On the road again: Seattle, day 2

This hotel room is generally great, but it has two strange and unpleasant elements.

The first is its desk, which is a triangular piece of wood attached to the wall with a fixed return at right angles to it. The triangular piece is too high for comfortable work and too narrow for my notebook PC to fit in front of the outlets except right next to the wall. The return is a bit lower than ideal but still a pretty good height for work--but it has fixed shelves, so if you try to sit close enough to use it, you bonk your knees. A simple, regular desk would have been so much better.

The second and far more annoying flaw is the world's worst bathroom sink. Oh, it looks lovely, seducing you until you turn on the water. When you do, out of a spout designed no doubt with ecological goodness in mind come falling slowly downward a sad little collection of eight (or so) miniature streams of water. You can fill a water glass from it, but don't be in a hurry. If you want hot water, bring a book, because the water resists heating as if afraid it will burn.

Fortunately, the shower is wonderful, with a rainfall head, quite good water pressure, and water that turns hot almost instantly. Too bad the people who chose the shower didn't talk to those who selected the sink.

Dinner tonight was at Lola, a place near Pike Place Market. We tried a great many Greek dishes, and each and every one was good. I definitely recommend Lola.

Scheduling oddities found us in downtown Seattle with a little over an hour free, so we checked out the Science Fiction Museum & Hall of Fame. The SF Museum was in many ways like the field itself: flashy on the outside, thanks to the wonderful Frank O. Gehry design, which was worth the trip on its own; an odd blend of movies and books; and a bit low-rent on the inside. Still, as a lifelong SF fan, I both loved the visit and felt a vague sense of vindication by this application of Paul Allen's money, as if the fact that we now had a museum somehow made things better. If you're in the area, definitely visit this place.