Actually I could have flown back today along with the rest of my coworkers but my sister and her family drove into town last night so I wanted to get in early enough to meet up with them tonight for dinner.

I was in Seattle from Monday to today (Thursday) meeting about some technology we may be using in our next generation systems. We stayed at the Springhill Suites which was a pretty decent hotel. I normally hate having to pay for valet parking but for some reason it doesn't bother me so much when the company is paying for it. ;o)

On Sunday we had lunch at Red Fin, a new Asian fusion restaurant at Hotel Max recommended by the desk clerk at our hotel. The Hotel Max itself looks pretty interesting (artsy) too judging by their web site but it's no cheaper than the Springhill Suites otherwise I'd like to check it out next time. The Red Fin has a good lunch menu with several bento combinations. It's always a risk to take Japanese people to pseudo-Japanese restaurants. They tend not to appreciate creativity with their traditional foods so much. The food wasn't that far off the wall, though, and it turned out pretty well.

That night we had dinner at The Oceanaire Seafood Room. It was good but we were expecting more so we were somewhat disappointed. The menu contained various fresh seafoods in various dishes. Three of us ordered the fisherman's platter which sounded really good with fish, crab, shrimp, and oysters. But when we got it, everything was deep-fried! So it was a pile of deep-fried seafood. Granted it tasted fresher and better than a diner but we were expecting a little more variety than a massive pile of deep-fried food. The clam chowder which we had ordered as an appetizer was good though a bit salty. So, anyway, I'd go to Ocean Aire again but I'd be more careful of what I was ordering.

Tuesday we had lunch at Elliott's Oyster House on the waterfront. They had the largest selection of fresh oyster I'd ever seen so we ordered a half-dozen to split among the 5 of us. (4 because one was allergic to them.) It was just a taste. The salmon pizza-like thing I ordered wasn't what I was imagining but it was pretty good. I also tried the clam chowder there but went for the red (tomato-based) style. It was pretty good. I don't think I've ever eaten the red clam chowder before. Usually I'm not given a choice and when I am given a choice I think I've always gone for the wwhite.

Then, that night we ate at a Japanese restaurant called Nishino which is located on Madison St in the eastern side of Seattle. It was a high-end Japanese restaurant with fairly traditional fare but with some "fusion" elements. The food was quite good. A little pricy perhaps but we were there on business. Fortunately the chirashi-sushi really hit the spot of our Japanese guests so it worked out really well. It was the best eating experience of the trip.

No, the whole trip wasn't eating but the business part is confidential and not that interesting anyway. And, anyway, I wanted to put the restaurant info down for reference for next time.