Mountain View, California

Dear Friends:

Last week, I visited the San Francisco Bay Area for a very short trip.  I was there for just over 24 hours.  The main reason, was to hold a series of meetings with Google.  It's always interesting to visit the Google Campus:

For those that are tech nerds, the statue right behind me represents the latest release of the Android operating system.  It's codename is "Marshmallow" ; )  The meetings went well...some day I will have to write down my impressions of some of the Google employees, and how they compare to other technology companies.

While there, I had a fantastic opportunity to spend time with this awesome little guy:

This is my youngest grandson, J.  He's just about to turn a year old, and is on the verge of walking.  For now, he likes to pull himself up on everything.  Here he is pushing a toy cart down the hall...he's getting close to this whole walking thing:

I love both of my grandsons.  They're delightful and have wonderful parents.  J loves to smile...somehow he actually smiles with his entire body!  When we visit on video chats, I can get him to laugh pretty consistently.  We ran some errands and while walking around, he thought he would put his fingers in my mouth.  Several times.  Grandpa is happy to oblige...

We also played in the bathroom a bit.  He's discovered how much fun it is to play with water.  He's also discovered that water flows freely from the faucet.  Here, he shows us how to get the water flowing....

Like I said...he loves to smile and laugh.  As proof, here's a very short clip of documented evidence - to prove my point!

That evening, we went down to Stanford University, where his father is currently studying to earn his MBA and an MS in Computer Science.  We walked through the cafe that is located near the business school.  For those that work in a corporate environment, you'll recognize the names of the different food areas within the cafe.  I love the humor here...some day the students will get it ; )

We found a wonderful art exhibit that had hundreds of rotating color tiles.  It's a favorite of J's.  He loved watching all the color and movement:

Overall, it was a very quick trip.  However, I just love that I have the opportunity to visit with my daughter and grandson, on this lightning-fast trip to California.  I'm a lucky guy...and it will hold me over for a few more weeks, when I return for another business trip.  Yes!