GD03, Day One, Lunch and Afternoon
Steve and I walked to the Pike Place Market, which is also known as the fish market for some. It is right at the seashore, a few blocks down Pine Street from where the hotel is (Pine and 6th). After Steve got the spices, we toured the market a bit to check it out. The market itself is a multi-floor market, where it is basically groceries (fish, in particular) and also arts and crafts. Much like the St. Lawrence Market in Toronto.

We found one of the original Starbucks stores, where they still use the old logo. The story behind the logo is that the original one is completely brown, and featured a white, whole-body picture of a mermaid, boobs and all. Then as the chain expanded, they had to "sanitize" the logo and so the new logo only zoomed into the mermaid's face. I'll include links to pictures soon.

We then decided it is time for lunch. After checking out umpteen restaurants Steve found Ivar's, and he exclaimed, "Oh, there's Ivars! [The search is] done!" We went for the fish-n-chips part of the Ivar's store, mostly because by that time we are tired, and I had previously proclaimed, "At this point, I can settle for fish-n-chips" when Steve asked what kind of "seafood" I really wanted. So I was glad that we found a place that Steve, who I guess knew a thing or two about Seattle, was happy to have found. I ordered the 4 piece Halibut and chips, the salmon chowder, and a coke. We then proceeded to sit "outside" -- benches and tables under a sheet-metal roof -- where we get to stare at seagulls and pigeons, and had a very nice view of the bay. To tell the truth, only the first 2 of the 4 pieces of fish were tasty -- the other ones were overcooked in the fryer, I think. However, the tartar sauce was excellent, and I have never tasted chowder so unique (well it was salmon chowder, as I've metioned) and it's quite good! So I was a happy guy, nonetheless.

It was all cloudy and overcast today, but Steve mentioned that this was "exceptional weather". In fact, since it didn't rain today. It was in fact a very good day for us to have ventured out of the hotel and did some site-seeing and shopping.

After we returned, I attended the session called Engineering Challenges in Geometric Modeling, where various folks discussed current challenges faced by CAD/CAM users, what things they cannot do, and what things are worth the time to investigate into.