My travels have been good, but I'm really glad to be home for a while. I started on April 30th with a 
7:30 am flight to San Diego. Or so I thought. Being obsessive-compulsive, I called the airline before leaving the house and they had canceled that flight because of "lack of a flight crew to fly it". So they had re-booked me on a 9:00 PM flight. No, no, no. I worked with them to get a 5:30 pm flight which wasn't what I had wanted, but better than a late flight. I went to San Diego for a 5 day review course and had originally wanted to arrive early enough to do a little sight-seeing, which obviously didn't work out. San Diego is a gorgeous place and the weather was just lovely. But of course I spent 8:00 am until 8:30 pm in the review course while I was there, so that aspect of it was a little wasted. *rueful sigh* Still it was a great course. I had a blast giving the lectures I did, especially the evening case studies. The participants were exactly that. Very interactive and questioning, which is a teacher's dream class. As an added bonus, I met some really great people along the way. And I did get to spend lunch hours soaking in the sun and ambiance. Plus I had this really outstanding view of San Diego Bay from the balcony of my 7th floor room in the hotel. The picture above is right about sunrise. Overall, it was a very fun and productive trip.
7:30 am flight to San Diego. Or so I thought. Being obsessive-compulsive, I called the airline before leaving the house and they had canceled that flight because of "lack of a flight crew to fly it". So they had re-booked me on a 9:00 PM flight. No, no, no. I worked with them to get a 5:30 pm flight which wasn't what I had wanted, but better than a late flight. I went to San Diego for a 5 day review course and had originally wanted to arrive early enough to do a little sight-seeing, which obviously didn't work out. San Diego is a gorgeous place and the weather was just lovely. But of course I spent 8:00 am until 8:30 pm in the review course while I was there, so that aspect of it was a little wasted. *rueful sigh* Still it was a great course. I had a blast giving the lectures I did, especially the evening case studies. The participants were exactly that. Very interactive and questioning, which is a teacher's dream class. As an added bonus, I met some really great people along the way. And I did get to spend lunch hours soaking in the sun and ambiance. Plus I had this really outstanding view of San Diego Bay from the balcony of my 7th floor room in the hotel. The picture above is right about sunrise. Overall, it was a very fun and productive trip. Then May 5th around noon I left San Diego and flew to Charleston, SC, arriving about 11:15 pm, which put me at the hotel around midnight. I was surprised to find that they didn't have a room for me . . . which probably translates into, they gave my room away, even though I had notified them that I would be arriving late. They ended up putting me into a suite and moving me the next day when a room came open. I didn't really care. I was so tired I would have slept on a couch. But the next morning I had no hot water in their fancy suite, which I kind of DID care about. So that particular downtown Charleston hotel is not high on my list of favorite places. The meeting was good though. It was my second Board of Directors meeting and the meeting and the post-meeting socializing were both very good.
Then I flew home on May 8th and on May 11th I flew to Berlin, Germany. Hmmmm. Well the flight 
was scheduled to fly on May 11th at 9:00 pm, but since we were delayed 3 hours by storms, I think we technically actually left the ground on May 12th. Very luckily for me, I had a four hour layover in London Heathrow, so I made my connection, unlike a lot of people on that flight. I arrived in Berlin around 7:00 pm on the 12th, met a friend for dinner and then slept for 12 straight hours, getting up in time for the Opening Ceremony of the Congress I was attending. The Congress was great. Great speakers and talks, and again I met some really cool people as well as hooking up with some colleagues I don't get to see very often. The Congress Dinner on Saturday was a boat tour through Berlin on the Spree River. The boat tour was a blast although it would have been better for sight-seeing if it hadn't been raining pretty solidly. You can see from the picture above of the Oberpfarr that taking pictures wasn't very productive. Still, the boat was enclosed, so the trip and the company were lots of fun, and the food and drinks were superb.
was scheduled to fly on May 11th at 9:00 pm, but since we were delayed 3 hours by storms, I think we technically actually left the ground on May 12th. Very luckily for me, I had a four hour layover in London Heathrow, so I made my connection, unlike a lot of people on that flight. I arrived in Berlin around 7:00 pm on the 12th, met a friend for dinner and then slept for 12 straight hours, getting up in time for the Opening Ceremony of the Congress I was attending. The Congress was great. Great speakers and talks, and again I met some really cool people as well as hooking up with some colleagues I don't get to see very often. The Congress Dinner on Saturday was a boat tour through Berlin on the Spree River. The boat tour was a blast although it would have been better for sight-seeing if it hadn't been raining pretty solidly. You can see from the picture above of the Oberpfarr that taking pictures wasn't very productive. Still, the boat was enclosed, so the trip and the company were lots of fun, and the food and drinks were superb.Monday May 17th I flew back, arriving about 8:00 pm and I've been trying to catch up ever since. Basically, the trips were good, the meetings were good, the people were great, but I'm really glad to be home now for a while. The only real regret I have is that I really had no time at all to do any shopping . . . at any of the places where I went. *sigh* Maybe in the future my travels won't be so clustered within a two week period and I'll be able to spend a little extra time sight-seeing and shopping.
No comments:
Post a Comment