Seattle Day 1: 4 Hour Flight, Scavenger's Guide, Red Lion, Elephant & Castle and EMP

As mentioned yesterday, I spent a few days in Seattle on business. Over the next couple of days I'll provide some highlights of the trip.

When I woke up on Thursday, I knew it was going to be a long day. NL picked me up at 7:30 to head to the airport for my 8:45 flight. While checking in my luggage, I received a First Class upgrade. Its good to be a kinda sort of frequent flyer. The flight was on time and before I knew it we were in the air on our 4 hour journey.

I packed several items to keep me busy on the flight. A laptop, my iPod, a portable DVD player and a book. I chose the last option, The Scavenger's Guide To Haute Cuisine by Steven Rinella. It is a well written, easy to read book about a Rinella's desire to prepare a 3-day 45 course meal. The catch is that none of the ingredients are store bought. The book explains Rinella's adventures around the States hunting down the fish, elk, etc for his extravagant feast. I was able to read about half of the book during the flight.

After landing, we headed to our hotel in Downtown Seattle. The Red Lion Hotel was a nice hotel, with an even better location. It was minutes away from several Seattle attractions.

For lunch I went to a close pub/eatery called the Elephant & Castle. It was okay. The food was your standard pub grub. I had a burger with a Pilsner Urquel.

After lunch I walked down to the Experience Music Project, Seattle's music museum. I'm not sure if it was worth $20, but it did have some cool stuff like the history of music in the Northwest Passage and a Jimi Hendrix exhibit.

I had a work function to attend at 6, so I returned to the hotel. After eating dinner, I joined a few co-workers at the Elephant & Castle for a couple of beers and Washington Apple shots (a combination of Crown Royal and Apple Pucker). I was back in my room by 11pm.

NL arrived at the hotel at 11:45. I wanted to go out and have more fun, but I had to save my engergy for the next day's meetings.