Off-season

Tiana Beach, Hampton Bays, NY


Cupsogue Beach, Long Island, NY

Seattle: Public Places

There were a few hours on our Seattle trip when we were bug free and we made the 3 minute journey from our hotel room, down the elevator, across the lobby, over the street to the place I've had on my must-visit list since 2004: Seattle Public Library.


Apart from the cool Rem Koolhaas architecture, there's the fastest, smartest book location system, a "living room", banks of computers, dedicated teen section, a writer's room. I could go on for ever... I could have stayed forever


The children's section that has the best language resources I've ever seen


and great art, too: Mandy Greer's "Babe"


The Guy and I did a self-guided tour (there's even a podcast) but there are guided tours available that last about an hour, too.


We split up eventually and met later outside the meting room. I recognised The Guy because he was the only non-rouge item on that floor.


The library people are so friendly - they really seem proud of their library and want to show it off - even security was happy. If I worked here, I'd be pretty damn buoyant as well.

Seattle: What happened?

I'll just say that if you have to get 24 hours of unrelenting stomach 'flu and if you are unfortunate enough to be away from home, I would recommend the Seattle Renaissance, Suite 2710 as the place to be because when you're eventually able to open your eyes without the room spinning you will have this fantastic view of the city.


And this one, towards Pioneer Square, too.


You can watch the weather roll in from every angle for the next day or so while you recover. Looking across Puget Sound by day


and night


until it's time to leave.

Seattle: Where Are You?

An hour ago we could see Puget Sound and The Space Needle, now we're cocooned in the clouds up here on the twenty-seventh floor.