I returned to Raleigh on Sunday from my latest “work” trip (in time for week two of my Monday curling league). And while I did not neglect my work, I did other things too. This post is more of a highlights summary than the usual fare of a more detailed account of a single topic or event.

I sat alone under redwood trees in the cool mornings while my body adjusted to the time difference. These were not the giant sequoias, but they still make one feel small in their presence. That is something needed from time to time.

I drove a car remotely that was in a parking lot several miles away. That is what is now possible through the technology developed by Qibus, the client alongside whom I worked during the trip. Even with the prototype driving setup I used, it is incredible (1) that the whole thing is possible at all and (2) how close it felt to driving while physically in the car. Just don’t ask me to explain any of the underlying engineering.

I had small group dinners almost every night, an experience I have too rarely. It is remarkable what conversation among friends can bring to the spirit. The conversation was different every night, but I did try most of the time to steer things away from whatever projects we had each been working on that day.

I took the ferry into the city for a meeting with the MicroAcquire team, a beautiful ride across the bay unshrouded by its famous fog. We celebrated the closing of the first transaction they helped broker directly as we were the attorneys who represented the seller. Then at lunch, standing in a park looking across the bay, we saw some of the activity that has tarnished San Francisco in recent years. When I did some work in an alcove in a shopping mall, I was treated to even more. Take nothing away from how San Francisco looks from a distance, though, as it is something to see out on or across the bay.

I took in a jazz concert in a small community theater where we were the youngest people in attendance by twenty years or more. My grandmother would have been proud. The songs were from an earlier era of jazz than I had listened to before and while the change was nice I don’t anticipate altering my regular workday background music.

I attended an Octoberfest event that was so out of place as to be comical. Sure, there was a large tent set up with long communal tables, but they also played the chicken dance song multiple times. And the lines were so long for bratwursts that I had paella for lunch and finished my lunch before those who waited in line for sausage and cabbage even sat down. Then once I got back to my lodgings I was whisked off to evening tea and ginger snap cookies to round off the trip.