The Beginning...

Our journey started simple enough…sort of. I love to fly. It reminds me of why I hate flying. What I don’t like is the cramped quarters you have to sit in when flying. Especially for a person who is 6’4” like Doug. I always feel so bad for him. At any rate, we got on an earlier flight to Houston, but could not get an earlier flight out to San Diego, so we ended up sitting at Bush International for 5 hours. Big fun…

When we arrived in San Diego, I was excited to see how close our hotel was to the airport. I took out my wonderful new camera to take a picture…only to realize that I forgot my camera battery at home. Brilliant! Half the reason I wanted to go was to take pictures, and my dumb ass left the battery in the charger, plugged into the wall…at home.

Needless to say my only mission on Tuesday, while Doug was in the conference, was to find a battery and charger. Did I mention that my wonderful new camera takes a special battery? Oh yes…because I don’t like for things to be simple. Julianne, the absolutely delightful concierge at the Sheraton, was the poor soul I chose to help me on my mission. We (i.e. she) called every camera shop and electronics store in the San Diego metro area, only to be told they didn’t have it. The only place we could find that had it was the Sony Store in Fashion Valley, about ten miles from the hotel. This was getting better and better. We called a cab and yes…asked him to wait for me to make the purchase. So a $60 dollar cab ride and $120 battery and charger later…my mission was complete. Here is the first picture I took once the battery was charged. The view from our hotel room…

Here is the view of downtown San Diego, in the morning, from the conference center:

And to end our story today...a duck bathing in the pool outside our room: