ALA Midwinter, Seattle.

I really didn't want to come to this meeting once I discovered (the day before yesterday) that the proposed trip to the University of Washington Library, planned for today, was ultimately intended for senior management only. I had hoped to see some friends there and have a tour of the library. But here I  am anyway. Arrangements for the conference had been made.

Coming over on the Clipper was a first. There were hardly any passengers, the vessel was practically empty. The sea was calm so there were no concerns about sea-sickness. We left at 5 pm from the inner harbour in Victoria and arrived at Pier 69 in Seattle at about 7:45 pm. It was already dusk when we left, there was not much to see on the way over. I amused myself by drawing, doing some homework for my class. 

After our arrival and a short taxi ride up some pretty steep streets, I checked into my hotel. There are Chihuly prints all over the hotel. I love them. At the foot of the Space Needle is the newly opened Chihuly Garden and Glass Exhibit, I hope to fit in a visit there while I am here.

I didn't have any meetings today (I had booked to come over yesterday because of the proposed but not materialized trip to UW) so I visited the Seattle Art Museum and the Pike Place Market. I spent several hours at the museum, among other exhibits, I saw "Elles: SAM Singular Works by Seminal Women Artists October 11, 2012–February 17, 2013" including paintings by Helen Frankenthaler and Georgia O'Keefe. Coming up at SAM is the "Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Gainsborough: The Treasures of Kenwood House, London February 14–May 19, 2013" exhibit, it would be nice to come back to see it. 

I had lunch at the museum, it was good apart from some wilted and some dead bits of arugula in my salad Niçoise. The soup was quite good. I perused the gift shop and picked up some coloured pencils and a pencil sharpener.

After the museum, I made my way over to Pike Place Market where I picked up various goodies to take back to the hotel and had a latte at a lovely French bakery where I met a couple of librarians who are also here for the conference.