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Alice and I were fortunate enough to spend a long weekend in Denver catching up with Kaitlin and Adam. Saturday was Australia Day and we flew in just in time to make our way to the “Great Australian Bight”, an Australian cafe to have lunch with Kate and Adam. We had to indulge in pies, lamingtons, custard tarts, caramel slices and of course Aussie beer!

Afterwards we made our way to the Oxford hotel – started in 1891 and with a great bar that opened the day after the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. We enjoyed chilling in the lounge, particularly when they had the Bourbon tasting in the evenings.

On Monday we had planned to see my new vehicle and then go to the school where Kate teaches kindergarten, but a much larger snow storm than expected changed our plans. We still managed to make it to the school later that day and Alice had lots of fun telling the students about Hawaii, reading a book, delivering snacks and teaching them how to hula dance.

Fortunately we stayed over another day and with the snow finished and the sun shining, we made our way to Left Hand Utes to check on progress with the Holden Ute I bought in Melbourne and had shipped over for conversion to left hand drive and compliance with US regulations. This is quite an involved process that utilizes a US-compliant donor vehicle for the components – in our case a police pursuit vehicle from Louisville CO what had been crashed and written off by the police.

I’m very excited by the work being done on my new Ute, and it seemed appropriate that we were looking at the progress so close to Australia Day. We’ll now start making arrangements for picking it up and driving it back to Seattle after we come back from our trip to Costa Rica, Panama and Barbados in early April – it should be very fun!

This Christmas we spent a couple of weeks in our Hawaii property enjoying the sun, sea and most importantly Kaitlin and Adam and Luke. Unfortunately we missed Grant who is currently deployed but he was certainly in our thoughts and we felt his spirit was with us.

Of course when our wonderful children showed up at the airport, Alice was there to greet them in her usual regalia.

We spent a lot of time in and around the pool, but still managed to have many adventures.

Water played a large part in our fun times of course.

We saw a lot of wildlife including many dolphins, which were very cool and put on quite a show for us.

We were also fortunate to see a few whales from a distance, including from our back yard.

Kayaking was also among our favorite early-morning activities.

We also had to try our hand at surfing, although it seemed I was more “wipe-out” than “hang-ten” although both Luke and Adam managed to get up a few times.

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On Christmas eve we continued a tradition of eating out at a restaurant. This year we went to Jackie Rey’s Ohana Grill – which seemed appropriate as Ohana is Hawaiian for family.

We also went for a great helicopter ride over the Kilauea volcano – it is now much larger than when we took the same ride in February.

We followed the blessing with awa drinking, but of course making sure we first gave the spirits some.

It was a truly great time for us and we were all sad to depart our Hawaiian home. But we know we will return – Alice and I will move over in October and we’ve already decided our new tradition will be Christmas in Kona.

For now, we move on and Hau’oli Makahiki Hou to everyone!

Alice and I decided that rather than getting too caught up in Thanksgiving, we’d escape to a mini-vacation in Victoria, British Columbia.  We’ve gone to Victoria a couple of times previously and always enjoyed our stays there.  We took the Victoria Clipper up – a catamaran that runs at 30 knots which makes for a very pleasant 2 hours 45 minute journey and we love staying at the Fairmont Empress.

We splurged and take a harbor view Gold room which provides access to the lounge and a variety of food and drink throughout the day and evening.

 

Of course, you can’t go to the Empress and not partake in “High Tea”.  This is one of our favorite things to do and the spread never fails to satisfy, particularly with a glass of bubbly!

 

The town does a great job with their holiday lights and the government buildings look particularly impressive.

Alice also wanted to get into the holiday spirit so in addition to spending quite some time in a local holiday market (I figured out part way through that I would have enjoyed it better if I sampled each of the many craft wineries, distilleries and breweries represented there!), we also had to go to a ginger bread house display.

 

 

 

Not finished yet as we also went to a Christmas tree display in a shopping center, where I met an interesting bear.

 

 

 

I also thought it was interesting that they showed various cities where the British empire had expanded to including Brisbane, Australia – I felt right at home as I attended University there.

 

 

To cap off quite the tour of attractions, Alice insisted we visit Miniature World.  This actually turned out to be more interesting than I thought it would be as they had a wide variety of exhibits from medieval times through to Star Trek and many times in between including the American Civil War, both world wars and various depictions of pioneer times.

It was a great break for us and after another pleasant ride back on the Clipper and a schlep up the hill with our bags we were reunited with Josie the cat and glad to be home after an enjoyable time.

Well the time finally came for us to move off the dock.  We’ve had a wonderful four years there but now that we’re looking towards our move to Hawaii, we figured it would be fun to experience a different part of Seattle.  It is bitter-sweet to be leaving the dock as we had great neighbors and truly enjoyed the Fremont lifestyle as well as our relative peace and quiet in a large city.

 

We said our goodbyes to ‘Alice’ and the neighbors. We’ll certainly miss the fun times we’ve had with them.

 

 

 

We also sold the KatieG to our friends Kevin and Linda.

Our new apartment is right in the middle of the downtown action overlooking Pike Place Market and with fabulous views out over Puget Sound.

 

Of course moving is never fun, but we’ve now finally unpacked all the boxes in the apartment, but haven’t really been game to tackle the spill-over boxes and other items now in the storage unit at the apartment complex.

 

 

As a reward for moving, we went to Tulalip casino for a night away and a concert by War.  Very fun!

 

 

We’re already enjoying being so close to the markets and took advantage of the really nice October weather (for Seattle) to have a light dinner on the rooftop terrace.

We’re now looking forward to trying out all the local bars, restaurants and coffee shops – given how many there are with a 3 or 4 block radius it may take us a while.  Alice went to Sacramento this weekend to spend some time with her sisters, and so I go a head start by making my way to the Lava Lounge – a little piece of Hawaii tiki-ness in Seattle.

 

After what seemed a long time from when it was first planned, Grant and Luke were married in Seattle over the weekend.  It was a very special occasion made even more so by the number of Aussies who made the journey over for the celebration.

 

 

Grant and Luke came over early so they could get their marriage certificate sorted out.

 

 

Of course we also had to spend some time in Fremont Brewing – because beer matters!

The weekend started with a welcome party at the Mischief Distillery in Fremont (owned by our friends and neighbors Mike and Patti).  Alice made a nice speech explaining how she had behaved at the airport when she picked them up at the airport but of course she couldn’t maintain her good behavior all weekend.

So she proceeded to produce shirt with Grant’s baby photo, unveiled the “sponsor” of the event to be Bundaberg Rum (complete with flag) much to Grant’s dismay and then showed a photo-montage of both boys from their baby photos through to present day.

 

The weather on the wedding day was brilliant for Seattle in October – some clouds early followed by a clear sunny afternoon and evening making for a great atmosphere for the photo sessions.  The ceremony was very moving and the boys looked very happy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Afterwards I had the pleasure of making a short speech and naturally, there was much merriment and of course dancing.

 

 

 

It was the Aussies who shut down the event even managing to extract some additional bottles of wine to be taken back to the hotel for an after party in the lobby.

 

Now the boys are enjoying a honeymoon at our Hawaii property.

All in all a truly great event and now it’s time for Alice and I to move house – more on that later.

It’s been a very fun Summer, but unfortunately I have to believe that it’s coming to a close as the days are getting shorter and cooler, the color of the leaves on the trees is turning and we’re in the midst of Octoberfest here in Fremont.  I figured the best way to mark the occasion is to gather a number of my favorite photos that represent some of the scenes and experiences I’ve witnessed this season.

I love being out on Lake Union – paddling on the SUP, in a Kayak or boating.  We always see wonderful sights.

We try to have some adventures over the season.

 

We finished the summer with the Fremont Oktoberfest and now look forward to some exciting events during the rest of the year – Grant and Luke’s wedding, moving downtown and a vacation in Hawaii.

Alice and I decided to get away for the Labor Day weekend and turn it into a 5-day mini vacation.  We flew into Kelowna, British Columbia and stayed at Sparkling Hills Wellness Resort.  This was a fabulously relaxing place with a great outlook over Okanagan Lake and full of amenities including indoor and outdoor pools and spa, saunas (rose, steam, salt, freezing room and more), a foot pool / walking trail with alternating hot and cold water sections, restaurant, wine bar, fitness room, serenity room and tea room.

We also managed to get out and do some wine tasting – we had great recommendations from an Aussie waitress (there are a lot of young Australians who work in the area).  We visited wineries in Lake Country, West Kelowna, Naramatta and Penticton.  These included Quails Gate, Mission Hill, Indigenous, Tantalus, La Frenz and Ex Nihilo.  The scenery from many of these was simply spectacular with great views over the lake.

We had tremendous food for every meal including at the bistros operated within a number of the wineries.  It seems the food scene is very well developed in the Okanagan area.

 

Alice was very excited when she heard about Ogopogo – basically it seems the Okanagan equivalent of the Loch Ness Monster and of course we had to get a souvenir.

It was more than a little hard to go back to the realties of work life!

 

It was super fun when Kate and Adam visited for the week of July 4th.  We made the most of our time together with wine tasting in Woodinville, paddle boarding, kayaking,  and simply enjoying the good life that is part of living on Lake Union in the summer.

 

 

Alice and Kate also managed to do some dress shopping in preparation for Grant and Luke’s wedding and Adam spent some time in the office sharing notes with the person who has Adam’s role at our company.

July 4th was overcast and not as nice as other days but we still got out for a paddle.

Nina, Tyler and Alice’s surrogate grandchildren, Oscar and Julius came over for the 4th as did Kate’s college roommate, Lindy.  The fireworks were once again spectacular and we had a very nice time.

Kate and Adam must have paddled every day, and a very memorable time was had when we rented kayaks near the cutting to Lake Washington and explored the arboretum.

 

I was particularly impressed by the amount of bird life, including a number of duckling broods as well as the large turtles we saw sunning themselves on floating logs.

On our final day together we went out on the KatieG and enjoyed the Seattle skyline while eating dinner.

 

It was a great visit (the smile says it all!).  We’re really looking forward to when we get together in December at the Hawaii property.

 

This year the Solstice festival in Fremont coincided with the Father’s Day weekend.  We had a brilliant time starting with an early morning kayak on Saturday followed by the Solstice Parade.

 

 

As usual it was led off by many naked cyclists – perhaps 1,000 or more.  Most wore colorful body paint, some didn’t bother and some should have stayed home.

 

Two highlights was the “Baby Trump” and the full size horse bicycle.  Both very elaborate.

Following the cyclists, the parade took the streets through Fremont with a variety of floats, some making political statements, some just for fun and all quite colorful and full of happy people.

 

On Sunday we took advantage of absolutely beautiful weather to go for another kayak.  Afterwards Alice took me to brunch at Derby a restaurant at “The Shop” a club for car lovers where they can leave their specialty cars and work on them using lifts, tools and local experts.

 

 

Then it was time to check out the festival.  It was packed with people enjoying the fine weather.There are many stalls selling a wide range of crafts, plenty of food trucks and stalls, a couple of beer gardens and two stages with live music.

 

There was also an “art car” display and we figured this took the prize for the creepiest vehicle.

 

 

 

All in it was a great weekend, and a wonderful way to celebrate Father’s Day.

 

It’s been a very interesting few weeks.  myDIALS was a software company which I co-founded with Peter Long, a former colleague, way back towards the end of 2006.  It was acquired by Adaptive Insights in 2012 and we all retained stock in the parent company.  Adaptive had planned to IPO on the New York Stock Exchange this Thursday June 14th, which was interesting enough, but today Workday announced it was acquiring Adaptive for $1.55 billion in cash!  This results in a great outcome for everyone who was part of the myDIALS journey and essentially closes that chapter.  This makes it a good time to look back and reflect.

myDIALS Inc was incorporated in Colorado as the headquarters followed by myDIALS Pty Ltd in Australia as a wholly-owned subsidiary of myDIALS Inc. Product development would be performed in Australia.

 

It was an interesting journey with a lot of truly great memories, many high points and  some character building moments when the situation was quite bleak (it’s not easy when you’re concerned about making payroll for the people who trusted you and left secure jobs to join the crazy startup world).

I’m proud of what we built together and very honored and humbled to have had the opportunity to work with very talented architects and engineers who built an excellent product that was appreciated by our customers and the people who used myDIALS in their daily work lives. I’m also grateful for our sales people who found the customers and for our professional services and customer success team who ensured customers received value and were happy with the results.

Many of the myDIALS team continue to be part of Adaptive Insights and I’m very pleased that the Australian development center continues to grow and prosper.

The vast majority of startups fail (around 90% according to Forbes) so it’s very gratifying that together we achieved a good outcome for employees, customers, partners and investors.  I have a lot of people to thank and be grateful for, and have reached out separately to each of them.  I shared with them a short story describing the initial founding and early years, and my recollections from that time.

This experience reinforced for me that to survive in the startup world, you definitely need a willingness to take risks, and the ability to overcome rejection and learn from it, as well as courage, determination and above all perseverance. It helps if you have a good sense of humor, and it certainly doesn’t hurt to be just a little crazy!