“Alright sir, your car is right this way. I see you selected a full-size?”
“That’s right. Heh, it’s funny, last time I was through here they didn’t have any full-size cars left and put me in a Mustang.”
“Hmm… d’you want this SS?”
“Uhh, sure.”
So it’s now a tradition that I get to try a sports car when I travel for work.
That last pic is a straight-on shot from the front. You can see just how ridiculously tiny the view-port is. And the fat pillars in the back mean there’s even less visibility in that direction too. Don’t get me wrong, it’s wicked fun to drive, but I’d never own one.
The most over-the-top feature, though, had to be the Heads-Up Display.
Anyways. The trip was a great success. Had a junior employee along and we had tons of meetings, got to show her the ropes of how to get around down there, met some faces, etcetera.
A roof-top walking trail.
My flight out, like my flight in, got quite delayed. It was a nice day out and I’d already returned my rental car, so I walked around the airport and found a walking trail next to a river. Had to beat my way through some brush to get to the river bank.
You can see some trash stuck in the foliage. That’s not littering, that’s a sign that this river is filthy and gets a lot higher. So it wasn’t quite the idyllic respite I’d imagined from the trail.
To prep for Hayden’s arrival, I had to finally get rid of the couch that had been taking up space in my garage for the better part of a year. I’d never put much effort into getting rid of it, always figured someone would come along for it. Then it turned out my good friend’s roommate was moving out and taking all their furniture with her, so the couch would be a welcome addition to their place. To paraphrase the elementary school song:
“BROWN couch, it never gets dirty, the longer it stays here the browner it gets.
“SOME day, I think I will sell it off. Something keeps telling me, don’t do it yet. Not yet. Not yet.”
There’s a Player Piano in the background there. Coolest thing ever.
Then Hayden and Mattie arrived!
Prep-work for the ketchup gag. 
I knew when I bought that lawn chair off a Googler that someone would put it to good use. 
At the park where these pics were taken, we took a stroll through a forest trail. I was intent on retracing my steps from a long ways back. But the undergrowth was too much for me to navigate. I tried my best, but got a finger-ful of thorns for my trouble. Which are still working their way out, a week later.
On our way out Hayden requested a GIF shot of him throwing the frisbee. I wasn’t able to capture it, but I did get something a little less flattering.
Before Hayden shot off for work on Monday we had fun with the plasma cutter.
Tuesday was a nice day and I decided to take a half-day off to shoot the breeze with Mattie. We headed up north to the Tulip Festival, then decided to swing west and head down south through the middle of Whidbey Island.
Mattie’s new favorite place. 
Wednesday night we headed out for some ice cream after work.
Hayden was gracious enough to take Mattie to the airport early the next morning. I needed the sleep as I was giving a presentation at a large summit the next day, which went quite well.
Highlights from having Mattie and Hayden over:
- Driving over the Deception Pass bridge with Mattie in total amazement. Definitely gonna have to hit that place up next time y’all make it up here.
- Geeking out over protocol buffers and serialization formats while wandering through a tulip field.
- Rocking out with Hayden on the way back from his first local FHE.
- Applause at the end of Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, my latest favorite Bollywood film.
Ah! I love this. Very cool car. Looks like sci-fi with the dash viewer thing. I’ll bet it was fun to drive. Thanks for the peek in to Mattie’s stay and Hayden’s first week. I can see (and Mattie has said) that it was a whole lot of fun. Makes us so happy that you 3 had that time together. Now on with the summer! Looking forward to hearing about what awaits!