QuestionMark Conference Day II
14 April 2008Day two was very good. The Westin Hotel, where the conference is being held, is an amazing place. It’s one of those places that makes you think, “Am I dressed well enough to be in this place?” Answer: No. Since putting on the pounds I have outgrown all of my slacks so I’ve had to modify the definition of ‘business casual’ to include jeans. There were others there in jeans, so I’m good to go. The classes were pretty interesting and there is a great diversity of accents from around the world in both the teachers and the students.
After the convention we went down to the mall in San Antonio. It is a very large mall with an amazing food court. Some of the food court is outside with the water from what I’m assuming to be the famous Riverwalk running through it. Large numbers of small boats loaded with tourists ran though the water and around the area we were in. The weather was a perfect combination of temperature, humidity, and breeze. We sat and listened to a live band out in the food court that was very talented. I won’t go into detail about the band, but I will tell you that there were a lot of pan flutes involved.
Oh yeah, parking for three hours at the mall cost a mere $12. They only validate parking at the IMAX theater or the comedy club, neither of which we visited.
I really don’t like this bath tub at the hotel. It’s a very old tub (this is a ‘historic’ hotel) that is very deep and sits on legs, bringing the brim of the tub up to about 14′ (or so it seems). Just getting in and out of the tub, which is also where the 300 year-old shower is, I’ve banged my foot on the edge once, and my knee twice. By the time I get done with this hotel, I’m sure the tub will have permanently crippled one of my legs in some way. And I can’t even begin to describe how old the plumbing and fixtures are, only to say that if the hotel ever needs replacement parts, they can probably scrounge up a few from the Alamo. Speaking of which, the Alamo, that is… it is just down the street about 0.8 miles from the hotel. It’s not out in the middle of nowhere like I thought it would be, but rather right across from the mall, with all sorts of commercial buildings around it. I think that some politician of yor said something like this: “Let’s make this a sacred monument, but only two feet outside of the wall. Beyond that, who cares!”
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