almost a boondoggle

Robert and I were privileged to spend a couple of days and two nights at the recently-renovated Mountain View Grand hotel, courtesy of my employer. It was a little like summer camp with a bunch of responsible, fun, funny, and likeable coworkers and their families. We had a couple of business meetings that were actually full of content (who would have thought it?), very helpful for getting us all on the same page as we think about next steps after our upcoming deadline.

(And as an aside, I have to contrast this retreat with the only other one I've been on, where the behavior was, perhaps, more predictable and infinitely more horrifying. It's so reassuring to know that my earlier impressions of coworkers were fairly spot on -- that there are no slimy things crawling around under those rocks.)

We got to pick "activities." A highlight for me was an hour-long kayak ride on a beautiful, almost entirely unspoiled lake. I also went to a wine tasting, which was very fun despite the fact that I didn't fall in love with any of the wines, not even the super-expensive ones. Over the few days, we talked to a bunch of people, and that was nice because usually people are too busy to chat at work. And we sat on the porch a bunch and looked at the stunning view.

Mostly, we relaxed. Robert needed a good break given that he's been working toward an awful deadline of his own, trying to correctly guess at how to write code that was underspecified and underdesigned. He needed to just sit for a while and stare off into the distance, too.

Yesterday, we started our journey home with a trip to a fire lookout tower that we climbed and then realized was occupied. We had a great conversation with the ranger who's 80 years old and full of stories and good spirit. Then we did what we call "noodling" -- Robert drove back-country roads while I navigated. We passed by beautiful countryside and even went over a covered bridge (then turned around and drove back over it to continue our journey). We traveled through charming little towns. We stopped for lunch in a town that is trying its hardest to be charming and we actually discovered its hidden secrets, including a phenomenal bakery. We sat on their back porch and watched the river and stared into space some more. We drove until we ran out of back roads, then hopped on the highway and stopped at one of our favorite restaurants on the way home.

OK, so I'm not particularly looking forward to going back to work on Monday, but this was a good break and I do feel a lot more energized than I did at the start of last week. We have a big deadline this week and perhaps a little more time to clean up after that before turning our attentions to our next set of assignments.