I got back Sunday night from ALA in Seattle. It was a good mix of conference meetings and exhibits, and free time for seeing a few of the sights. Here’s a recap (I’ll go easy on the work stuff and heavy on the travel stuff):
My home for the weekend was the Westin (if you’re familiar with the Seattle skyline, it’s the pair of cylindrical towers). It’s a pretty nice hotel. My advice is to ask for a high floor if available; I hadn’t thought about it beforehand, and my room was only on the tenth floor, its view being mostly other buildings and the roof of the lobby. I checked in Friday evening, quickly perused some of the exhibits at the convention center, and came back to the hotel lobby for drinks and appetizers with co-workers.
On Saturday morning I attended the Government Documents Round Table (GODORT) update, which had a couple of interesting speakers, and then Tina, Danielle, and I walked down to Pike Place Market in search of lunch and had some good sushi at Japanese Gourmet. Later back at the convention center, we perused the exhibits some more, and I picked up a lot of swag: uncorrected proofs and advance copies of books that publishers give away for free. As if I don’t already have enough to read! We went to another meeting (GODORT International Documents Task Force) in the afternoon, and that rounded out the work day.
With some time to kill before drinks and dinner, we went to the Space Needle and tried to go to the observation deck, but it was closed for a private party. Boo! Still we walked around and took photos. Danielle has Space Needle hair!
After that detour we had a round of beers at Kells, a lively Irish pub (we were there around 8 o’clock, before it got really crowded), and then met up with more co-workers for dinner at Etta’s, an excellent seafood restaurant just north of Pike Place Market.
Pike Place was within walking distance of the hotel, so it seemed to be our go-to place for food. On Sunday morning we wandered around the market, stopping in at various places, including the very first Starbucks location. We got a bite to eat at Piroshky-Piroshky, wandered around some more, and then split up for more meetings. We regrouped for lunch at La Crêperie Voilà just outside the convention center; then Danielle and I, avenging the previous night’s shutout, monorailed to Seattle Center and went to the top of the Space Needle. Lastly as we walked through Westlake Center I saw a Dilettante cafe, and remembering the chocolatey goodness of their Broadway location from my last Seattle trip, I had to stop in and have a piece of cake.
Whew! Pretty soon I was back at the airport for my Alaska Airlines flight home. It was an exhausting but very well-spent weekend. I’m glad I went. (Oh, I have to also mention that a lot of coffee was consumed that weekend. I don’t think I’ve had so much Starbucks in so little time!)
3 replies on “Seattle wrapup”
You look like you had a total blast!
I read an article the other day in the WaPo that the Newbery and [some other award that begins with C] Awards were given out during that conference.
How totally cool!
[Jeff says: Yes, the Caldecott is the other major award. Another award announced at that conference is the Stonewall Book Award, given by the GLBT Round Table of the ALA.]
I’m glad you had a good time in Seattle. It seems everyone I know that visits there seems to stay at the Westin! You’ve eaten as some of my faves while I lived in Seattle. Glad you had a good time! 🙂
An ALA convention. *sigh* If my Mom were still around, she might have been there. She’d gone to them in the past. (She ran community services at our public library.)