Box Women take Seattle

In October, I spent a long weekend in Seattle with the Box Women's Network, a group at Box dedicated to connect, educate, inspire, and advocate for women.  That weekend was projected to have the worst storm in the region since 1962, but it turned out not to be so bad.  Here are some of the highlights from the trip!

Visiting Path.org

We hit the ground running by visiting the offices of Path, a non-profit dedicated to life-saving innovation in global health, especially for women and children.  We learned about incredible health innovations they're creating in their labs, the journeys several female employees took to get to Path, and how they're leveraging new technologies including Box to make it all happen.
 

Enjoying our Airbnb

We fit all 20+ girls into a $3.5 million spacious and rustic Airbnb in Queen Anne.  We spent a good chunk of time at the house, eating cookies, drinking wine, and getting to know one another on a more personal level.

Friday we spent all day at the house doing a BWN retrospective and future planning, and it got interesting when right after we finished cooking breakfast, the power went out and stayed out for several hours!

Out about town

We spent a night hopping around Capitol Hill, and the next day on a rather wet walking tour of the city.

Starting with damn good breakfast sandwiches in Queen Anne, we then stopped in Kerry Park for a great view over downtown, walked by the Space Needle, and took the monorail over to Pike's Place Market for lunch, where we watched the fishmongers flinging and marveled over the gum wall (which is an actual street packed with tourists that cars still try to go down).  We had a great time sitting at the counter of our fish restaurant and chatting with the chowder guys.

Theo Chocolate Tour

The group toured the Theo Chocolate Factory, where we tasted our fair share of delicious treats and learned about their whole operation, like how they were the first organic chocolate to be made in the US, and how just that tiny factory in Seattle produces their entire product supply.  We also learned that the best way to taste dark chocolate is to suck on it, because you avoid the bitterness and keep the flavor.

 

Meeting up with Preetam

I broke away from girl-fest for an evening of New Orleans-styled tapas at Toulouse Petit with my UCSD friend Preetam.   The food was fantastic, as was the catching up-I can't remember the last time we got to hang out one on one.

It was a quick trip and I didn't get to see nearly as much as I would've liked, so until next time, Seattle!