Fancy Florida (OW offsite)

You know how management consultants are supposed to travel all the time? Well, I've been pretty lucky in that regard and have been able to work out of the Dallas office for the last month and a half - no traveling required. Except for the train to work.

I finally traveled for the first time with Oliver Wyman last week - to an offsite for all of the non-specialized consulting staff in Key Biscayne, Florida (just off the coast of Miami). They put us up at the Ritz Carlton... Hence the title "Fancy Florida." 

The offsite lasted from Wednesday to Friday of last week - and I had a blast. There were lots of team-building games, seminars, presentations, and the like - all with the goal of creating a more united culture among us far-flung consultants and to help us get to know the firm better. There were several sessions on work-life sustainability and making consulting a long-term career. 

games on the first night

Being new to the firm, I don't know very many people yet, so while the offsite was something of a reunion for many of us, it was three straight days of meeting people for me. It's amazing how exhausting that can be.

On Friday morning Heidi flew out from Houston to join me. (Thank you again McIntosh's for watching baby girl. Here's Evette's take on the weekend.) We had a wonderful time being beach bums. Over the two and a half days we were there together we left the hotel only for a couple hours to window shop just down the street and to grab lunch. Other than that, we chatted in the pool, read by the side of the pool, walked along the beach, waded in the warm Atlantic, and ate along the beach. It was marvelous.

View from our dining table on Friday. Awesome dinner, terrible mosquitoes. I had lobster ravioli and Heidi and  had black truffle, ricotta stuffed shells. For dessert we had a sumptuous apple pecan cake served over peaches, topped with brown sugar ice cream. AKA bliss.

Matchy matchy! In the lobby waiting for the elevator.

Looking north.

And south. You may notice lots of seaweed in the water - thankfully the seaweed was only present in the first couple feet of water, then it was clear.

The hotel over her gorgeous shoulders.

Oliver Wyman gave us all sunglasses for the offsite. Fancy.

Dinner on Saturday. We shared a Mediterranean burger and loved it. I don't remember all of what was on it. Just pesto and some heavenly cheese... Oh man that was good.

On Sunday morning we decided to wake up early (6:15ish) to watch the sunrise on the beach. On the way out to the beach (on the path going to the beach in the picture) we realized we were covered (literally covered) in mosquitoes. So we ran to the beach, whacking ourselves all over, hoping we'd be free of those vermin once we were away from the shrubbery. Not true, so we ran into the water, wading up to our knees (we didn't dress to go swimming), hoping that would save us. Also not true. We watched the sunrise for about 3 seconds then ran back into the hotel, ascended the elevator, and watched the sunrise from the lobby window (our room faced West).

Heidi being sassy classy on our balcony.

All in all, we had a wonderful time. When I first arrived, I was kind of disappointed by the Ritz, to be honest, after I've heard every schnazzy thing be compared to it. It felt like any other nice, well placed hotel. However, once the weekend came and most of the Oliver Wyman kids left (average age was probably 23) and the Ferraris and Bentleys unloaded the more traditional Ritz guests, the whole hotel changed. Heidi and I felt like there was a waiter for every couple on the premise - people were always offering to help us with something, to get us something, to do something for us (it was a little awkward for us, we're not used to being pampered like that). Huge bouquets of fresh roses appeared everywhere, the lighting changed to a soft orange glow, and the whole place became, well, like the Ritz I'd imagined. We felt a little out of place but it was awesome.