We woke up at a decent time, slowly got ourselves ready, packed up and jumped in the car for a day of adventuring!
We drove up to Squamish to do a hike which takes you around to 4 different lakes. Overall, this was about 2 hours and about 5.5km. We really liked getting back out there and doing a hike, and managed to get down to a very cold river, too!
We made sure to keep an eye out for bears and Kim also got herself a ‘stabby-jabby stick’, as she called it, to fend off bears, should she need to. She liked looking like a dad on a hike!
We finished up the beautiful, calming walk and then drove ourselves out to another lake, named Cat Lake. Kim’s friend said she was there and that we should join them, so we did.
The road to it was a service road, so it was gravel and very bumpy! Kim really enjoyed driving on it.
We got there and it was very busy, but we sat dipping our feet into the nice cool, smooth, water. Kim eventually noticed her friend and was able to say hi, but they were actually leaving so we chose to leave as well.
We drove back home which took quite a while, about 1 hour 45 minutes, and once we got home we really needed a shower!
We had our shower and ordered some tacos, then we went to get those and ate them fairly quickly.
Once we ate, we booked some places to stay to extend our holiday we have booked as bit so we can explore some cool places!
We relaxed and watched TV for the remainder of the evening.
He spent more time trying to fix someone’s laptop remotely, with the help of a colleague, and that was all throughout the day.
At 11:00, Curtis had a team meeting about the team strategy and then he did some tickets and security work until having lunch.
After lunch, it was time for another team meeting the review the work done over the last 2 weeks.
Curtis went to pickup his new coffee from the post office after this, which was luckily just a 5 minute walk away, and then he got home and made a cup of one of the new bags of coffee! He has bought a subscription in which they roast and send 3 new bags of coffee each month (if you want it each month). This is exciting as it gives Curtis new coffee to try and it’s fun, too. Curtis cleaned out the coffee grinder and made an Americano with the new coffee, which he made pretty well and really enjoyed it!
Curtis had a project to finish up in the late afternoon, which he did, and then it was relax time. Kim was still out, so Curtis played some games.
Kim’s Day
Kim was due to have a meeting heavy day and then two of her big meetings were moved to another day so Kim was able to really crack on and get a lot of admin done! She first started by popping out to grab coffees before sitting down and working on a project. She reached out to people and collected information from them and she also managed to get a lot of HR paperwork done.
He had a couple of smaller meetings and then she joined an interview and had a quick chat after.
Kim then worked on the internal work space, similar to the Wiki at her last company and started giving it a make over! She then popped out to collect some things from a store with colleague. They then went for a mini masked walk and it was lovely!
On a she got back Kim worked on the Wiki style project a bit more and she sent out some paperwork!
Evening
It was takeaway day today, so we found a place just down the road and went to pick up.
Curtis had a starter of wagu beef dip sliders and then a main of mac and cheese with braised rib. Kim had sweet chilli chicken bites as a starter and then some Cajun chicken tacos with fries.
Curtis couldn’t eat all of his mac and cheese and Kim couldn’t eat her fries, but we were defiantly well fed!
The rest of the evening was us in a food coma, relaxing and watching TV.
Curtis spent pretty much the entire time doing an onboard and he also did some other tickets and had a team meeting.
Kim’s Day
Kim slept in a little (she doesn’t work Fridays) and then when she woke up, she had some breakfast and did a little work she needed to get done whilst she ate.
After that, whilst she waited for Curtis to finish, she watched a bit of the first Hunger Games movie.
Tacos & Coffee
We went out to get ourselves some lunch! We went to Tacofino just down the street and got ourselves a taco each.
Once we finished that, we went out for a coffee and a walk in the early evening. This was cold but really nice as there wasn’t too many people out, especially in comparison to the weekends.
We got back home and relaxed for a bit, then we went out to get some dinner.
We got some food from our favourite Vietnamese place, which was excellent as always.
We watched the film Juliet, Naked which wasn’t what we were expecting but it wasn’t bad.
We then watched some more TV and played games but we were pretty tired so we went to bed at a good time.
Curtis had a meeting right at 09:00 and that lasted for about an hour and 15 minutes which was longer than anticipated.
Curtis got ready to leave the apartment after this as he had to do the thing he planned to do yesterday.
He and a colleague got to the office and began moving the equipment they needed to move.
Wearing masks, Curtis had his colleague had to move a large, heavy piece of equipment to another big container.
This had to be done carefully which was fairly easy but took some time. There were many screws that needed to be taken out as well as multiple things to be turned off in certain orders etc.
Curtis and his colleague were very happy to get it done and it went really well, which was the best part.
After that, Curtis went to meet Kim for lunch!
We went to Tacofino and got a couple of tacos each which were, as always, terrific!
We ate these and then Kim went back to work whilst Curtis headed home.
Curtis caught up with a lot from the rest of the day and did some tickets but the rest of the day went very fast!
Kim’s Day
Kim started her day with voicemails, and that kept getting interrupted by real time calls! To get up and about she then put all the kitchen stuff she has hoarded in the meeting room into some of the kitchen cupboards, so that frees up a lot of room.
For the last part of the morning Kim went over the list of people with access cards and updated the building with all the names of people who are no longer with the company.
After lunch Kim continued cleaning up the office. She removed a load of bankers boxes from the mass shredding and put them at a colleagues desk as she may need them. She moved a few of the empty drawers around and then put the group meeting space back together.
Kim then had a catchup with her colleague before she left to head home. At the end she went over her dream plan for the office set up and it went well, so Kim will pull some information together and see if it would work.
Evening
In the evening, Kim stopped on the way home so she could get some white wine to make dinner with.
Kim got home and made a terrific chicken and mushroom risotto which we ate whilst watching some YouTube videos.
We watched some more TV and relaxed for the rest of the evening.
Curtis was up at normal time, rather than early like yesterday!Once Curtis got to work, he joined the security and compliance meeting he had. There were some good points raised but it was a short meeting.After the meeting, Curtis had a few tickets to do and was actually really busy until lunch, which felt great as it’s been quiet recently.After lunch, it was much of the same but with quiet spots filled with project work.Curtis planned to swap out some batteries on a UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) at 16:45, but someone came over for some help so he helped that person and started the swapping of batteries at 17:00 instead.It was pretty easy to swap the batteries and it worked, which is great, but it took about 15 minutes because it pays to be careful…Plus they’re heavy!Curtis left work and met Kim to walk home.
Kim’s Day
In the morning Kim spent most of her time going through her emails and picking up as hoc tasks. She also decided to cut up some watermelon for people to enjoy.
Mid morning Kim had her 2 weekly social team meeting where they discuss all the plans for the next few weeks. In this meeting the Bake Off came to an end due to lack of interest. Kim was very sad to hear it, but you can’t force people to bake! Its also a rubbish bake off if there is nothing there to be judged. A few other things got moved around or taken off the calendar as there is less interest in the summer months.
As they left the meeting the catering arrived for a meeting so Kim set that up and then was on her way out the door.
Today Kim had another meeting with the hotel rep who came in with doughnuts on Monday. This time she went to the hotel to see one of their rooms, have lunch and see a few of the facilities. The lunch was beautiful and so tasty and then the facilities were amazing too! The gym was huge, the pool had lovely big windows and the executive lounge was stunning.
On the way back in to the office Kim popped into the liquor store to pick up a specific drink that was on offer in support of Pride. They are little cans of bubbly rose with a rainbow theme!
In the afternoon Kim went through more emails and organised more things for the filming that is due to take place in a few weeks. It is really good to get the ball properly rolling with that!
At the end of the day Kim was given a few wristbands for the rooftop for the fireworks display that was going on tonight. Kim managed to keep 2 for herself after the rest were collected.
Celebration Of Light Fireworks
Kim peeled off the bridge to go home whilst Curtis continued on as he had to get some hummus & sour cream for a pride potluck tomorrow.
Curtis got that and then walked back home where we watched some Youtube videos and ate tacos which we made.
At 21:20, we left the apartment and walked up to Kim’s office building to go to the roof and watch the Celebration of Light fireworks.
We tried to take the elevator from the 14th floor but it took too long so we walked up the stairs to the 25th floor!There were quite a few people up there but we got a good enough view.
The fireworks went on for around 30 minutes and were alright but nothing crazy.
We walked back home and arrived around 23:00. We were so tired so we went to bed pretty early.
Curtis had a very busy day in general today! He had some packages arrive which meant he could continue with some things he needed to do.
Curtis got a few tickets done and then got a few messages asking for help, so he cleared out most things by lunch.
Curtis ate his lunch and then after that he had a meeting in which he learned about the unique style of team meetings that his company uses, which took about an hour.
After that, Curtis had to install and clone a hard drive for someone so that they had more space.
Curtis got that going and then realised that the screen of the laptop was damaged, so he swapped it over to a new laptop and continued.
After it cloned, it hit an error so Curtis had to restart it, and it had to be left overnight.
A server hard drive died the other day, so Curtis had to order one and that arrived, so he figured out how to remove the dead one and install the new one, which he did successfully.
Curtis helped someone move some styrofoam into a cupboard and then his day at work was done. Incredibly busy, but in a good way.
Kim’s Day
Kim got in and had her breakfast quickly before starting her day.
She started by going through some emails and cracking on with general admin. Then she had to organise a hotel for someone visiting in 2 days, so that was a fun challenge.
Later in the morning Kim had a nice sit down and informal meeting with a colleuege who is over from the Toronto area office. It was so nice to put a face to the name.
Then most people from HR then went out to grab some tacos from a nearby food truck! Its the same company Curtis visited a few weeks ago. Kim had the crispy chicken burrito and it was amazing! They then all sat on the roof and ate their lunch in the sun, it was so lovely!
When Kim got back to her desk she continued plodding away at ad hoc tasks and was then asked to check a statement against the invoices, this took a while as its the first time Kim has done it.
Kim then had another meeting with her colleague from Toronto and got a little training on scheduling phone screenings. It is so nice to have have so many aspects of this role!
Kim then wrapped up the last half hour by making notes for the up coming days and planning.
Shoes & Evening McDonald’s
We met after work and went on the hunt for shoes.
We tried Vans, Winners and some other stores. Kim got some shoes from Winners and Curtis bought some Vans. Both of our shoes are falling apart so it was a good time to get some! We also saw some Chow-Chow dogs, which were cute!
We headed back home and were hungry, so kim made a chicken salad again for dinner.
Once we ate, we went out for a walk to stretch our legs, but rewarded ourselves with a McFlurry & hot chocolate.
We walked back home and got some awesome photos of the sky…We live here!
The hot chocolate was gross but the McFlurry was great! We watched some Lucifer and then headed to bed.
Curtis has an exciting meeting tomorrow morning, so he is looking forward to that!
The weather wasn’t as warm today, but still plenty warm enough.
We planned to head out pretty early today, but we slept in a bit and then the bathroom was being used this morning so we couldn’t get showered, so we left around 12:00.
We headed out of Austin for 1 hour to a town called Wimberley. This town is home to Jacob’s Well, which is a large underwater cave which, during summer, people jump into.
The dark part of the water here is the well
This was named a well because it resembled one, back in the 1800s.
We were not here during the swimming season, but wanted to take a look.
We walked down some stairs which went through a nice tree covered walkway, which looked awesome.
We got down to the well and instantly noticed how tiny it was. On the photos the area looks large, but in actuality it was very small.
There were another couple there who were taking photos, so we had to work around them, but we got some pretty cool shots.
We left here and went for a taco each in a gas station, which apparently had really good tacos.
We thought they were alright, a little big and not enough meat, but the meat was good. Probably around a 7/10.
Playoff Hockey
We drove back home and then Curtis watched the first game of the Leafs playoff first round.
Whilst Curtis did this, Kim booked something really exciting for tomorrow, which will be fun! She then had to go out and get some lunch items for tomorrow.
Throwback Dinner
We had chicken pesto pasta for dinner, which is a travelling throwback dinner, but we went fancy and had red pesto instead, with a side of salad.
We watched the latest episode of Jane The Virgin and then went to sleep. Up at a decent time tomorrow!
We organised to meet with a friend, Alice, who we met in Rome around 2 years ago. She lives here in Vegas, so we had to meet up!We got up, had breakfast and then Alice was coming to collect us, so we got ready quickly and headed out.
We stopped off at the supermarket to get some drinks and snacks and then continued the drive up to Alice’s apartment, where we got ready to head to the pool.We went down to the pool and relaxed there.
The weather was hot but the sun wasn’t out, so it wasn’t too bad. We had a drink and chatted for a couple of hours and then got back in the car to go to Mandalay Bay.
Pool #2
We got to Mandalay Bay and went through to their beach/pool area. They have an artificial beach equipped with a wave pool.
We got ourselves some deck chairs, some how, and then walked down to the wave pool and chilled in there for a while.
When we got cold we went and sat in the sun and fell asleep!
Lunch
We had a spot of lunch with Alice, which was at a Mexican place.
We had a pork taco each alongside some potato in a cheese sauce with jalapeños.
Zipline
We relaxed at home for a couple of hours and got showered before we headed back into downtown so Kim and Alice could do the zipline.The zipline goes through Fremont Street and it is done in the superman pose.
Whilst Kim was queueing, Curtis got a beer with Kenny, who joined us for the day.
Once Kim finished her zipline, we walked around Fremont Street for a bit and then got hungry so we all got in the car and drove to In & Out for a delicious burger!
We got a Lyft home and then slept. We are up at a decent time to check out tomorrow but don’t fly until the evening.
First thing’s first – something we forgot to mention yesterday – Curtis now also has his Canadian work visa, so we can confirm that we plan to work in Canada in the near future!
Now – onward to today;
Off Into The City
We took the bus to the city this morning, but only had a $5 note. Kim was given a ticket which still had time on it, so only Curtis needed a ticket.
Curtis put the $5 note in the machine, expecting change, but the driver informed him that change is not given on buses in Seattle! This didn’t really bother us too much, but now we know.
When we got off the bus, the driver called us over and gave us 2 tickets to be used any time up to 18:00 as he felt bad that we put too much money in. He didn’t have to do that, but it was incredibly kind that he did!
SIM Shopping
We need to get a US SIM as we will be in the country for a bit of time, so we walked around places trying to find one.
We had seen the perfect thing at the supermarket yesterday, but didn’t want to just take the first thing we saw, so decided to browse.
Whilst we looked, we found nothing better, so decided we’d head to the supermarket later and get the one we saw.
Victrola Coffee
We had seen a coffee shop named Victrola a few times and it was full each time, so it must have been good! We decided we would check it out.
The coffees were mostly one size, which wasn’t a great start for us, so much so that Curtis panicked a little and ordered the house coffee instead of espresso.
The house coffee wasn’t great, but Kim had a mocha which seemed to get better over time.
We found some of the staff a little standoff-ish too, which wasn’t pleasant.
Interestingly there was also an Amazon office within the same building as this coffee shop.
Kim’s surprise was planned to be a tour of the Amazon headquarters. Unfortunately, it’s a very full tour and is usually booked for months in advance, so Kim had put us both onto the waiting list.
We walked to the Amazon HQ and asked the question as to if we had been accepted or not.
Unfortunately, we were not accepted and it is still full, so we were unable to do the tour. That being said, we have signed up for Thursday’s waiting list, so fingers crossed!
Spheres
We were still able to go into the Amazon Spheres, which were built fairly recently primarily as an alternative workspace for Amazon employees, but also as a living plant biome.
We could only explore the bottom floor, which explains all about how it was built, why it was built, the challenges and the people within. It was pretty cool to see!
Tacos
We left here and walked about 25 minutes to get tacos! Our host told us last night about a great, cheap, taco place so we grabbed some as a snack.
We each got a house taco (pork, salsa & pineapple) and we shared a steak taco.
The pork were by far the best. absolutely delicious, and the steak was just ok.
We went for a walk around volunteer park, which is a large park of woodlands. There isn’t much there, but it was a nice walk to relax. We saw a lot of squirrels and some were daring enough to come close. Kim tried to hand one a pinecone and freaked out!
We walked around for a bit more and then stumbled across a giant former water tower.
Water Tower
This water tower is huge and is now an observation deck.
We were able to climb the stairs to the top and get a 360° view of the city (and all the rain clouds!).
Different Bus
We took a different bus home after stopping by at something we will be doing tomorrow to ensure we are booked in.
We walked to a bus stop and caught a different bus number so we could go a bit off course and get directly to the supermarket near our apartment, rather than having to walk from home.
We got the SIM and other things we needed from the store and walked back home.
Stir Fry
We got home and Kim whipped up a pork stir fry, which was incredible.
We ate a lot, but it was worth the fullness!
We watched some TV and then went to bed. Got to be up early tomorrow!
Mr & Mrs Hale 