Back from Salt Lake City

So I spent the entire week in Salt Lake City Utah. To tell you the truth, the conference was pretty much a snoozefest with the exception of a couple of speakers. I did learn a few things from them so at least I walked away with something from it. But most of it was just your typical government bureaucratic stuff that just bored me to death.

I did get to meet a lot of people though so that was cool. They were mostly my counterparts at all of the other Weather Offices throughout the Western Region. There were about 30 of us total. The days were long though starting at 8 am and going to 5 pm. Not really all that long, but when you're sitting there listening to speakers all day it seems longer than it actually is.

Salt Lake City was not what I expected. The Hotel was right downtown. The facilities we were in were very nice. The Red Lion Hotel. My room was on the 5th floor of a 13 story Hotel and every morning I woke up and walked out to my balcony which faced East and watched the sun rise over the Wasatch Mountains while sipping my coffee. The Mountains were beautiful and snow capped. The skiing must have been fantastic judging by the folks at the Hotel. The majority of folks staying there were skiiers and snowboarders.

Salt Lake City is in a Valley surrounded by Mountains. The elevation is higher than Phoenix though and it is much cooler than Phoenix. The air is also much cleaner and the visibility was crystal clear so you could see all of the snow capped mountain ranges. I was quite surprised by the number of homeless people walking around downtown though. There were much more than I would have thought.

Anyhow, I am almost done with Dan Gilliam's book and it was quite the read. I see a lot of similarities in his life that are very comparable to my own life. I'll blog about one particular chapter that, well, seemed like he was writing about the exact same thing I went through myself. You'll know what I mean when I blog about it. For now I'm going to spend some time with my wife and tomorrow we're going to see The Gaelic Storm at the Chandler Center of Performing Arts with Ben and Mandy and another couple from Amadeo.

Be Moved!