Winding down on Thursday....

Thursday is the final day of the conference and things are starting to wind down now. The trade show packed up yesterday and there are less sessions running so its easier to choose which presentations to attend.

Last night was the Grand Social - we caught the monorail from downtown Seattle to the Seattle Centre. To avoid the inevitable queues we got our tickets for the Space Needle and ascended to the observation deck, where there were stunning views all round the city, from Puget Sound, downtown Seattle, Mount Rainier and the Olympic mountains in the distance. And of course there was beer on offer....start the diet next week I think...

Downtown Seattle

Puget Sound

Space Needle

We sampled some of the excellent food on offer (Alaskan salmon, black cod, corn on the cob etc) but didn't have too much as we were going out to eat later. We joined the queue for the 'Experience Music Project' - an incredible collection of guitars, Hendrix memorabilia and even a live band on stage. There were places you could don headphones and listen to Hendrix track, and actually remix them to pick out the various instruments. There were the original Hendrix guitars on show, including the white Strat that he played at Woodstock - a rendition of the "Start Spangled Banner"....

I could have stayed there all night (and more)...but we left to dine at the Waterfront Restaurant - a fantastic location out on the pier, with a menu including Black Cod, Snow Crab legs (huge!! - if that's the legs I dread to think how big the crab is), Dungeness Crab, calamari, oysters...the lot. One of our party had a steak - which must have been about 4 inches thick.

We set off for a local blues club and arrived just in time for their last number...which was disappointing. But what an incredible number  - the guitarist was amazing. The band thanked us for turning up (we were half the audience!) - we offered them $150 to do some more but two of the band had to drive to Portland Oregon that night (only a few hundred miles!)....