Spring Gala

On Saturday, May 3rd we went down to Newport, Rhode Island for the Sloan Spring Gala. Every year, Sloan hosts two formals- Fall Ball and Spring Gala. We haven't made it to any of the other formals, so made a point to get tickets for the Spring Gala this year, our last chance to get all fancy with our Sloan/LGO friends.

We drove down to Newport Saturday morning with our friends Brittany and Marcus. We stopped for lunch and then toured one of the Newport Mansions, The Breakers. If you don't know (which I didn't before doing a lot of research), the Newport Mansions are the former summer homes of some of America's richest families in the late 1800s, early 1900s. Several of them were built and owned by members of the Vanderbilt family. They were all similar to the Biltmore, but smaller.

Still, the mansions were ridiculously huge, especially considering the families only spent 3 months out of the entire year living in them! They didn't allow any pictures inside any the mansions (during tours), and people were watching us like hawks so unfortunately I only have outdoor pictures.

The back of The Breakers

After our tour, we found a liquor store to get the fixins for Mint Juleps, since it was Derby Day in Kentucky after all, then headed to the hotel to watch some Derby coverage and get ready for the Gala.

That evening, it was finally time for the Gala! The Gala was held at the Rosecliff Mansion, and it was beautiful.

Is this real life?

We took a ton of pictures, enjoyed a cocktail hour on the back porch and in the yard, and then had an amazing dinner in big tents on the lawn. I felt like we were at a party in The Great Gatsby, except our party was a lot more tame and not quite as lavish...

After dinner, there was of course dessert, and then a DJ and a dance party. It was packed, really hot, and really fun.

This picture is crazy. Our friends Jan and Orion are partially disappearing from the picture Back To The Future-style! (They're glasses and hats were green, so disappeared with the green screen behind them.)

 The LGOs at Spring Gala!

The next day, we slept in a little and then went to a late brunch, accidentally happened upon a parade, and then toured one more mansion, Marblehead, before heading back to Boston.

The mansions were incredible and the self-guided tours were great. I wish we had more time to go back to Newport and do more tours or spend more time exploring the town. It seemed like a really fun place with a lot more to see and do! It was also fun to learn some history and Chuck and I may or may not have developed a small obsession with the Vanderbilt family and watched a documentary on the family and read a ton of Wikipedia later after we got home.

Fish, Baseball, and Mountains

These last few days in Seattle have felt a lot like our life in Boston. Not only are there a few more LGOs in Seattle right now for internships, but there are also several of the Sloan students here for their summer internships. This means there are a lot more people making plans and meeting up. This is what Chuck and I have been missing about Boston, so it's been nice to reunite with some of our Boston friends!

Last Thursday, Amazon held a free night at the Seattle Aquarium for all of the MBA interns. 

The night included free admission to the aquarium, free food and drinks (one thing we REALLY miss about MIT- all the free food and drinks at events!) and a chance to meet and network with all of the interns currently in Seattle from schools all over the country. We didn't see much of the aquarium but I have to say from what we did see, it wasn't that impressive. I guess this huge tank was pretty cool though.

The best thing about the Seattle Aquarium was the location. It's right on Puget Sound. Awesome view.

After the aquarium we went out to a bar in our neighborhood for a little while with some of the LGOs and Sloanies. We had to take this picture of Chuck and two of his classmates, ZZ and Hector, because the 3 of them were on the same "core team" in the Fall. It's crazy that 3 of the 7 Puffins (their team name) all ended up in the same place for their internships!

Friday night, Chuckie and I ventured downtown to Safeco Field for the Mariners vs. Cubs baseball game. He had been to the stadium before with some of our friends on a night I had to work, but this was my first time at the field. It was beautiful!

The game wasn't sold out by any means so we just picked some seats in left field, and in the shade, and enjoyed the game.

For a reason I can't remember, my dad has always been a Cubs fan, therefore my family has always cheered for the Cubs. My dad also coached my little sister's softball team for a lot of years, and they were always the Cubs. So this was the perfect game for us to go to! I felt a little bad, cheering for the Cubs instead of Seattle, but no one seemed to mind and there were actually A LOT of Cubs fans in attendance! Sadly, the Cubs lost.

But I did hear they beat Seattle on Saturday and Sunday. So yay!

Saturday we woke up early and met up with some LGOs and Sloanies to drive 2 hours to Mt. Rainier National Park for some hiking. Chuck and I had been to the park before with my parents, but now that it's summertime, the snow is melted and the park looked a lot different!

We started with a hike on the Rampart Ridge Trail. The trail was a loop and the whole thing, round trip, was about 5 miles. I think. At least, that's what the sign said.

The hike up to the viewpoint was not easy but not TOO intense. We did sweat a lot though. But when we finally made it to the top, the views were incredible. The weather was perfect that day as well which made it even better.

Hello, Mt. Rainier!

The way back down was a little intense because for a small stretch of the trail we were completely ambushed by mosquitos. Once we got away from them though it was a nice walk down the hill.

Because of the timing, Chuckie and I had to leave after that hike so I could get back to Seattle in time to work an event at the arts center, but the rest of the group continued up into the park to do another hike. I wish we could have stayed because it was such a nice day for hiking! Maybe next time, I won't have to work on the same day.

Sunday I had to work at Nike all day but Sunday night we met up with some friends to see the new Star Trek movie. We saw it partly because we wanted to hang out and partly because no one has air conditioning in their apartments and it was really hot on Sunday and seeing a movie was an excuse to get out of our houses and hang out somewhere with air conditioning.

So as you can see: networking events, bars, group outings, baseball games... Yes, Seattle felt a lot like Boston this week.

Up next for us is another trip to Louisville. Originally we didn't plan to visit home in July but Amazon wants Chuck to visit several fulfillment centers around Kentucky to shadow some people and see if he'd be interested in working in one of the fulfillment centers after LGO. Exciting stuff! I'm just going along for fun. We leave for Louisville on July 4th and we'll be there for 2 weeks! Chuck has to work the whole time we're home but I don't, so it's kind of like a summer vacation for me. Chuckie will work on his internship and I will work on my tan! (Don't worry- he gets to have a little fun too!)