work trip to Chicago

Continuing the speed catching-up on things here.  I'm falling behind as I do more things and the things I have done are getting further and further back in time.  So, let's not parse out the August trip to Chicago

to too great an extent.  Instead, let's lump some things together.

There was my long-awaited oyster dinner date with Sara. 

We had a good time at The Publican, and I promise that we said nice things about everyone else.  We also had charcuterie

and tomatoes

and awesome bread

and Sancerre. 

There was also a brunch the next day with Sara

where I enjoyed some breakfast tacos.

There were meetings wherein I tried to look pretty enough

and contribute well.  There were colleagues at these meetings, like Cindy and Sam

and Kathy

and Steven

and others.

There were morning walks in the city, usually with others, once by myself.

 

There was time for a drink with a local friend, Doug,

at Billy Sunday, an amaro daiquiri

for me and a break from library stuff.

There were cosmos for me and Sara

and Steven

plus a drink for Peter

in the United Club.  Oh, and time enough for me to get some Garrett's

to bring home for Van.

All in all, a productive and enjoyable work trip.  I should have one more jaunt to Chicago this year, and I can't wait!

the conference that was

I'm going to do one conference post to collect thoughts and photos on the time there that I haven't yet posted.  It's already a few days behind me, and, honestly?  I'm glad it's behind me.  There was a lot of contentious stuff in meetings, and I had to say some things that have probably ruffled some feathers.  Certainly, I can think of one or more people I essentially will not be speaking to any longer.

Happy thoughts, though, Peter.  Let's do this.

A nice train trip down to San Diego from Los Angeles.  I rode in comfort

and had the ocean side view on my trip. 

The hotel was then an easy walk from the train station.  Once I got to my room, well, whoa! 

Big suite.  No view to speak of, but come on, a pool table? 

Wow.  I wish I had had meetings in my suite (it had a small conference room), but at least I had folks over for drinks and snacks and chat a few times.

I didn't take a lot of photos during the conference, I realized.  Just wasn't in the mood for it, maybe?  But I did get good morning walks every day with Amy, or Sam, or both. 

I snuck Conrad in

to see the opening session with Lessa interviewing Trevor Noah,

and I got some photos with folks like Loida and Peter,

Sam,

Cindy,

and Andrew and Janice then. 

A really great turnout for that session!

There were a few other events and opportunities to get shots with folks.  There I am with Bill. 

There I am with Matt. 

There I am with Matt again but in a different setting. 

There's Conrad on a hotel balcony at a reception. 

There's a view from that same deck. 

There's me on that deck.

After that, I mostly only took occasional photos at dinner.  We had a nice enough meal but weird experience (a fire eater?  photos at the table then offered for sale?) at a place called Salvatore's.  Good cocktail, though! 

We had an underwhelming dinner at Juniper & Ivy

(interesting menu, but the dishes were less than we hoped, and the service was lagging).  We had a nice meal of pasta

at Cesarina punctuated a little too frequently by the planes low overhead coming into the airport.  We had a decent meal

with Peter and Matt at Barbusa (and another good cocktail:  the Italian Love Affair),

and then came back to the room to toast Peter with Champagne.  A lovely, affectionate end to our time there.

And then it was Wednesday and the drive home.

So then, the conference is done, and hooray for that.  May the ones next year be better.  Based on this one, though, I'm inclined to skip going to Minneapolis at least.