Coronado

On the last day of our trip we packed lunches and headed over the bridge to Coronado to take in a little sand and salt water.

I think the kids ate more sand then lunch, but that is the way it goes at the beach.

The seagulls were in full force that afternoon and not afraid to get really close and into the backpacks for food.

Bold I tell you, bold.

O discovered the joys of collecting sea shells and had a blast finding beauties in the surf.

Fifi was so done and ready for a nap, but she held out until we got back in the car to head to the airport.

Poor thing, it was a long busy week for us all. 

I know how she felt I was pretty exhausted to after our adventures! 

Thanks San Diego, we had a blast!

entertain me

These street performers were AMAZING.

 

Two if them on stilts, the bird is part of a puppet that one stilt walker was in control of, and one on foot.

 

I love the costumes and the pantomiming that was happening, made for a beautiful story.

This was part of the Thursday night party that ESRI puts on every year.

 

 

This year it was hosted in the beautiful Balboa Park.

 

We had free access to all of the museums. There was food and entertainment.

We hit up the Museum of Photography (where the kids did a photo booth together, I will scan that one soon, it's a keeper), 

the Train Museum 

and the Museum of Natural history. 

I wish we would have had time to see more. 

Next time!

The streets of San Diego

The Gaslamp District

Old Town (where we stayed)

Sante Fe trolly stop.

What were we doing in San Diego?

You must be thinking we were in San Diego for family fun.
It was full of both those things, but we actually went down to the sunny little spot for work.



We spent the bulk of our week in the beautiful San Diego Conference center.
I love this building and this view from the escalator just doesn't get old.

 

My husband and I are both geographers by training and trade. We make our living with the creation of maps and databases. Annually, there is an international user conference held by the leading company in GIS (geographic information systems), ESRI and this year we were lucky enough to be sent down to participate.

 

Imagine 15-20,000 people all in one place discussing maps, apps, servers, databases, editing, analysis, websites, and all sorts of other geeky stuff. The use of this technology is wide. I spent the first nine years of my career mapping people, now I use it to map water and waste water systems.

The first day of the conference is always 2 parts exciting and 2 parts overwhelming; with a dash of awe and inspiration mixed in to the bowl. 

I love how you can't pin-hole a person who does GIS. There is a great mix of suits and Berinstocks, military uniforms and mohawks.

I some times wonder just how I got into such a technologically rich line of work. But really, using GIS allows me to be creative and technical all at once. I like that it has a good mix of left and right brain. 

I am slowly, slowly working through all of the photos I took of the week.



And now that I have the internet at home again, I will be able to actually post them!

Petco Park

Last Saturday , we took in a baseball game at the lovely, Petco Park. It was Padres vs. The Rockies.

We got there a little late, and the game was tied.

We found our seats and settled in for a great evening of ball.

O. was surprisingly really into the game.

He was also really into the peanuts.

Fifi had a good time too, she fell asleep shortly after this photo. 

(and stayed asleep through the firework show!)

O got a ball (and didn't let it go for the next 24hrs)

The Padres lost, but it was a great game and it sure was a pretty evening at the ball game.