Seattle, Day 2

Got into town last night - still with no bag however. Got to the hotel which is really nice (The Edgewater) - my room is right on the water front. I hooked up with Tom and we wasted little time in getting out and about in the beautiful weather :) (read we went out and found a bar as quickly as possible). Fergus from Nooked caught up with us later on.

This is the view from my room

Had a decent nights sleep which was badly needed and we got up nice and fresh this morning and did some sightseeing. First stop was the world famous Space Needle which was cool, then we strolled up to Queen Anne (lovely place) and caught up with Fergus again. With Fergus and his friend Noel we then headed out to Microsoft in Redmond (we really are geeks). Wow! What a place! 25,000 people work on this site and the sheer scale of it was amazing. I think Infacta as a ways to go :) We got to see the Microsoft museum and then Noel gave us a tour of building 24 (where he works and where Bill's office is). Very cool - many thanks to Noel for taking the time to bring us out there and show us around.

The Space Needle

We are going sailing shortly (after I buy some new clothes) and registration for the conference is at 7. After that I think we might go and have a small glass of something.

I'll post some more pics later.

Seattle

I was going to title this entry "Air Canada makes the shit list" or "I need to moan" but thought better of it.

Begin rant.

I'm on my way to Seattle at the moment for a major geek conference (Gnomedex) - I left the house yesterday at 8am and was supposed to be in Seattle by 7.45pm local time. Got a fairly nice flight all arranged with Air Canada via Toronto with plenty of time for my connection direct to Seattle etc. etc.

Well boy did they mess that up! The feckin plane that was supposed to pick us up had a "maintenance" problem which delayed it by 6 (SIX) hours - yes 6. The plane that took us was probably the worst I've ever been on - It was most certainly past it's prime. Missed the connection of course. Spent 3 hours in Toronto Airport trying to get an alternate flight sorted out and eventually they had to put me in a hotel. Not so bad - they gave me travel and food vouchers and arranged flights for me today to get me the rest of the way. Well - I got to the hotel (major dump) after another 90 minutes and there was no food! OK - snacks from the machine but no proper food. Decided I needed sleep and I'd get a nice breakfast in the morning. Up at 5.30 am this morning for my flight only to discover that breakfast didn't start till 6.30 (10 minutes after the latest shuttle I could take). Bad start to yet another day courtesty of Air Canada. But hey - it just gets better! I'm routed to Vancouver for a 5 hour wait but a short hop then to Seattle - that should be fine I hear you say but the bastards go and lose my bag!!!

I've been through customs now 5 times!

I can only imagine what treats lie ahead! Hopefully my next post will be much more positive - possible with pictures :)

Rant over.

Great Weekend!

We shot off down to Carrick on Friday to join some other boats on a cruise in company. About 25 boats in total took part. We met on Friday night in The Bush Hotel, toddled off on Saturday (after some serious sunbathing) to Boyle Harbour - where we were all transfered to The Royal Hotel and a meal and a table quiz.

Taken aboard our new 'Classy Bird' - photo courtesy of Sean (see RealBoyle).

On Sunday we eased ourselves over to Cootehall where we enjoyed a great Barbeque and good craic afterwards in the Water Splash bar (that was all after the 3 bottles of Champagne and Ice cream in Manfreds with Nuala and Ciaran from Gardeners Way!!). I got some great photo's (if I can say so myself) of the fleet transit over Lough Key - I'll see if I can get them up tonight.

A bit of a dull head on Sunday morning and some fantastic sunshine meant nobody was in any rush for home. We took our time and Shelly and Fidelma caught up with us. The very peaceful Drummon's Island was our destination (back in Lough Key) where we stayed for an hour or so and enjoyed a nice refreshing swim.

We were seriously tempted to stay out for the night but home beckoned (Diarmuid had Football training). The fantasic weather we've been enjoying (after the wettest May in 20 years) is set to continue so I wouldn't be suprised if we managed to get down later in the week for a while.

Photos to follow.