Oh I can't believe it's been a whole year and I haven't blogged since the last staff retreat! My first year I wrote often and then this year came and I was...I guess good at my job doing billable work that paid us money?? Lots of apologies about that. Good news is we have a new office member and as usual she's making the usual naive noises about wanting to blog frequently. You may not get the same frenetic energy but if it only comes once a year is it really worth the wait?Anyway, this year's staff retreat.I bill this day as the greatest day of the year because every other day we are mild mannered office kids just doing our jobs in our usual kick-butt manner but on retreat day we step it up a notch and really party hardy.We all met at Sean's house for a sleepy hello and right away headed over to coffee. Swung through the drive thru 'cause we were in such a hot rush and spent an inefficient amount of time explaining our coffee requests to the microphone. This time two haven members had their own mugs. Someday everyone will, I think Sean's still coasting on his solar panel, water catchment, electric car cred and thinks he doesn't have to do anything more for the planet since he's so far ahead.We were heading to mini-golf this time in lovely Abbotsford, Canada. Nobody had done anything too illegal this year so the border crossing was easy and we cruised right up to Abbotsford's premier entertainment destination. When we arrived the place was empty with all the attendants busy on their phones. We got a sweet deal that gave us a dozie tickets for some amount of money, and since there's 5 of us and we golfed twice I guess that means we used 10 out of 12 tickets? WAIT SEAN WE LEFT WITHOUT SPENDING ALL THE FUN TICKETS?!This is why dinosaurs and humans don't get alongWe descended into the castle basement where I guess all the fun happens and it was another world down there. First 18 holes were generic jungle themed. The curators were a little inaccurate with their time periods because there were definitely dinosaurs and human structures in the same space which isn't realistic, come on. I have a 4yr old son and he's pretty into dinosaurs and I think we all know that that dinos lived in the triassic, jurassic and cretaceous periods and humans didn't come till later in the quaternary period. duh. I expect more historical accuracy from my fantasy castle play place.Oh yeah we were playing mini golf but it was somewhat unclear to me if this was the kind of mini golf that is similar to croquet where bumping other ppl's balls is preferred or if this was a super serious game where bumping is only done by very bad people so I gave it a shot and I was right! Finished with the first 18holes and I think the rankings were Sean, Amy, and then the rest of us, I may have been last. Having fun isn't the way to a great score. Also Amy was second? Right? I was as surprised as you.come onwinning as hard as Sean does requires great concentrationCame up for air and then smashed back into the other basement for under-the-sea 18 holes. I don't have so much critique on the accuracy of this experience other then it feels like the same designers just kind of came next door with all the leftover jungle stuff and painted fishies and aqua lights and were like "viola" undersea, right? There was a fair amount of sharkies and submarines and also these mesmerizing water somethings?water half-hula-hoops thingies in the background. Don't think about it too muchI didn't manage to stop myself from croqueting a few of my teammates so my score suffered again but my experience was top notch so #winning again. For the official record I think Sean won this one as well. Sean also did an amazing hole in one on the last, 18th hole. There was a big sign claiming a free pass if it happened, but only if an alarm sounded. No alarm sounded for Sean because the carnies had disabled it years ago so only disappointment. I guess I shouldn't have expected more from an outfit that puts humans and dinosaurs coexisting in the same time period.Kamal is obviously skilled at the selfie. Also, the rest of us!Left that place without apparently spending two tickets? And headed over to a great little Abbotsford gem, Cafe Amarti. Had some great food and then the planning began. Every time we have this meeting I am left with the feeling that everyone is awesome and so thoughtful and this next year is going to be the greatest ever if we can do half of what we plan to do. Our goal is always to make Haven the best architecture solution for both the staff and our clients so having productive planning sessions like this goes a long way toward guaranteeing that future. More great stuff to come. Thank you to everyone on Haven's team for such a great 2019, with the teambuilding and planning we've done I'm confident our 2020 will be even better! Isaac
