Seattle, Washington

MEM-SEA
Seattle, Washington
Jan 19-23, 2008

• We arrived in Seattle and waited for Carrie and Adam to pick us up at the airport - they were already in Seattle. We checked into the hotel, downtown.
• Had a few beers and then met up with Krista and Larry at a bar a few blocks from the hotel. Nice place, although Larry mentioned that we stuck out because we were overdressed for Seattle.
  
• Larry was talking up a bar with a bunch of pinball machines (Shorty's), so we walked till we found it, in Belltown. Played a ton of pinball...no clear cut champion, though. Unless you count the beer as a player. Then, the beer won. Made it back to the hotel without incident.
• Brad and I went to Pike Place Market and ate fresh donuts, looked at the water and then we were done with that. It was cold and rainy. Bought a magnet.
• That day Carrie and Adam went hiking with Krista and Larry, so Brad and I went to Everett, WA - the home of the Boeing Company. We went through the Future of Flight Aviation Center and the factory ($15), which is home to the 747, 767, 777 and the new 787 Dreamliner. Secrecy and security is the name of the game at Boeing - no phones, cameras, electronics of any kind, purses, or babies. The factory was really cool - covers 98 acres, and is the largest building by volume in the world. About 110,000 people visit annually.
• Celeste hung out with us that evening - we went to Hale's Ales and a few other places near Fremont.
  
• The next morning (Sunday) Krista, Larry, Celeste, Carrie, Adam, Brad, and of course Charlie went to brunch at Salty's. We ate a lot of excellent food and then Brad and I went to Celeste's 'temporary' home on the lake and hung out on the beach for a while (even though it was COLD!!).
• The weekend was way too short - seemed like we were only there for a day, but we had a great time. The next day we headed back to Memphis.