April 21-22, 2011
A year ago I agreed to travel to Seattle as a Visiting Professor to give lectures and to judge the Children's Hospital trainees' presentations of their research projects. I had no idea that I would be mourning the loss of my father. I decided to keep my commitment, however, and traveled west. I learned that "Seattle" was named after an Indian Chief named "Sealth." Unfortunately my plane left Boston late, so I missed my connecting flight in Detroit and ended up spending the night at the airport Embassy Suites Hotel. In total I only spent 36 hours in the "Emerald City," a nickname that was a winning contest entry in 1981. The bottom photo shows the Seattle version of baked Alaska, known as the "Emerald City Volcano," which we ate for dessert on my second night in town. It was quite a spectacle!
The Research Day was held at the Seattle Children's Research Institute, which is physically located away from the hospital in a building that was formerly owned by a start-up biotech company. If you didn't know this, you would suspect it by looking at the names of the various conference rooms such as Pearl Jam shown in the middle photo! Seattle is the birthplace of Jimi Hendrix as well as various grunge bands.
The top photo shows the iconic space needle, a souvenir from the 1962 Exposition held in Seattle. It is also an indirect nod to the aerospace industry, as Seattle was the corporate home of Boeing for many years. When I was traveling from the airport to the hospital I saw a "test" 787 taking off from Boeing field. It flew right over the highway, so I got a good look at its underbelly. I was too slow to grab my blackberry so I didn't get a photo, but it was a real "come fly with me" moment.
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