ARCE convention

We got back from the ARCE (pronounced are-see) convention yesterday afternoon. It was a nice little convention, with about 350 attendees. This year it was in Toledo, Ohio, so we only had about a 2.5 hour drive.

Downtown Toledo is along the Maumee River, right before it joins Lake Erie. They have put a riverwalk in, and it is quite nice. Two nights we walked across the river on the bridge to a group of restaurants called "The Docks." The food was good and the walk was refreshing (about 3/4 of a mile). They are rebuilding the drawbridge, so half of the bridge doesn't exist. It looks a bit strange to see the lanes on one side just end, with a long plunge into the river if anyone were to go through the barricades.

The hotel we stayed at was recently bought by a new chain, so they are beginning a renovation. The result was that the restaurant in the hotel was short staffed. Imagine trying to feed 300+ people each morning with about half your normal staff :( Since there weren't any other choices for breakfast, you had to either get there around 7:00 AM or wait until after 8:30 to get a place to sit.

On Saturday night, they had Zahi Hawass come to speak. That was the night that one of the elevators decided to malfunction, with people in it. It was stuck for about 35-40 minutes. Once it opened, about 15-20 people came pouring out of it and ran into his talk, 1/2 hour late. I thought it was humorous, anyway.

Nice convention, but nice to be home again. Of course, because it was all weekend, that means I didn't get a weekend, so I didn't get caught up on my backlog of blog reading...