Nerds Return to Seattle

You might be wondering what we have been up to, since it obviously hasn't been blogging. This summer I may have taken on a little too much responsibility all at once, and I'm learning how to manage that better.
But enough about that, we have much more fun things to share, like Colin's first Seattle trip since we moved away over 3 years ago!
The reason for this trip was to attend Simon's wedding, a good Microsoft friend from our Seattle days. The wedding was beautiful, I am so glad we went (even though we didn't know anyone else there), and I was also very happy to have an excuse to travel back to the coast. We went to Courtenay, Seattle, and Vancouver, visiting several family members and old friends.
For me, the highlight of the trip was running into Beth (hi Beth!) in Courtenay. She was down there for a wedding, but neither of us had bothered to tell each other that we would be there, given how unlikely it was that the other would be there at all, let alone at the same time. Colin and I were walking down the street looking for lunch one day, and there is Beth, sitting at a cafe. I was unbelievably happy to see a familiar face and catch up with her.
The main downside of a trip like this is that it makes me miss the west coast all over again. I see the ocean, walk around bustling downtown Seattle or Vancouver, and smell the salty air, and I can't believe that we moved away from it for something as silly as work. While I am there, I want to drink it all in, do as much as possible in a short time, but of course I spend some amount of time being sad that I have to leave again! As much as we like Kitchener, and like the home and friends we have made here, I think one day we will move back to BC (or Cascadia, I can still dream).
The other downside is that we worked while on vacation. I don't recommend this. I didn't feel that I could take a whole week off work, given our current projects, so I hatched a plan where I would take a couple of travel days off (plus weekends), and otherwise work 6am to 2pm every day, then visit with friends until bed. Colin would sleep in a little, and then join me for most of the work day. This seemed to be working well until the lack of sleep caught up to us. Then it failed horribly and the rest of our vacation was a little too stressful to be called a vacation. So in the future, we will remember that just because you can work from anywhere, doesn't mean you should!
So that's the highlights. Being us, there are no pictures. No really, we didn't take a single picture our entire trip. We joked about taking one from the plane on the way home, but we forgot. The only proof that we were even there is a few random group shots at the wedding. Something to improve on, I guess!