State of Washington was named after President George Washington in 1853 and is the only state to be named after a president.
It is nicknamed the ‘Evergreen State’ because of its many forests, amounting to more than half of its land mass.
It is the northwestern-most state of contiguous United States (non-contiguous states notably including Hawaii and Alaska), bordered by Canada to the north.
Olympia is its state capital; Seattle its largest city.
Washington is one of the seven states in the United States that does not levy a personal income tax.
Due to its rugged terrain, Washington is a leading lumber and plywood producer.
It also produces more apples than any other state.
Washington is home to Boeing, and its final assembly plant in Everett is apparently attributed to be the world’s largest building.
Microsoft Corporation is located in Redmond.
Starbucks was founded in Seattle, and the first store near Pike Place Market still stands today, bearing the original design of the coffee chain’s logo, which is different from the one we are used to seeing.
Washington is world-famous for three things originating from this state – Starbucks, Boeing and Microsoft. It’s probably no big deal to some people, but since we found ourselves in this state, we decided to visit the Microsoft HQ in Redmond. In particular One Microsoft Way, which we learnt from the Microsoft website is where it is situated.
At the entrance of the compound.
For some reason or another, it was extremely cold there in Redmond, to the extent that I was opting to wear my gloves all the way. Both Peter and Desmond were lamenting over how they had forgotten their gloves again. Unfortunately there was absolutely no way I was giving up my gloves to share with them. Not that I’m selfish, but I’d probably end up even colder than they were, without my gloves. Furthermore I really didn’t think they could fit into my kids’ sized gloves.
The numerous buildings within the compound.
The whole place is just huge! It was so vast that we got quite hopelessly lost. We simply didn’t know where to go and where to start. So we decided we should just start with Building 1 and then proceed to Building 44 for some photo-taking. We thought there were 44 buildings in total, but apparently we were wrong since on our drive out of the massive campus, we noticed a Building 50. To hazard a guess we think there could be a total of 50 Buildings in Microsoft HQ in Redmond.
For those aspiring to work for Microsoft, please proceed to Building 19. Well, yes they have a building dedicated to the purpose of recruitment. Out of sheer curiosity, we decided to check out the positions available. Microsoft was looking for cleaners. Any takers?
Where is One Microsoft Way?
We found Building 1 as well, but we simply could not locate the street One Microsoft Way. The closest we found was the street sign that said MICROSOFT WAY. Close enough, I reckon.
After satisfying our curiosity on how the campus of Microsoft corporate headquarters looked like, we left for Bellevue Square for a spot of shopping. Apparently men shop too, but mainly for their wives and girlfriends.
Wayfaring: Still 