Cleveland and Seattle (again)

Been awhile since we took a trip so we decided to take two at the same time!  Mike was going to Cleveland to give a talk at a conference and Jeannette decided to go with him.  The first flight was supposed to go through Detroit, but that got cancelled so we wound up routing through Atlanta.

Here's Jeannette getting some coffee with Brownie in the Atlanta airport.   Even though it was just the airport, this was our first time in Atlanta.

Taking off from Atlanta, Mike was able to get a good picture of the clouds from the airplane.

 The primary reason for being in Cleveland was for Mike and Kevin to give a talk at a conference.   Here's the two of them getting setup and Brownie sitting on the table for moral support.

Here's a shot of Mike delivering his part of the talk.  The whole thing is in a video on YouTube, but it's probably not exciting for most people to watch.

On the last day in Cleveland, we visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  They have a lot of instruments, costumes, and other trinkets from famous musicians.

Like Metallica!!   

 Here's Jeannette by some of Stevie Nicks' costumes...

 ... and Brownie checking out ZZTop's Eliminator!

That was it for Cleveland!   It was rainy and cold there so we didn't get out much.  The next day we had to get up super early for our flights to Seattle.

We love Seattle! 

This beautiful area is actually a fake landscape just outside a big REI store.  REI is a major sporting goods store that focuses a lot on climbing, camping, hiking, etc.  The landscape includes rocky paths where you can try out new shoes or mountain bikes.

Mike and Jeannette really like eating fresh oysters and being out on the west coast was a good opportunity.

The history of downtown Seattle is pretty cool in that they raised the level of the street to avoid water problems.  You can take an Underground Tour that goes below the current street level and shows you were the first floor used to be.  In this first picture, you can see a "skylight" from below...

 ... but from above it looks like a pretty stone mosaic in the sidewalk!

This is just a picture from our hotel room at night.  We skipped getting a rental car so we could stay in a little nicer room.

These two pictures are from the top, inside the Seattle Public Library.  The main stacks of books start on about the 5th floor and then rotate up in a spiral five more floors that you can walk around without using any other stairs.

On the last day in Seattle we ate breakfast at a little deli by the hotel.  Inside they've asked guests to sign the walls.  We signed it, just to the left of the heating vent, I'm not sure if this picture is big enough for you to see it.

When we got home Diesel was helping us do laundry.  By "help", he sits in your way and jumps in the baskets.  We got to see a bunch of our friend in both Cleveland and Seattle.  Overall it was a really great trip, thought, after a week and half, it was nice to get home and sleep in our own bed.