Okay, I’m either
the worst routing scheduler on the planet or I’m trying to build up my frequent
flyer miles in one week because I’m flying back and fourth from the west coast
to the east coast 3 times in about 7 days! I’m enjoying the work, but I seem to
be booking myself as far away from Los Angeles as humanly possible while still
staying in the U.S. Last Thursday I flew
from LA to Newport, R.I., did my Finding the Funny in Communications keynote to
a group Friday morning and then flew home to pet my cats. 24 hours later I went to Florida and then the
next day I flew to my current location, San Francisco!
what i got from the waiter for my overpriced dinner |
When I’m
traveling though, I do like to learn some stuff.
At the Rhode
Island group, I went to their clambake. Since I didn’t know anyone at the
reception, I talked to the clambake master. Very nice and knowledgeable guy. He
said there’s only 3 clambake masters on the island (Newport is an island), and
it takes a lot of practice and skill to do the bake just right. It’s not like
tossing steaks on a grill (okay, I don’t know how to grill either). He said you
heat up the rocks and the rocks do the baking (like charcoal maybe?), but
you’ve got to put the right amount of rocks in the pit. They also use special
seaweed that has pockets of water in it, like little bubbles. These bubbles
heat up and that’s what steams the fish.
Speaking of
Newport, R.I. being an island, it is named “goat island” because in the olden
days (before Facebook), people put their goats on the island. Since it was
surrounded by water, and the goats can’t swim, the goats were stuck on the
island. Pretty ingenious. There are 2 bridges to get over to the island. . . I
was thinking I’d see some Billy Goats under those bridges. . .no luck. Ha ha.
I did a quick
turnaround and headed back, only getting to stay in Newport for about 22 hours
. . . darn. Of course this group announced that next years 2 conferences will
be held in Arizona and Oregon respectively. . .yeah, that would’ve been a
little closer.
Florida was good
too. I asked the concierge if there was anything I could do besides Disney. She
said “Downtown Disney.” I said, no, anything BESIDES Disney. She said there’s a
little town that Walt Disney created . . . hum, she wasn’t getting my message.
I went to Downtown Disney for my share of screaming children and overpriced
meals. The group was fun though, so that made up for it.
I’m enjoying
flying more and more now that Southwest is getting the internet on board. That
will change my life not to land with 50 emails to answer!
San Francisco is
turning out to be fun – great weather and I’m right on the water, so I’ve been
walking up and down the embarcadero. . .it would be good for my health except
for all the ice cream shops I keep popping into.
Safe Travels
everyone!
Jan