Saturday in Seattle

It's been a good visit so far. Yesterday late morning and all afternoon were entirely devoted to an outing with the flower_cat, cflute and jenkitty - a farmer's market, Pike Place Market, and Green Lake.

Pike Place Market was horrendously crowded, and not particularly wheelchair-accessible. Several times Colleen had to get out and walk up or down steep ramps; and the crowds reduced our speed to a crawl. We're all new to this, and it was fun even if strenuous. Though if any of us had known in advance how bad it would be, we would have found something else to do. It turns out that cflute doesn't do well in crowds, and is recovering from a bad toe.

The walk partway around Green Lake was much more relaxing; we got in some good conversation and I got my exercise for the day. I did all the pushing; I was a little surprised by being in better shape than I thought I was. I'm afraid we used up the cflute, though.

Evening brought dinner (jenkitty's excellent pot roast), burlesque, and music. I got the usual reaction to "Quiet Victories", especially from Jen, who hadn't heard it and got all teary on her verse. The new verse went over well and, as I'd hoped, raised the mood considerably; that's a definite keeper. Sang "The River" -- Jen hasn't heard a lot of my stuff. Sang a couple of older songs that I don't do much: "Shores of the Night", "Queen of Space", and "Rainbow's Edge". I think there was one more in there; don't remember.

All-in-all a very good day; not quite what I'd been expecting, but any day that includes a walk, good conversation, and music is a good one. The only disappointments in the trip so far have been not getting together with _amethyst_fire_, and not having time for more than very brief one-on-one talks. There's still some time -- our flight doesn't leave until 7:50 -- but it's not at all clear how things will work out.

Fortunately, I'm OK with that. My Dad always used to say that any conference where you got one or two good ideas or pointers is a good one. I'll add that any trip that lets you spend time with friends is a good one. I wish we had more time, but on the other hand we'll be glad to get back to home and our own bed, work surfaces, and chairs.