Acela

DC Trip

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Even though it was only a few days after we got back from our European vacation Friday we were off to DC for the weekend. M had a baby shower for her cousin and I thought it would be a good weekend getaway even if I was just going to hang out somewhere during the shower.

Friday night we took the train down and went to a nice Italian restaurant near the hotel we were staying at.

Saturday we meet up with M’s friends Katie and Kevin for brunch. It was only the second time I had met them we had a great time. After brunch walking back to the hotel we ran into M’s friend Mary Beth. What was so funny was we were having dinner with her that night but stumbling upon her was unexpected. We talked a bit and then hung out at the hotel. it was a fantastic day and we found some couches out in the shade on the Hotel property. We just read, and did some research on my iPad. I am thinking M may need her own iPad after seeing how much she wanted to use mine for browsing. We then meet up with Mary Beth again for dinner. We had a fun time at dinner.

This morning M went to the shower after we had breakfast at the hotel. I hung out at the hotel a bit before heading to Union Station to kill time till our train home. I sat at Starbucks using the free wifi a bit then walked around, then had lunch at Uno’s in Union Station.

The return trip since the price wasn’t much more we opted for the Acela Express vs the regular Amtrak. It saved some time and I always like the Acela. I am a fan of cool trains.

It was a short trip but we had a good time. We both really enjoy DC and it is also really nice that M has tons of friends who live there.

Cisco Executive Briefing

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It sounds fancier than it was. Gus, Dave, Kai, and I went up to Cisco Systems Executive Briefing Center outside of Boston. We were getting the overview of their IPCC product from all the product managers and engineers working on the system. First off I will say I think the trip was worth it. I think there were some issues still unresolved by some of our team, that I think Cisco was able to handle.

We got up to Boston by noonish. Our account manager and his boss picked Gus and I up from the train and we drove the 40 minutes to the site. it is a nice new campus. We ate lunch, which was surprisingly good. Normally this sort of stuff is not what I consider good food. They had nice chicken dish with stuffing and potatoes. I was stuffed for hours after that. We meet a VP of sales or something who came down to make sure we were getting treated right. I am not sure what Gus said to whoever at Cisco but around August they started treating us really nice. Far better than I would expect from a company our size. Granted we do some advanced stuff for a company our size, but it is weird when the #3 guy or so at Cisco stops by your office for a meeting. I will say that Cisco is very responsive to questions or problems. Some of my / Gus’ comments have reached high levels. it showed with the presentation.

We got a really good overview of their IPCC product. I think Dave was pleased with what he saw. I was. I also got to see some nice warez from them. We checked out the color VOIP phone. Gus and I also test drove the video conference functionality of Call Manager 4.1. I even got to see the long rumored VOIP WiFi cordless phone. It was so cool. I want one for my house, but a practical deployment of it would be for the supervisors in the call center when we have 2 floors to cover. Check out the MOB for some of the really cool tech we saw. No pictures of the video conference system we used. Just trust me that it was way cool.

We had a long fact filled day. Then we rushed off to catch a late train. We made it to the station with 15 minutes to spare. I decided to upgrade to First Class. I figured I wanted good service one time, and I would pay for it out of my own pocket. I am on the train now. The seats are bigger. There are less people in the First Class car. I also got dinner and free drinks. The food is MUCH better than Biz class. I had a steak with potato’s, with chrem brule. I cannot spell it. I was not a fan of the desert anyway. I am sitting at a conference table for 4 by myself. It is roomy. I was hoping to take a nap, but I haven’t written a detailed blog entry for a while so I decided to take the time now. So was the upgrade worth the money? Probably not, but it is nice to get waited on and just relax sometimes. Amtrak for the money has the best upgrades. And that is saying allot since the Biz class on the Acela Express is nice as it is. Right now this is my favorite form of travel.