UP TO THE NORTHWEST

This week brought some more travel for me to one of my favorite cities - Seattle - for two meetings. The first was with the incredibly cool folks over at Nordstrom’s. I have to tell you, I am so impressed with this company. Even though I am about as far from a fashion person as possible, I have so much respect for their culture, customer service and forward thinking mentality. We had a great brainstorming meeting and I really enjoyed the chance to see their headquarters in downtown Seattle. I even picked up a new pair of kicks after the session.

Here is a picture of the Nordstrom headquarters on 6th Ave in Seattle

The second meeting was with the Pacific Northwest region of Whole Foods in Bellevue to plan their 2008 Vision Day. We were able to make some great strides in laying out the theme and logistics for the day which is coming up in early July. It’s funny - no matter where we are in the country Whole Foods is always the same. Wonderful. Seriously I am constantly amazed at how much I love working with them. It is such a great environment to be creative in and I love the chance to be part of facilitating the vision for the next year. It is so rewarding to see the many hours of hard work inspire people within the company to continue helping to change the way the world eats.

Even though I didn’t have time to visit my favorite croissant shop in Pike Place market or even sit in some brooding coffee shop while it rained, I enjoyed my time in the Emerald City. We will be returning in a couple of weeks to film and I am excited because we will also go to Portland as well as Vancouver, which is somewhere I have always wanted to see. Should be a great trip..

The funniest thing on the trip was that when I got to the airport, I was given a complimentary upgrade on my rental car. I should have known better. They put me in a limited edition Dodge Durango. This beast got a whopping 6 miles to the gallon, must have been over 7 feet tall and made me feel like a total jackass driving through a city as green as Seattle. I guess they are having a hard time renting these things out while gas is $4 a gallon

Even though we are headed back out in a couple of weeks, I was so glad to head home. As I was flying in, the sunset over the bay area was absolutely stunning. While the iPhone camera is about as bad as it gets, you can at least get an idea of what I am talking about with this photo. The pilot brought us right over the bay and it was spectacular.