I won't even say I'm behind, because we all already know it :) And I got a couple of reminders recently, haha. Sorry!! I'd say I'll be better, but who knows what else will put me behind?
San Diego!!
Bryan attended a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) conference in San Diego with several of his co-workers at Anadarko from July 11-15, and I tagged along :) We stayed at a really nice hotel called the Hilton Bay Front, and thankfully we didn't have to pay a thing for the room. It had a wonderful pool with the perfect view of the bay where, honestly, I spent the majority of my time hanging out, swimming laps and working on lesson plans for the upcoming school year. PERFECT CLIMATE. Great view. A week away with my hubby. Lovely.
Since Bryan spent most of the day in sessions learning something, I was mostly on my own. I did a lot of looking around the city and, like I said, casually working in a cushy chair by the water. I think Bryan really enjoyed the conference, and since he's still pretty new to the industry and his particular area I think he found it educational. I did meet him and most of his co-workers for lunch every day and I always hung out with him for dinner and in the evenings.
I won't hit every by-blow, but I'll mention the highlights:
Sunday we left our favorite little buddy with some friends that live on our street. He LOVES to play with their two dogs, so he had a pretty good time that week too!
After dropping him off we flew in on an incredibly packed plane, taxied over to our hotel, met with his co-workers for appetizers and then got to see a friend of ours who lives in New York but was also visiting San Diego that same weekend! (How crazy and amazing is that?) He was there with his girlfriend - and she was great. We'd never met her before, so it was even more awesome that we got to see them on their vacation instead of one of his visits to Texas without her.
On Monday Bryan attended the conference and I did some lesson plans by the pool. That evening we took a long walk down the bay front to a itty bitty teeny tiny place called Seaport Village. It was SO cute and had the sweetest little old-timey bookstore where we spent quite a while browsing and looking at all of their funny nick-knacks. They also had a delicious little cookie stand where the cookies basically tasted like cookie dough flattened out and warmed up (yummm!?), and the best meal we had all week was there too in this out of the way Hawaiian grill called Buster's Beach Grill. Should you find yourself in San Diego, this place is a must!! The village was also full of other cute little shops that are fun enough to look around in even if you aren't going to get anything - especially this little shop full of handmade wooden toys that could be personalized for your kids. Oh my gosh. I guess it's a really good thing we don't have kids yet or I would have spent a fortune!!
Tuesday during the day was basically the same thing, but that night we attended a "mixer" or "cocktail evening" or whatever you want to call it for the PETE GIS people. Technically I wasn't supposed to attend because I'm not either PETE or GIS, but the gentleman who was checking tickets and all that let me in anyway :) A smile and short conversation can go a long way! Especially when asking nicely :) Bryan actually thought it was awesome because he's by nature not very good at "mingling," so I would just smile and catch someone's eye and they would come over to talk to me about PETE or GIS or whatever, and I'd explain that I didn't have a clue what they were talking about but it sounded really interesting and I bet my husband would love discussing it .... haha. Turns out Bryan got to meet a lot of really interesting people that evening - and I DID learn quite a bit! I learned that I need to go WITH Bryan when he goes to get drinks because otherwise you're more vulnerable to having older gentleman hit on you until your husband returns to rescue you. Too much free beer!
Wednesday I did a lot of walking around the city while Bryan attended the Conference. I even met several Aggies doing the same thing on vacation!
That evening we were too pooped from the really late nights previously to do anything, so we had a quiet dinner by ourselves at the hotel and retired early, which was really nice.
Bryan took Thursday afternoon off since there weren't many relevant sessions for him to attend and we took the ferry across to Coronado Island. They have a really pretty beach and another little "village" that was fun to look around. I can't even imagine how much the homes on that island cost... yikes.
Once we got back to San Diego we attended the big shindig that the conference put on for all the attendees. I think there were probably upwards of 4000 people attending and it was pure chaos. They set up these little "cultural areas" around a large park square for people to walk around and snack and pay big $$ for a soda or bottled water. I bet the company spent a fortune on it, but most people weren't very impressed because of how crowded it was and that it was advertised as being a "free dinner & drinks" event, but to get even a small snack you had to wait in line quite a while, and you had to walk around and wait in line at each area to get the rest of your dinner, which was a little weird. And like I said, the drinks were definitely not free. But it was interesting to see so I'm glad we went.
Friday we got up, had lunch at a California style Mexican restaurant (with the BEST salsa I've ever had!!), caught our plane, and flew back to hot-and-steamy Houston, we picked up our precious puppy from our neighbor's house and got some much needed sleep!
I didn't do very good with taking pictures because although I remembered my camera, I forgot my memory card!! Sorry about that. We did have a fun week away, but were also glad to get back and get into our regular routine.
I sincerely hope this post makes sense because I'm exhausted, it's past my bedtime and we had an insane weekend. More about that tomorrow!
San Diego!!
Bryan attended a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) conference in San Diego with several of his co-workers at Anadarko from July 11-15, and I tagged along :) We stayed at a really nice hotel called the Hilton Bay Front, and thankfully we didn't have to pay a thing for the room. It had a wonderful pool with the perfect view of the bay where, honestly, I spent the majority of my time hanging out, swimming laps and working on lesson plans for the upcoming school year. PERFECT CLIMATE. Great view. A week away with my hubby. Lovely.
Since Bryan spent most of the day in sessions learning something, I was mostly on my own. I did a lot of looking around the city and, like I said, casually working in a cushy chair by the water. I think Bryan really enjoyed the conference, and since he's still pretty new to the industry and his particular area I think he found it educational. I did meet him and most of his co-workers for lunch every day and I always hung out with him for dinner and in the evenings.
I won't hit every by-blow, but I'll mention the highlights:
Sunday we left our favorite little buddy with some friends that live on our street. He LOVES to play with their two dogs, so he had a pretty good time that week too!
After dropping him off we flew in on an incredibly packed plane, taxied over to our hotel, met with his co-workers for appetizers and then got to see a friend of ours who lives in New York but was also visiting San Diego that same weekend! (How crazy and amazing is that?) He was there with his girlfriend - and she was great. We'd never met her before, so it was even more awesome that we got to see them on their vacation instead of one of his visits to Texas without her.
On Monday Bryan attended the conference and I did some lesson plans by the pool. That evening we took a long walk down the bay front to a itty bitty teeny tiny place called Seaport Village. It was SO cute and had the sweetest little old-timey bookstore where we spent quite a while browsing and looking at all of their funny nick-knacks. They also had a delicious little cookie stand where the cookies basically tasted like cookie dough flattened out and warmed up (yummm!?), and the best meal we had all week was there too in this out of the way Hawaiian grill called Buster's Beach Grill. Should you find yourself in San Diego, this place is a must!! The village was also full of other cute little shops that are fun enough to look around in even if you aren't going to get anything - especially this little shop full of handmade wooden toys that could be personalized for your kids. Oh my gosh. I guess it's a really good thing we don't have kids yet or I would have spent a fortune!!
Tuesday during the day was basically the same thing, but that night we attended a "mixer" or "cocktail evening" or whatever you want to call it for the PETE GIS people. Technically I wasn't supposed to attend because I'm not either PETE or GIS, but the gentleman who was checking tickets and all that let me in anyway :) A smile and short conversation can go a long way! Especially when asking nicely :) Bryan actually thought it was awesome because he's by nature not very good at "mingling," so I would just smile and catch someone's eye and they would come over to talk to me about PETE or GIS or whatever, and I'd explain that I didn't have a clue what they were talking about but it sounded really interesting and I bet my husband would love discussing it .... haha. Turns out Bryan got to meet a lot of really interesting people that evening - and I DID learn quite a bit! I learned that I need to go WITH Bryan when he goes to get drinks because otherwise you're more vulnerable to having older gentleman hit on you until your husband returns to rescue you. Too much free beer!
Wednesday I did a lot of walking around the city while Bryan attended the Conference. I even met several Aggies doing the same thing on vacation!
That evening we were too pooped from the really late nights previously to do anything, so we had a quiet dinner by ourselves at the hotel and retired early, which was really nice.
Bryan took Thursday afternoon off since there weren't many relevant sessions for him to attend and we took the ferry across to Coronado Island. They have a really pretty beach and another little "village" that was fun to look around. I can't even imagine how much the homes on that island cost... yikes.
Once we got back to San Diego we attended the big shindig that the conference put on for all the attendees. I think there were probably upwards of 4000 people attending and it was pure chaos. They set up these little "cultural areas" around a large park square for people to walk around and snack and pay big $$ for a soda or bottled water. I bet the company spent a fortune on it, but most people weren't very impressed because of how crowded it was and that it was advertised as being a "free dinner & drinks" event, but to get even a small snack you had to wait in line quite a while, and you had to walk around and wait in line at each area to get the rest of your dinner, which was a little weird. And like I said, the drinks were definitely not free. But it was interesting to see so I'm glad we went.
Friday we got up, had lunch at a California style Mexican restaurant (with the BEST salsa I've ever had!!), caught our plane, and flew back to hot-and-steamy Houston, we picked up our precious puppy from our neighbor's house and got some much needed sleep!
I didn't do very good with taking pictures because although I remembered my camera, I forgot my memory card!! Sorry about that. We did have a fun week away, but were also glad to get back and get into our regular routine.
I sincerely hope this post makes sense because I'm exhausted, it's past my bedtime and we had an insane weekend. More about that tomorrow!
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