Seattle

Thanks to Amazon, Caleb and I got to go on a trip to Seattle a couple weekends ago! We had a wonderful time, and having all expenses paid made it especially relaxing. :) Caleb has a couple offers with Amazon so they flew him and his "significant other" out to try and close us on the company and Seattle. We've been very impressed with Amazon's recruiting process. We left our kids with Jeff and Kerri Thursday afternoon, then Tom and Laura got here Thursday evening and took over from there til late Saturday night. We were incredibly grateful for them! We did not worry about our kids at all the whole time, honestly, which was so nice. The kids had so much fun with Tom and Laura. I don't think they even missed us at all until maybe the last day a bit. We're so grateful to have wonderful family members on both sides who support us and love us. It really is an incredible blessing. Here's a recap of our trip:

After arriving Thursday night we went and ate at Benihana's with the Moncours (another BYU MBA couple). I've wanted to eat there ever since we did a case about them at the "Day in the Life of an MBA" class. It was very good. At this point we thought Amazon was reimbursing $65/day EACH for food. AFTER ordering the nicest meals at Benihanas AND stopping after to get a piece of cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory, we found out it was $65/day for BOTH of us!! haha We laughed and were more conservative the next two days. :)

On Friday Caleb spent the day at the Amazon offices. I worked out, took my time getting ready, went to Pike Place market with some other spouses that were there, toured the EMP, then went to the Amazon offices with Ashley Clark for an info session. It was informative and good to get a feel for the culture at Amazon. Then we met up with our spouses and had hour d'ouvres and had a good time talking with Amazon people and other potential Amazon employees. Then Caleb and I went and rode the Ferris wheel which was a lot of fun. On our way over we found a cool spot to take a pic with the ferris wheel behind us. We couldn't get the picture right and by the end we were cracking up.

Finally got it!

We also walked by the famous gum wall. We felt a little dirty being that close to it!

Saturday we worked out in the morning, then got ready and walked to the Seattle Center where we went to the top of the Space Needle.

Caleb: "How about I point to the Amazon buildings." Kim: "Awesome idea!" He points, I take the picture, then inform him that in the picture he's pointing at the mountains. He then points out that it's my job to tell him where to point! I started cracking up at the fact that I took a picture of him pointing at the mountain, without telling him he wasn't actually pointing at the Amazon buildings. One of those classic pictures!!

There we go. Amazon is totally transforming downtown Seattle. That group of buildings is only a fraction of what they've built so far.

Then we rode the monorail to Pike Place market, caught some fish throwing action, got an amazing baguette sandwich and chocolate croissant at Le Panier, then caught the 12 o clock ferry ride (Amazon gave us passes to all the main attractions).

Then we grabbed our bags from the hotel, rented a car, drove around some suburbs to get an idea of houses and neighborhoods there, then drove to the airport and flew home. It was the perfect length of a trip. It never got too long, but we had enough time to do what we went there to do and have some fun too. However we left feeling more confused about our job decision! We didn't feel great about Seattle. I'm sure we could go there and be happy, and that Amazon would be a good experience for Caleb, but neither of us felt like, "This is definitely the place for us!" So we left pretty confused. But it was still a great trip and whether we choose them or not, we'll always appreciate Amazon!