Last year I attended the Computer Human Interaction Conference in the Netherlands. This year the conference was held in Seattle at the Washington State Convention Center, which was a bit more convenient. Bill Gates gave the opening talk, and although he seemed a nervous speaker, he made a few jokes at Microsoft's expense and won over the crowd.

After the conference was over, Chris came up and we drove to Orcas Island, the largest island in the San Juan Islands, off the coast of Washington. It's about a 2 hour drive north of Seattle to Anacortes, where the ferry is, and then another hour and a half ferry ride.

Orcas Island is beautiful and surprisingly uninhabited. In 1963, my parents spent part of their honeymoon there. We were there in the off-season, so it was a lot less crowded, but I was amazed at all the farmland and animals grazing. Hard to believe we were on a small island. We stayed in a newly-built tiny cabin near the water, and it was lovely having no phone or TV for a few days. The weather was a bit cold and rainy, so we spent a lot of time just playing games and listening to the local radio stations, one of which was in Canada--I was a bit shocked when the DJ announced it was "sunny and 7 degrees".

We also took some nice hikes in East Sound, the main village in the island, and drove up to the highest point in the San Juan Islands, Mt. Constitution, at about 2500 feet. There was freshly fallen snow and a beautiful view up top.

Most of the photos were taken by me, but I put []s for the ones that weren't.

Here's a slideshow

and a photo album (thumbnails).