Ahh.. Cupertino. The birthplace and home of Apple.. in the heart of Silicon Valley. I started working at Apple in October of 2012, flying there every other week from NH as a contractor with a team from BroadMap. Savitri and I became employees in early 2013 and we moved our family there a few months later. It would take a book to describe my 13+ years there.. which I might write some day, but for now let’s just say that it was a unique and amazing experience that I never expected to have in my life.

As I mentioned in my LA post, this was a transitional trip as I recently gave notice at Apple. Although we moved back East in the Fall of 2019, somehow knowing this was my goodbye to Apple caused me to relive my story arc there. At the same time, Ashok really grew from a boy to a young man there, and Savitri left Apple a couple years ago without a farewell visit to the West Coast. This was the first time Savitri, Ashok, and I had returned to CA together, and we spent the week swimming in memories.. and appreciating our past, present, and planned adventures!

Our first stop headed south from SFO was of course at Penny’s house in Mountain View. It was similar to Steve and Jen’s in that we know Penny so well and additionally know her house well (and she ours!) so there’s no stress, just relaxation. We made breakfast and chilled happily for a while before continuing on to Cupertino.

We had lunch with Loveen, his wife Sarog, and their son at their home in Cupertino. Lovely family, lovely home, lovely meal! Cool business Loveen is diving into!

That night we had dinner with Ashok, Ethan and his mom, and Sachin at Lazy Dog. Ethan’s mom is really cool and we’d like to hang out with her more!

We had dinner at Pacific Catch (one of our all-time Bay Area favorites!) with Puneeta, Devender, and their amazing kids, Saanvi and Nishad. I have known and worked with Puneeta and Devender for over 20 years, first at TeleAtlas/TomTom in China, then several years later worked to bring them to Apple from Australia. I watched Saanvi grow up with Nishad close behind. It was great to see Ashok chat with Nishad, I think for the first time since they were little boys. While Puneeta, Devender, and I soon won’t be working together, I felt that this time together was more of a preview of times to come. I look forward to the next experience together, and hope to explore Australia together some day!

We had breakfast coffee/chai at Voyager Craft Coffee with April, another friend we’ve known and worked with for over 25 years, having worked together at GDT, TeleAtlas, and TomTom. She (along with Berni!) was also instrumental to us joining Apple. She is a passionate geographer professionally and in her personal life. She spends time in East Africa now teaching young kids and you can just see her eyes light up talking about them.. much like their eyes light up listening to her in the pictures she showed us. I really admire her journey and again see this as the start of an exciting new chapter, not an end.

I had a great lunch at the Results Way 16 Café Macs with the team for a project I have worked on (and off) for several years. Every one of these incredible people has contributed and been a joy to work with. Amit, Gowthaman, Maneesha, and I have spent a particularly large number of hours together code-wrangling and talking about life. I really appreciate their work-ethic and life-views. We have all improved Maps in visible and meaningful ways around the globe and I will definitely track their progress as an end-user moving forward!

Ever-productive Francimar went above and beyond and made a stunning, hiking-themed carrot cake! It was beautifully detailed, accurate, and yummy. Sai even shared his birthday celebration with us! I expect to see some of these smiling faces in the Philippines in a year or two..

I spent three hours at the new Bintang Fremont badminton facility. It is HUGE – 54 courts! It has replaced the Milpitas facility that I used to play at. The queues seem much better although they no longer have challenge courts, something I always liked. Kudos to Sid for joining and to Kaki for always showing up! I even got to catch up briefly with Nguyen. It was the only real exercise I got the whole week and I enjoyed every minute of it. I especially loved the brief nods of recognition shared with many people whose names I maybe never knew but game respect game! I look forward to returning there to play a lot more, and am thrilled to see that my old multi-pass cards still work! I somehow neglected to take pictures.. I guess I was too eager to play. Here’s one of the facility from Yelp (credit: Howard T, Nov 22, 2024).

It may sound like a joke but I swear it’s true that while our decision to move to CA and work for Apple was based on a lot of things, what really pushed it over the finish line was badminton. Working as a contractor I bought a pair of badminton shoes, a racquet, and shuttles to keep at Apple and play in the evenings. At the same time I was still running the Dartmouth College badminton program (18 years!). I realized that just playing a lot was super fun and helped me improve. Going from fighting to get court space shared with basketball to several dozen dedicated rubber mat courts across half a dozen pro facilities was like night and day. It also provided a social bridge between East and West Coast living.

We managed to squeeze in a late-night donut run at Donut Wheel with Ashok, Ethan, and Sachin. Like cameras, the best donut is the one you have with you.. and these ones are really good too! I was debating what to get since they were out of maple-glazed old-fashioned and a fresh tray came out of just that. I mean that’s culinary destiny right there!

I had lunch with Anna Davenport at RW16. Really nice to catch up with her and reminisce. She joined Apple as a contractor before I was in the picture at all, then soon afterward we were able to convert her to an employee. Success story!

At Results Way, the campus where I last worked in-office, we had a really nice “retirement” celebration. I’ve been adamant that while I am not planning to work for another company again and am not focused on making money right now, I am not “done working”.. if that’s what retirement means. I am leaving to do more, including tech development. As somebody pointed out though, I am definitely “retiring from Apple Maps”, and perhaps that’s all that needs to be said for now. As luck would have it, a friend and coworker, Ji, retired from Apple Maps at the end of January so we did a joint celebration. It felt oddly like a ceremony cutting cake together but it was all fun! We both really appreciated the sentiments and all the little chats as people flowed in and out of the room for a couple hours. Thanks to Pete and team for making it happen!

With special permission, proper security sign-in, careful chaperoning, and no access to secret stuff, we were able to have Savitri and Ashok join us! It was the only time Ashok was inside an Apple office after all these years, even though he spent much of his middle school dinners inside Café Macs in City Center 2. It meant a lot to me to have him there for this moment. He chatted with my peers, now as a full-sized man! It was also great for Savitri to have a chance to talk to her many friends in Maps, since she left Apple after a stint in Siri/AI/ML land.

Ashok and I made the short walk to the infamous 7-Eleven on the corner of McClellan and Bubb (we used to live right down the street) and met up with Sachin and Ethan. Savitri was having appetizers with Yelena at the hotel restaurant so I dropped by quickly then headed to BJ’s. Hoping to really catch up with Yelena soon, she has been a great friend of ours over the years in and out of Apple.

Afterward I walked the half mile or so from our hotel to BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse (aka IL7), surrounded by Apple’s Infinite Loop campus. People were headed home and the sun was setting colorfully over the Los Gato/Santa Cruz Mountains in the background as I walked alone. It was one of those brief surreal times when I could quietly reflect on everything. The beauty of a sunset at the end of a long day was the perfect symbol of this huge transition surrounded by awesome, supportive friends & family.

BJ’s was a blast. Kudos to our server Luke who was patient and energetically on top of our come-and-go-over-hours group. I mostly invited friends who I knew I wouldn’t see throughout the week in Apple Maps, so from other branches of Apple or non-Apple altogether. Ashok, Ethan, and Sachin joined as well, and I always love having friends & family from different facets of my life meet each other. Mike and I are sort of GIS and cartography kindred spirits in many ways and I have really enjoyed working closely with him over the years. Connecting him with Ashok and others was awesome. I finally got to meet Savitri’s friend and mentee, Miloni, who was very nice. I had a long chat with Vince, who’s a kick-ass dude. More stories to be told and made with that guy! So many new adventures to be had with so many people moving forward!

Apple badminton showed up in full force, including Qing (club president and silent legend!), Sanika (carpool buddy & ringleader!), Teny (travel buddy & money man!), Ram (coach & Partner!), JK (troublemaker! 😉) and Kaki (see I love that he always shows up, next time singles!). Apple badminton was my first real Bay Area friend group and truly is like a family to me.

Marja brings positive energy and enthusiasm to everything she touches, including me! As I’ve gotten to know her over the years at Apple and beyond I have become more and more impressed by her. She’s not-so-secretly a geographer at heart, and we had a blast working together on environmental clean-up efforts when we lived there.

Supratik (former Apple Maps and I think my first Apple badminton friend) and Puja came, which was a real treat. Their son is adorable, and Ashok holding him was adorable-er.

Our last day we got some quality time with Sophie! We went for brunch at Bell Tower Cafe in Saratoga, one of our favorites when we lived in CA. High-quality ingredients, nice beverage assortment, and great service. Too bad the one in Los Altos had to close down during covid.

Sophie is living the best version of herself, as they say. She has a calm, positive vibe and shares it with the rest of us. These two are always a silly & lovely pair!

We had a brief Ashok sighting as we ran around, connections!

We went to another of our favorite spots- Blackberry Farm in Cupertino. It’s a lovely park and golf course, as well as a community farm and learning center. We walked the length of it, and spent time with the alpacas in both directions. What beautiful animals! Some internet research tells me they aren’t snuggly pets, which seems like a lost opportunity in life..

Not to be outdone, just outside the alpaca enclosure was a herd of wild (ok semi-wild at best at this point) deer.

We stopped at Penny’s again en route to SFO. Quick recharge, good chat, big hugs, then on the road to the airport!

I can’t capture all of the truly meaningful chats I had with people in hallways, meetings, cafes, walks, and elsewhere. I talked and laughed all week until my voice was hoarse, and didn’t mind it a bit. It was really touching personally and professionally and I am profoundly honored to have shared time and energy with so many talented and authentic people.

Somehow this post doesn’t seem complete without mentioning my many friends and peers who weren’t/aren’t in Cupertino. Every day I have worked with people in offices around the world, and covid made remote the new norm. Special thanks to Brian, who I have worked with, shared an office with, played badminton with, traveled with, brainstormed complex topics with, and.. LAUGHED with for 25+ years. More to come my friend.