivaro heads, etc...

After that, I walked to the pioneer quartier, the original settlement of Seattle's founders back in 1851. The most interesting thing to visit in this area is the Underground Tour. It's a very funny and interesting experience, under Seattle's sidewalks. In fact, these are the original sidewalks, before the city authorities decided to raise all the streets by 3 meters, after the great fire of 1869, and in order to solve sewer and mud problems. Since the works to raise the streets were going to take a very long time, and the shop owners couldn't wait that long, the people rebuilt their house on the ground next to the elevated streets. The result was very impractical of course, so eventually the shop owners had to build sidewalks at the street level. The shops' first floor became the ground floor, and the original ground floor was now the cellar. The tour is about an hour and a half long, it's very funny because all the tour guides have a great sense of humor, really to recommend!

After the tour, I walked to Chinatown for lunch, which I took in a Vietnamese restaurant. I had Pho Bo, which reminded me of the time spent in Hanoi many years ago... Later, I walked through the city's main streets to Pike Place Market, in which I spent quite some time visiting and exploring.

After that, I walked all the way to the Space Needle, stopping only for a cold drink in a small café on the road side and using the free wireless to check my emails (by the way, I never saw so many wireless networks in one place :-) At the Space Needle, I hesitated to take the "Ride the Duck" tour, but it was late already and I rather felt like relaxing a little. Instead, I strolled in the attraction park at the foot of the tower, before taking the monorail back to the city center. There, I enjoyed a cold drink while sitting on the roadside and watching people walk... This is also where I took the ride back to Tacoma, where I was quite happy to have a good dinner at the Pacific Grill (excellent food and great service) and a good night's sleep!

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