15 search business team managers had a 2 day offsite at Alderbrook Resort and Spa on Hood Canal. There are many new people and we wanted to get to know each other and align our goals for the upcoming year. The resort was typical northwest architecture with stunning views of the mountains and local waters, and it was fun talking and eating dinner with everyone. 

 

As a nice surprise, our GM Brad managed to convince Bill Gates to take one hour out of his vacation from an old family home next door and talk with us about search. He showed up in shorts, black socks and white tennis shoes. So classic! He was very knowledgeable about our product team and strategies and it was a good conversation. It definitely feels like he's going to stay engaged with search even as he shifts more of his time next year towards philanthropy. This makes sense: he's only 51 and wants to make sure Microsoft stays relevant in the third great wave of computing on the internet. The company beat IBM (which owned the first wave of the mainframe) to take over the second wave on the desktop. I don't think he wants to watch his company fail against Google. So he seems engaged on search, which can only help us.

After Eugene, we spent 5 days on the Olympic penninsula camping. The first site was Kalaloch, a dramatic spot perched above coastal cliffs. Nana and Opa joined us, along with Chris, Anne and Ruby Weber. Alas, it was wet and cool, so we are missing out on our summer sun quotient. But the location was spectacular and the kids loved building sand castles on the beach and poking around the tide pools. Chris and I also got a surf session in at high tide in the evening glass-off. Very fun river mouth sandbar peelers.

 

We also spent a night at Heart O' the Hills campsite at the approach to Hurricane Ridge. The alpine meadows offered impressive views of the Olympics and Juan de Fuca Straight, as well as the low-lying clouds and mist.

 

The Thistle Fleet had 64 boats attend the 2007 Nationals Regatta at the Eugene Yacht Club on Fern Ridge reservoir last week. I raced with Darlene Woo and Jeff Crombie from the Seattle fleet (Erik and Brooke were both working) and considering it was the first time racing together we had a great time. The venue is perfect, with tent camping on site. Julia and the kids stayed with her parents in Springfield, and Kerrie and Ron came up from Sacramento with their kids to join Vanessa with hers. 6 cousins under 4 years old. Lots of fun.

 

Here's what I learned from the racing: