Thank you all

I just decided to go and check on our charity registry, and the donation/percentage total is rather pleasing. I'm sure it's been long enough now for everything to filter through, and the combined total of donations you gave and percentages paid by vendors you used comes to $5078.13. I am absolutely thrilled that so much was raised for a group of worthy causes, in our names.

Thank you.

Back from honeymoon

We got back yesterday. The honeymoon was fantastic, but so far I think we're both too tired and jetlagged to actually sit down and write about it. The first of several batches of photos should go up tonight, because that's about as much as I have the intellectual capacity for right now.

public humiliation!

Eldan's bachelor party

Photos

I've just set up a Flickr group for our wedding:

http://flickr.com/groups/meldan/

If you take any digital photos (or film photos if you feel like scanning them) at or around the wedding, please consider joining this group and sharing them. It will be a nice thing for us to keep and to show people who weren't able to be there with us.

As a target for the group, we'd really like it if we could manage to get in at least one photo of each person who comes to the wedding. Also feel free to include things that are tangential to the wedding itself, like tourist photos from the people who've come a long way to be with us.

Local news

A few things that visitors to Seattle should be aware of:

• The monorail probably won't be running while our guests are in town.
• You'd be well advised not to eat raw oysters just now, due to contamination in the local oyster beds. Places that serve raw oysters are supposed to switch to other suppliers, but the reason they're normally so good here is that they are from so nearby. Meanwhile cooking does seem to effectively kill the bacteria in question, so there doesn't seem to be any reason to worry about cooked shellfish.
• 10 day weather forecast. Obviously that gets less reliable after the first couple of days, but it should give you some sort of packing guidance.
• Airport security restrictions:
  • General rules at Seattle-Tacoma airport. As far as I know, the same rules apply at all other US airports, but it's worth checking locally.
  • British Airways' rules. These cover people flying from Seattle directly to London; they probably also cover all other flights to the UK, but it's worth checking with the particular airline.
  • For flights from the UK to the US.
• It's forest fire season. We're not likely to be affected in or around Seattle (including the hiking trails that are accessible by bus from here), but it does pay to check the local news or ask around before heading out to any forest area. Right now one of the access roads to Mount Rainier is closed to most traffic because of a fire in that area; I'll be keeping track of that for those who are planning on visiting there (don't worry - the other two routes are unaffected).

And finally: I am very glad that we didn't decide to take the risk of using the Olympic Sculpture Park for our wedding.

Rough Planet addenda

We could have gone on for many more pages in that Rough Planet Guide, but we had to stop somewhere to remain sane and not make the thing too long for anyone to want to bother reading it. Of course, that means we ended up missing some things out that are worth mentioning:

One more restaurant that stands out: Marjorie. The food is great and very varied, the tiny patio is adorable, and the indoors is very welcoming. The best thing here is the chef's whimsical tasting menu: an assortment of whatever the chef feels like sending you, available with meat or in a vegetarian version on request.

Places worth seeing the inside of: the Central Library and the aquarium. I often go to the library to get away from my computer and read, and the more I use it the more I appreciate the inside, while liking the outside progressively less. In any case, it's interesting architecture, and on the interior I mean that in a good way. The aquarium has a distinct focus on local waters, which is what I think makes it worth a visit even though most cities have a decent aquarium. It's being largely rebuilt, which makes it look very uninviting from the outside, but they've managed to do this in such a way that the inside is not disrupted.

Harbour Cruises: of all the really made-for-tourists things in Seattle, the one that we think very highly of is Argosy Cruises. They offer various options; I'd recommend any that include the sea (as opposed to the lakes-only cruise, because the harbour is interesting and the view of downtown from out in the bay is to die for.

And finally, Snoqualmie. This one's only likely to interest people who are Twin Peaks fans, but for those who are: many of the location shots that constitute the fictional town of Twin Peaks were actually filmed in the Fall City - Snoqualmie - North Bend area. You'll have to do some research to figure out what is where, but this site looks like a promising start. You may decide you need a car to get between locations, but if not then you don't need a car to get to the area from downtown Seattle: it's just a matter of taking two buses. The 554 will get you to the Issaquah Park & Ride in about ¾ of an hour, and the 209 takes you through Fall City, Snoqualmie and North Bend. Do check timetables though, because the 209 only runs once an hour.

Rough Planet Guide: multimedia special section!!!

We're about to start sending our custom guide to Seattle to guests who have told us they are coming. So if you've told us you're coming, and don't receive this soon, then please RSVP again because it probably means your first reply didn't get through. If you haven't replied yet, please do because knowing exactly how many people will be here will help us finalise arrangements.

The guide contains a lot of www addresses, which obviously are not all that useful on paper, so here they all are as links you can follow to save some typing (we didn't want to put the guide itself online because we prefer not to publish our address together with details of when we'll be out of the country...):

Getting here
Airporter bus information and bookings
map from bus stop to Ramada Inn
map from bus stop to Sixth Avenue Inn

General information on the web
http://www.cityofseattle.net/tour/intro.htm
http://del.icio.us/eldan/Seattle
http://lostinseattle.com
http://seattle.metblogs.com/
http://seattlest.com/
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Home
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Suggests
http://seattle.citysearch.com/

Getting around
über-nerdy guide to Seattle's street layout
Neighbourhoods & parks map
region map
Bus trip planner
Bike rentals
location of the Black Bottle
location of the Edgewater

Restaurants
Cascadia
The Holy Tom Douglas Empire
Wasabi Bistro
Teapot Vegetarian House
Bamboo Garden
where to find cheap and tasty Ethiopian and Vietnamese food

Bars
The Viceroy
The Elysian Brewing Company
The Six Arms

Coffee
Caffe Vita
Espresso Vivace
Coffee shop with wireless internet access locator

Tourist stuff
Underground Tour
Seattle Art Museum
Klondike Gold Rush Museum
Moss Bay Kayaks
Seattle parks
Ballard Locks
Hikes accessible by bus
Mount Rainier (see also my attempt at getting a tour group together for Mt. Rainier - let me know if you're interested)
Olympic Peninsula

Questions or suggestions? Please comment on this post.

Mount Rainier

Seattle is a fairly easy place to get around by car, and it probably isn't worth guests hiring one while here. However, there is one unmissable activity that is a lot of hassle without driving: hiking on Mount Rainier. It's too far to get to by bike, there's no public transport from Seattle, and the only private bus tour we know of charges a lot of money for a trip that involves several short photo stops where you won't be able to get away from everyone else who was on the bus. So I had a better idea.

Even between only two people, it's cheaper to rent a car for the day and drive to Mount Rainier, plus that way you get to spend as long as you like hiking, and it will be much easier to get away from the crowds. If we arrange it such that there are 3 or 4 people per car, the whole trip works out pretty cheap (about $30 for the car plus $25 or so for fuel). I can organise the car hire and can probably also come along myself (bringing a car). If I can come (it depends on whether there is much last minute fire-fighting to do for the wedding) it would either be Monday August 28^th or Wednesday the 30^th; the Monday would suit me better but I think fewer guests will have arrived by then.

If you would be interested in coming along, please comment on this post, and also mention which day would suit you better and whether you'd be up for driving. There's no hard deadline, but it would be better to reply sooner rather than later because car rental costs might go up if we leave it too late to book.

Hotel availability

Just a quick note to warn guests that the Ramada has no rooms left for the weekend before our wedding (Friday August 25th at least). We have a large block booked starting the following Sunday (August 27th), but if you're coming earlier than that, you may run into trouble. For the moment, the Sixth Avenue Inn still has availability then, but it probably means they won't for much longer, as they are very similar hotels located very close to each other. If you have any trouble finding rooms either there or nearby, please get in touch with us and we'll sort something out.

Also, for guests wanting a budget option, the HI Hostel at Pike Place Market is apparently quite good, and is very conveniently located. We didn't mention it earlier because we don't have a block booking organised or anything, but a colleague just stayed there for a conference so now that it's been vetted I feel comfortable directing people there.

Coming to Seattle

I want to mention a few things.

- Some of you already know this, but if you're interested in sharing a room with someone and you want us to set it up, email us and let us know. Be sure to include things like "I only want to room with a female, non-smoking person who hates cucumbers", and we'll do our best to match you.

- We'll be writing a guide for you out of towners shortly. If there's anything in particular you want us to mention, please let us know. It'll mostly be full of things we think are cool. I have promised to keep the "coffee" section as concise as possible.

- The Bumbershoot festival is taking place that weekend, and the lineup has been announced! I would highly recommend going for a day, even if you don't like any of the musicians featured, because there's also a lot of interesting art to look at and people-watching to be had. Also, the majority of you are staying pretty close to it.