Intellectual Ventures Lab in Bellevue was pretty much empty Monday morning, even though they had a lot of work to do.
“I think we've had this on the calendar for months now,” said Guy Ellis, vice president and general manager of operations for Intellectual Ventures’ Global Good Fund.
On this morning, when history passed overhead, there was no way they'd be stuck in the lab.
“People are actually excited about what's happening in the planet outside of the little spheres in which we live in,” said 3ric Johanson, a hacker and scientist at Intellectual Ventures Lab, which threw an eclipse party in its parking lot for employees and their families.
Maurizio Vecchione and his son Dylan were among the crowd and used their solar telescope to show the rest of the gathering what an eclipse looks like up close.
It was kind of like recess for grownups, an opportunity to leave work behind, if only for a few hours, and experience one of those rare reminders that there are much bigger forces controlling our universe.
“It's fantastic, especially for someone who is passionate about science, to see a like-minded group of people gathering to celebrate something like this,” said Dylan Vecchione.