Final Journeys and Home

First, my apologies to each of you for not having sent out a blog last week. I appreciate that many of you reached out to see if you had missed it or if I was ill. It was none of the above – I simply was tired from having completed the second leg of my journeys and preparing for my third and final one.

On Thursday, June 7th after supporting the webcast of our Annual Board of Trustees and Awards meeting I drove for two hours to Newark, NJ so that I could spend the night at a park & stay hotel since I had a 5:30AM flight to San Jose, California. Okay, the hotel was a Howard Johnson’s – it had to be the worst hotel I have been in since the Red Roof Inn at Syracuse when we went up to visit Siobhan during a parent’s weekend.



The sheets smelled of oil – so needless to say I did not sleep well and I needed to get up at 2:30 to catch the 3:30 shuttle to the airport. Out the door on time and on the shuttle to find out that they do not take you to the terminal; but, to the tram that you must take to the terminal. On the tram to Terminal A per the attendant only to find out that I need to be at Terminal C – back on the tram again. I was finally at the right place and through security – couldn’t wait to get on the plane. There was no direct flight to San Jose, I had an hour and a half layover in Denver where I was able to get my Starbuck’s venti nonfat latte and read my book. Both flights were on time and uneventful – just the way we all like them. The drive (car service) from San Jose to Monterey was beautiful and the driver was giving me a blow by blow of what crops were growing and which festivals each town had.

Arrived at the Hyatt Regency Monterrey to find out that my room was not ready – I was not happy about that and I immediately had to leave for lunch. Lunch was quite pleasant and now it was off to the wine tour. We went to three wineries which got progressively better – by the end of the tour I could not believe how much wine I had tasted and drunk; I think more than I have had in the last 5 years. It was 6:15 by the time we got back to the hotel and dinner was at 7.



Time to unpack and get ready for dinner – what drama. The hotel had arranged for dinner in the ballroom where we will have our Exhibit Hall in October – one lone table was set with candles and there were two large screens playing the Tony Bennett “Duets” DVD. Each dinner course was introduced to us by the Chef and each of them was lovely. Dinner was finally over by 9PM and I had been up 22 hours straight. Off to bed.

Saturday began with breakfast at the gazebo, a tour of the hotel and facilities and off to my spa treatments. I had a wonderful massage and facial and then we headed off to downtown Monterey to see where our special event, the Beach Party would be. Lunch was at a nice local restaurant where I enjoyed a clam chowder and a shrimp and crab salad. Lastly a drive along the coast where I could see million dollar homes and the Pacific Ocean.

I was on the red eye Saturday evening on a direct flight to JFK; BUT, my car was in Newark – so a car service drove me to Newark and then I drove home from there – I got home on Sunday at 9:30AM. Now to unpack and re-pack to go to InfoComm in Las Vegas on Tuesday morning. My flight was scheduled for 7:25AM out of Newark and the car service was picking me up at 4:45AM – I know you are now saying to yourself that you NEVER want to travel with me given what I put myself through.



Although the flight left a little late – we arrived in Las Vegas at 11AM, collected our bags, headed to our hotel – grabbed a sandwich to take to our room and had lunch. While Catherine conducted a couple of conference calls I was able to unpack and re-iron my clothes – we set up our Exhibit booth in a couple of hours, dropped off our bags in our hotel room and then headed to the Zen bar for a glass of wine, a nice dinner at Benihana’s and I was in bed by 8PM on Tuesday.



The InfoComm show is enormous with 932 exhibitors and more than 32,000 attendees. You can really rack up some steps at this show. We had exhibit duty on Wednesday and Thursday from 9AM to 5PM and on Friday from 9AM to 4PM. We were able to make contact with some individuals interested in becoming Principal and Alliance Members; and, if they do we would have done our job.



The highlight of our trip was celebrating Catherine’s birthday on Thursday. We ordered room service and got ready as we were off to see Jersey boys at the Paris Hotel – my gift to my friend. It was wonderful and I was so pleased with the seats we had 7th row orchestra, smack in the middle. We both walked out singing the songs of our teen years as sung by the Four Seasons.



On Friday we were taking the red eye home; but, still had some time to kill – we changed into more comfortable clothes, checked out bags with the Bellboy and headed to Madame Tussaud’s museum at the Venetian Hotel, afterwards we had dinner at the Publick House and back to our hotel to gather our luggage and take a taxi to the airport.

Both of us were taking the red-eye home due to obligations; Catherine had friends spending the weekend at her house and I had my niece’s birthday party on Saturday evening. I got home went through my mail, slept for about 2 hours, unpacked and got ready for the party. I was home by 10:30 and went straight to bed.

Today, Sunday I have taken it easy – it is time for my body to slow down, for my ankles to stop swelling (all those flights) and for me to get back into a routine.




The trips have all been wonderful and successful; but, as Dorothy said, “there’s no place like home”.