The final day of Biztalk class has come and gone.  The final day was all lecture and NO labs.  Which didnt surprise me because Thursday was all lecture and about 15 minutes of lab work.  The class had fallen so far behind that after Wednesday, he had to basically spend the entire day in lecture mode so that he could cover all of the subjects on the curriculum.  I spent most of Friday in a "shock and awe" phase, because so much was coming at me and we weren't able to digest it with labwork.  I'm very much a "learn by doing" kind of person.  So 5 hours of lecture is pretty tough to work through in the brain if I dont have a chance to see it in action.
But it's over now.  I'll spend the next few weeks taking a look at the labs and manual that Jim W. picked up from his class at Developmentor.  They have a really nice set of labs and I'll be able to fill in the many gaps that were forged throughout the week.
After class we had a chance to check out the Microsoft store, wherein I purchased the usual swag.
Flew out to Seattle right after that to visit some of the typical "you gotta do this if you visit Seattle" locations.
First up...the Space Needle:

I really lucked out on my trip, for pretty much the whole week.  Typically it rains in Seattle, ALOT.  But on the days that I went out it was usually awesome weather.  The Space Needle trip was no exception.  A little overcast, but I was still able to take some really good pictures of the surrounding area: 

Downtown Seattle from the Space Needle.


Northern Seattle area with the mountains in the background. 

Of course, I would be less-nerdy if I didnt stop by the Science Fiction Museum:

I was really impressed by the SFM.  They had a ton of Battlestar Galactica, Bladerunner, Star Trek and Aliens artifacts.  Its not a terribly large museum, but they make up for it with content.  They even have the original Starship Enterprise bridge chair and controls panels.  It was pretty cool and I've undoubtedly added about 25 points to my geek-resume'.  I didnt visit the EMP (Experience Music Project) right next door.  I was somewhat pressed for time and had to move on.
I headed out to the Fish Club restaurant for dinner (which was quite tasty) and then back to the hotel to pack for an early flight.  I ended not sleeping that night because the hotel front desk clerk called the room at 9:30 p.m. (I had been sleeping for an hour and a half or so) to verify that I had indeed asked his previous shift's clerk for a 4 a.m. wake up call (which I had).  I couldn't get back to sleep after that, so I just stayed up and took off for the airport at 2 a.m.
The flight from Seattle to chicago went quickly.  I couldnt sleep on the jet, but i was able to do a small amount of reading in Thomas Erl's "Service Oriented Architecture."  A book that I've taken a liking to but find I have a limited amount of time to devote to it.
The flight from Chicago to Grand Rapids was delayed an hour or so.  We had to change planes, as ours was "unworking".  They swapped out the jet and an hour later, we were "wheels up" to Michigan.
It was a good trip.  Despite the chaos of the class, I dont feel that it was a wasted week.  It was more like a week long exam, wherein I was able to identify my weaknesses for review later.  And Seattle was incredible.  I think I'll lay off of seafood for a while though.
I'm definitely ready to get back to Spout and finishing up the data integration conversions.