I've had an unusual month or two. I went to Alabama for work... the following week, I went to Asheville with Todd. This week, I went to New Bern NC for work. I'm in town next week... then I go to Savannah for work. I'm in town for a week, then I'm in Charlotte for work. I'm actually a little tired of travelling already!!
My co-worker, Marisa, and I had a good time in New Bern, though. It's a cute little historic sort of-coastal town (it's just inland of the Outer Banks & is on a convergence of rivers that come together. It was the first town in NC... and it is the birthplace of Pepsi). We went for the AIA (American Institute of Architects) conference. We flew up on Sept 11. Got there mid-day & had a great lunch (seafood, of course). Marisa slept all afternoon. I laid out on a bench by the water & read for awhile. Then, I took a walk along the river's edge (they have a public area built out there). There was a red & white bi-plane doing flips in the air & diving towards the ground / pulling up before he got too close. (I HATE THAT!!!). It was getting dark, so I woke Marisa / we grabbed a couple of apps & ate at "the deck" a restaurant connected to our hotel... and we did work on our Presentation for Thursday.
I loved our hotel room. We were on the bay overlooking the marina. We were the adjacent building to the conference center. Everything was walk-able. We got up early / did the full-day training on Wednesday (which went really well) / then came back to the room to chill a bit. Marisa slept & I went for another walk. It was kinda funny - I ran into several of the students from our class that day. It was like I was living in that small town / knew a lot of people I saw on the street. I came back to get her so we could go grab dinner. The people at the conference recommended that we go to a restaurant called the Chelsea. We had a fantastic meal (calamari salad... bbq shrimp... salmon). We walked home in the rain & worked until 2 am!
I got up early on Thursday & went back to "my bench" to work a bit on the powerpoint we were giving. It was a new ppt for us, so we worked a lot on it. We walked to breakfast, worked on the ppt some more. We finished preparing at the conference center & then delivered a successful presentation. Lots of great feedback / good comments.... and encouragement from various students. We were walking through the trade show & we almost felt like celebrities. People giving us thumbs-up and waving and wanting to come up to talk to us. Neither of us have had such a great reception (It was a bit of an ego boost, admittedly!)
We went back to the Chelsea for a late late lunch and then flew back home. It was raining when we got back to the airport.
My *FAVORITE* thing about the trip: the fish popping up out of the water. Were they going for bugs just above the surface? That made me smile every time I saw it. Once or twice I saw a fish pop out 3 or 4 times in a row. That's talent!
It was a really busy week -- but that's ok. It kept my mind off of the waiting for Roberta to call back with info on the foster care child.
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