Category: travel
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New Orleans: FAA SW DER Conference
Today through Thursday is the 2007 edition of the FAA’s SW/CEH DER Conference. You can follow the link if you really want to know more about it; basically it’s a technical conference for those of us who work with the FAA to approve aircraft equipment and software. Good times. This year, the conference is in New Orleans, LA. It’s my first time in New Orleans.
The trip was a bit of a pain; my flights were from Cedar Rapids to Dallas/Fort Worth, and then from DFW to New Orleans. The first leg of the flight left about 40 minutes late, but no worries, I had a long-ish layover at DFW. Well, that long-ish layover turned into a very long layover, because my flight to New Orleans, supposed to arrive in NOLA at 9:20 PM, didn’t leave DFW until 10:15 PM. It seems to be a recurring theme when I travel to these conferences; last year I was driving through downtown Atlanta at midnight to find the hotel, this year, through downtown New Orleans.
Day 1 of the conference is always rather boring; it’s a general session where we get updates on the progress of various industry committees and information on what the FAA’s doing. We got 45 minutes this morning on how they’re gonna be using some new tools to do more uniform safety analyses of aircraft programs…. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Tomorrow and Thursday are more interesting when there are topical break-out sessions.
I just finished lunch at Ugly Dog Saloon, recommended by Scott as the best BBQ in New Orleans. It was pretty tasty. Now I’m thinking I’m gonna skip the next couple committee updates and go walk through the Riverwalk area across the street. Tonight I’m meeting Scott and Jacob for dinner. Tomorrow night I guess I’ll go hit the French Quarter and try to hear some live music. Should be fun.
Ah, Home
Becky and I arrived back home late in the evening Saturday. Travel was uneventful, though we did have a long-ish layover (4.5 hours) in Minneapolis. But hey, we got home, so no complaints. It was a fun trip, quite relaxing and enjoyable. I might post a few pictures to Flickr here when I get a chance, but it looks like they’re mostly of the beach, and all the beach pictures tend to look the same before long. There are a couple night-time ones that came out pretty well - gotta love the new DSLR camera. :-)
Now it’s back to work, trying to clean out the ol’ email inbox and figure out where I left stuff a week ago.
Nine Years
Hard to believe it’s been that long already. Nine years ago tonight, on a hot, sticky night in Charlotte, NC, Becky and I exchanged our vows and became Mr. and Mrs. Chris Hubbs. (Our first stop after the wedding was in a Home Depot parking lot that had an available dumpster, but that’s a different story.) God has blessed us greatly, and it’s been a wonderful nine years.
So today we are celebrating in Orlando. Becky woke up at 2:45 CDT this morning to finish getting ready so she could catch her 5 AM flight from Cedar Rapids to Minneapolis, and from there she headed down here to Orlando. I picked her up at the airport about 1 PM. We grabbed a little lunch and then came back to the hotel. I think she spent some time at the pool while I grudgingly attended the afternoon’s technical sessions at the conference.
Tonight we ate dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. It was my first time at a Ruth’s Chris, and given the price I wouldn’t be able to eat there very often even if there was one close to Cedar Rapids. That being said, tonight I had what was hands-down the best steak I have ever had in my life. It was a filet, cooked medium, and just the smell of it on that sizzling plate as it came to the table was almost worth the purchase price. I will say this: Ruth’s Chris knows how to do service right. When we made the reservation online, the form asked if it was a special occasion, and I noted that it was our anniversary. From the time we arrived at the restaurant and gave our name, each staff member who spoke with us first wished us a happy anniversary. Then they gave us dessert “on the house”. It was tasty, too. Bravo, Ruth’s Chris of Orlando.
Two more days of conference and then we have two days on the beach before heading home. Nice.
Orlando
Made it with no serious travel glitches to Orlando about 7:30 pm local time. Gotta say this - that iPod with video capability is pretty great. I loaded Season One of Battlestar Galactica on it and made it through the first two episodes before my ears got sore from the headphones. You can bet I’ll watch some more this week. Good stuff.
Got my rental car (a 2007 Mustang, pretty spiffy, though a little lacking in the headroom department) and found a restaurant to stop for some dinner before heading to the hotel. I guess hotel is really the wrong word - this thing is a full-blown resort/convention center. Got a good room without a hitch, finished my week’s worth of ironing, now I’m gonna finish a book and try to convince my body that it’s really almost 11 pm instead of the 10 pm that it is back at home.
Tomorrow morning should be fairly slow, no meetings until 11 AM and then just afternoon sessions. Good times.
Heading home from DC
Having been in DC since Monday night, I’m good and ready to be heading home. Our meetings have been useful but are winding down, and my flight leaves Washington Reagan at 2:30. I’ll head out of here, find some lunch, and make my way down to the airport. I heard a rumor that our next quarterly meeting might be in Seattle instead of DC, which would be nice for an August meeting. If not, I’ve got a couple hotels scoped out that would be nice to stay at when we meet back here in August.
It will be good to get home.
...leaving on a jet plane...
I’m headed out of town today; assuming that Northwest Airlines does their thing, I will be in Washington, DC by mid-evening. I’ll be attending two and a half days of RTCA committee meetings. Such fun! I should be home on Thursday night.
Happily, my in-laws are arriving this afternoon to visit. They will be good company for Becky and the girls while I’m gone, and since they’re staying for two weeks, I’ll get to see them too when I get home.
Devil's Lake Camping Trip
Yes, as promised, we went camping last weekend up at Devil’s Lake State Park in Wisconsin. My brother Andrew pretty much organized the whole thing; his girlfriend Heather is visiting and it was good to get to see everybody. Some thoughts from the weekend:
- Devil’s Lake is a beautiful park. Dave, if you read this, yeah, it’s worth going for a day trip or an overnight. Lots of nice hiking, the water is beautiful and crystal-clear.
- What the park service considers “paved, flat, and level” in a hiking trail isn’t so much what I’d consider “paved, flat, and level”. It scares me a little bit what one of their “difficult” trails would look like. :-)
- Tent camping when it gets down to 40F at night is kinda chilly.
- Tent camping when it rains overnight is more of a pain.
Now, mind you, I don’t want to sound whiny. It was a fun weekend, a good time was had by all. Many pictures are available on my Flickr site, and I’ll append a few of them here. We had a fun time just crashing around the campfire, playing on the beach, and hiking. We enjoyed watching the rain whilst sitting indoors at McDonald’s eating breakfast on Sunday. :-)
Overall, it was a good weekend, but good to be back home, too.
Camping!
When I was a kid, we went camping as a family all the time. I think some of my siblings enjoyed the out-of-doors more than I did, but still, it was a good time for the whole family and a cost-effective way to go on vacation. :-) After we got married, Becky and I went camping a few times; most notably we were in Colorado camping when 9/11 happened… but that’s a different story.
Fast-forward to today. Well, to tomorrow. Tomorrow morning we will pack the van and head out to Devil’s Lake State Park in Wisconsin for two nights of camping with my family. Andrew’s girlfriend Heather (hi, Heather, do you still read this thing?) is visiting for the next 10 days, so Andrew has organized pretty much the whole camping trip. (“Remember to bring your softball equipment” x 100 or so. :-) ) I’m hoping the girls will enjoy it; they’ll certainly enjoy seeing all the uncles and grandparents again. How well they sleep in a tent will be an entirely different story.
I’ll be sure to take a bunch of pictures and post them here once we get back. This weekend starts what will be a whirlwind month and a half for us; this camping trip, I have a trip to DC, Becky’s folks visit for 2 weeks, I run a couple of 5ks, and then we go to Orlando for the better part of a week while the girls stay with their grandparents. It’ll be fun, but it’ll also be a relief to have it slow down in July.
(Yikes! Did I really just say July?)
Back home... at least for a day
Got home last night from a quick business trip to Salt Lake City. I haven’t been to SLC since a family trip many years ago. It’s a beautiful place, and the weather was fresh and warming to spring. My co-worker and I spent 2 days in meetings before flying home. All in all, a good, worthwhile trip, uneventful flights, not bad at all. It was sure good to be home and see Becky and the girls again.
Tomorrow morning we’ll be heading out for Wisconsin to see my folks over Easter weekend. It will be good to see them again - it’s only been a few weeks, I guess, but still… the girls change so much in just a few weeks, I’m sure they’ll be amazed.
That’s the basic update from the home front. I’m debating pre-buying (and then downloading) the new Derek Webb album (on Amazon or check it out at www.theringingbell.com) so I can take it along on our drive tomorrow. I’m listening to it streaming right now and it sounds really good. I’m also shopping around for a Digital SLR camera. At the moment I have my eye on a Nikon D70s. I’m hoping in the next few weeks I’ll be able to put in the order.
Well, enough for now.
Entering the Whirlwind
I feel like I’ve been in it for a few days already, but I know there’s still more to come this week.
Friday afternoon I drove four hours to Omaha to see Andy Osenga in concert at a little place called The Foundry. It was a great show, fun to see Andy again and visit. There was a 7:00 Saturday morning elder meeting scheduled at church, so I had to turn around and head back home right after the show. What I did learn from that experience was that the right combination of diet pop, sweet tea, Red Bull, and candy will keep me wide awake on a four-hour drive in the middle of the night. Good to know.
Saturday was the aforementioned meeting and then time at home to catch up a bit - cleaning, spending time with the family, watching some of the Final Four on TV. Also watched a pretty cool SciFi channel miniseries that I’d TiVo’d back in December called The Lost Room. Becky even enjoyed it. Good stuff.
Sunday morning I led music for both services, then we had an afternoon elder meeting, then the church’s annual meeting in the evening. Thank the Lord most of that stuff is done with for now.
Now it’s Monday morning, and I’ll be at work for a few hours before heading home, eating lunch with the family, and then flying out to Salt Lake City for a quick trip for work. I’ll be back home on Wednesday night.
Friday morning I get off work (Good Friday) and so we are taking the girls up to my folks’ place for the weekend. The girls will have fun seeing Grandma and Grandpa again. By the time I get back home on Sunday night, well, I’ll be ready to be home for a while. :-)
Welcome to the Whirlwind. It’s a wild ride.