I had a work retreat to complete the beta draft of the Learning Space Rating System that a group of us has been working on for a couple of years now. The biweekly phone calls were not advancing the project so we decided to hunker down in a conference room with no distractions and just pound it out. Colleague Rich from Stanford found the ideal place -- the Seal Cove Inn in Moss Beach, CA. Nice, quiet inn with a beautiful garden and within easy walking distance of the coast and a small private meeting room. For two days we hunkered down in small groups over our laptops open to Google docs and we really made a lot of progress. Amazing what can happen we you work for 12 hours a day!
But that's not to say we didn't have fun as well. First of all, it's a great group and we entered the exercise with gusto. It didn't hurt that Rich had planned trips to wonderful local restaurants for lunch and dinner. And the first night, he and Ronnie opened their lovely home to us all and we enjoyed grilled swordfish and asparagus over some nice wine and even nicer conversation. The restaurants featured included great Italian at Mezza Luna, amazing Peruvian at La Costanera, awesome sandwiches from Gherkins, and fresh fish sandwiches at Ketch Joanne. YUM!
After the group wrapped up, Alan joined me and we had one day on the coast to ourselves. Grabbing sandwiches in Pescadero, we headed south and ended up at Ana Nuevo State Park, home of elephant seals and sea lions. Lunch was tasty but the views were even tastier -- it was a beautiful, clear day with crystal clear skies. The ocean was so blue -- almost like Key West.
We got a permit and hiked out to see the elephant seals. Right now, the females are finishing their annual molt and the juvenile males were starting to arrive for theirs. Two very informed docents gladly answered our questions -- turns out that 95% of elephant seals don't make it past their first year, largely because they fail to thrive. They are easily lost in the mix and can be crushed or fail to find their mothers and thus get sustenance. For their part, the mothers are not eating the entire month they are raising their babies and themselves lose a significant portion of body mass since they aren't eating. At some point, the mothers determine that it's time to go, they enter estrus and are impregnated with the next baby. Basically, a female elephant seal spends her entire adult life either pregnant or nursing. But it might be better than the males -- many of them never get to mate at all.
Walking the two miles out, the last part in the sand, was definitely tiring and the bright sun and wind contributed to our exercise satiation -- and our hunger. Headed back to the lovely Seal Cove Inn for a shower and a glass of wine on our little porch. After a bit of searching, we located the perfect restaurant for our last dinner -- Cafe Gibraltar. We both had fish, prepared in a mediterranean style. Family-owned, friendly service, lovely food. :-)
At this point, we were so valuing our time together in this tranquil setting. We hadn't watched TV, barely checked the news, minimal email, and lots of conversation, the kind it takes a couple of days to relax into.
However, all good things come to an end and we head back to ATL in the am. The re-entry has already been brutal -- in search of game four of the Stanley Cup finals, we crossed the street to Houlihan's. Happy hour was in progress and the bar was packed; we scored two pretty good seats in front of one of the two screens showing the Kings-Devils game. A decent game and the beer was good but it was a raucous environment, not at all what we had come from. Oh well, at least Jersey won, sending the series back to Newark and to a weekend game.
