Nintendo HQ

If you had no idea that Nintendo Headquarters was in Seattle, don't worry. I honestly had no idea until months after we moved here. It's kind of a fun claim to fame, though. Any kid who grew up playing Super Mario, Bubble Bobble, Donkey Kong, or who could forget Contra(!), would be thrilled to know that this company calls Seattle/Redmond home. Seattle is actually a technological hub of sorts, with Amazon, Microsoft, Bungee (the makers of Halo), and a few other companies calling it home.

Any-way...

When the Burgener clan came to visit, Miles casually mentioned to me how cool he thought it would be to see Nintendo HQ. "You don't know anyone who works there, do you?"

Now, I have always wanted to be the favorite sister-in-law, so I was thrilled and surprised to be able to reply, "Actually, I do!"

My sweet friend Lacey (who actually grew up in Blackfoot, ID and graduated the same year as me, small world, eh?), readily agreed to take us on a little tour. Unfortunately, we couldn't take the whole family. Nintendo is not an open company, so you have to get a special security pass and be escorted by a Nintendo employee to visit. Twelve people would have been a lot to go through all of that. :) So me and the Burgener brothers left the rest of the family to explore downtown Seattle and headed out for our own exclusive tour.

We had a lot of fun! We talked to Lacey about what goes on behind the scenes, ate at Cafe Mario, and shopped in the employee store, Nintendo World. Mostly it was just cool to say we'd been. It's a neat campus, with their own basketball court and soccer field. It looks like an ad agency inside: bright colors, modern furniture, and of course, Mario is everywhere. I think the boys' favorite part was previewing all of the new games on a bunch of consoles set up in the lobby.

Thanks so much Lacey, you'll never know how much you made Miles' day. Possibly his year.