Diary of a Wolfeman

So, back today from a sudden overnight trip to Bellevue Washington… which is a very weird place.

Bellevue is not too terribly far from Seattle proper, and you can tell that the Grand Vision for the downtown area is to be a little chunk of Manhattan as far as density goes, but they want it to be more modern. They have basically flattened and repaved all of Downtown, and built up towers. (They call ’em skyscrapers, but they average maybe 40 stories.)

I went to see our client’s offices, and noticed that there were three (3!) towers within 2 blocks of my client with Microsoft signs on them – which has got to be confusing when giving directions. “Now, ya turn left at the M$ tower, then turn right at the M$ tower and go past the M$ building…”

For anyone else who may be going there for some reason, I will tell you this: don’t cheap out on the hotel room. I stayed at the Extended Stay America on Main Street because it was only $100/night, and the bed was too hard, the pillows too flat, the windo faced the freeway, and worst of all, the “high-speed wireless Internet” was a $4.99 surcharge, and tested out at a whopping 256k.

I can get that tethering to my fucking phone. To sort of top everything off, the room stank of baby formula and I had to track down a Walgreen’s to get a can of Febreeze.

Another reason not to cheap on the hotel: get one with a decent restaurant or cafe because you’ll have to pay for parking everywhere you go, and the good restaurants that aren’t in the hotels are in the office towers, and parking is $3 an hour. Either that, or take a cab.

All in all, I didn’t like Bellevue and won’t be going back if I can help it.