August 15
Late Summer Update
It's been awhile since I posted, so I thought I'd drop in a quick post. As I write this, I am relaxing a bit in Orlando at
Marriott's Harbour Lake Resort near Sea World. We usually stay here a week once a year and get our Disney fix. The summer has been busy. I had two weeks of travel back-to-back in Seattle and Las Vegas. The time zone hopping left me a bit energy drained so a week relaxing in Orlando is welcome. For fun, I'm going to deep link a few geo locations I visited the past three weeks. Let's see if I can get this straight and in order....
- Downtown Seattle at the Washington State Convention Center: Seattle was smokin' hot this year with 100+ degree heat! I learned that several people in the greater Seattle area don't even have AC because the temps are so moderate.
- The Commons - Microsoft Campus: The TechReady attendee party was held on the Microsoft campus this year at a new area known as the Commons. The Commons is basically Microsoft's own private outdoor mall complete with shops, several dining establishments and athletic facilities - really neat place. I ended up playing basketball at the party in deck shoes with freakishly big Euro-dudes.
- The Ritz-Carlton, Henderson, NV: My trip to Vegas was actually a weeklong trip to nearby Henderson. We had business meetings at the Ritz. You could actually see the Strip from our location in Henderson about 18 miles or so away. It almost looked like you could walk to the Strip. The barren desert coupled with the immense size of the Strip hotels made them look a lot closer than they actually were. Another interesting fact was that the "Bachlorette" and her chosen bachelor were also at the event with us. Her pick was a fellow Microsoft employee in the same division I work in - weird!
- The Strip: Nothing special to note here. I made it out to the Strip one night and I checked out Encore, Steve Wynn's new mega-casino.
- Eldorado Canyon: I had never heard of this place before going here one night for an evening event. There were a bunch of local types there who served us up a nice spread of steaks, etc. This crew was a bit odd though. I had heard after the event they named their cats in numerical order because they were often eaten by coyotes. There were up to number 17! It was beautiful there and we got to see an amazing full moonrise.
On a final note, Gabriel turned 6 last weekend with Dana's 33rd birthday immediately following. We're now looking forward to Ethan's 3rd birthday in a couple of months.
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