You Just Finished DevCon. What are you going to do now?...DISNEYLAND

After the Boston and Seattle whirlwind, I spent the next two weeks in the office. The days felt slow after the craziness in the weeks before. No shocker was I very excited for the upcoming trip to Anaheim for a week long show that I had been prepping for since my second week on the job. I was about to see months of hard work and projects come to head. Plus, I was going to Disneyland and following up with a trip to San Diego to see the boyfriend.

The show proved to be the most exciting and eventful one yet. It was a week full of drinking every night until 2 am and long days on my feet. At a conference of 700 men over 30, a pretty girl at age 20 stands out. I was certainly not lacking attention all week, nor a supply of drinks from the hotel bar. It was a lot of fun and I made some great connections.

I was also lucky to snag one of the secret Twilight Passes to Disneyland. This ticket is only available through conferences and allows you to enter the park after 4 PM at a discounted price of only $40. Now, normally the park closes on Thursdays at 8 PM, but for some still unknown reason the park was open until 11 PM that night. I ended up with 8 hours of park time for only $40. My lovely boyfriend drove up from San Diego to get me and set off to Disneyland.

The park was exciting as it was all decked out for Halloween.



If you have never gone during Halloween, the one must see is the Haunted Mansion. It is completely redone for Halloween as the Nightmare Before Christmas. From the inside, you can't hardly tell its even the same ride. I snapped some pictures of the outside and slightly dark on the changed up inside.




The trip was a lot of fun, but after the long week at the show, I was pretty tired. We only made until 10:30 PM, still not too bad considering we had a drive to San Diego still ahead of us.

The next day Matt surprised me with a bay cruise for my birthday. It was really exciting and quite romantic. Matt has a secret romantic side that he brings out every once and a while. It was super fun and not nearly as cold as we had suspected. Thus, the slightly large jacket from Target I bought that afternoon was a bit of a waste. It was a really fun birthday weekend, well pre-birthday weekend!

In the Footsteps of Dr Fraiser Crane

After finishing up my show and whirlwind tour of Boston on Wednesday, it was off to Seattle for another show and a whirlwind tour. It was true Seattle weather...rainy, overcast, and cold. After finishing the show on Thursday, a took off to find the Space Needle. While it is priced like a crazy tourist attraction, it is worth it once. I had to do it and this was my chance. For those that may go in the future, be prepared...it is MUCH colder at the top than on the ground. Bring gloves! And maybe a hat.



I took this really cool picture...while stopped at a stop light. I also attempted some while driving, some successful others not due to the delay on my camera. Probably not that safe, but its hard to get a good picture from valet parking stand at the Space Needle. There is a great view of the city and the ocean, but I have done it once and probably won't do it again, not at that price.

The next day I finished my meetings and had a few hours to kill before my flight so I went down to Pike's Place Market for lunch. I saw the fish throwing and ate lunch at a cafe along the water. Pike's Place market is like a crazy awesome farmer's market. I would definitely shop there if I lived anywhere close.





Pike's Place is also home to the original Starbucks. This is a large Starbucks that features the original logo. Despite my aversion to coffee, I do love the Carmel Apple Spice. I could not avoid this tourist/historic stop. For those interested, here is the original logo.


After this enjoyable afternoon at Pike's Place, I headed to the airport. I was met in San Francisco by my wonderful boyfriend who flew from San Diego to spend the weekend with me. I had all of these fun things to do and places to eat while he was here. Unfortunately, I was utterly exhausted from the trip across the country and back. Our weekend ended up being spent on the couch watching 12 hours of college football and eating nachos. A pretty awesome weekend. We also went and saw The Town. It was only fitting and actually a pretty good movie, although much more lovey dovey than expected. The next trip is Anaheim/Disneyland/San Diego....in two weeks!

Following the Freedom Trail to...Adulthood?

So I am just about 6 months in at my first post-college job. A real job....a career field. I'm doing sales, marketing, and business development for Total Phase, a small privately-owned tech company that makes development tools for engineers developing embedded systems. What is an embedded system? Basically, it is anything that functions like a computer, but is not actually computer. Examples? Phone, TV, remote control, microwave, cars, ultrasound machines, your iPod, airplanes....pretty much everything electronic can use our tools. If you want to know more, our website: www.totalphase.com

So now that I have probably lost most of you...the exciting part. My job allows me to travel...A LOT! I am traveling about every two weeks and visiting some really cool places. First trip: Phoenix, Arizona....in the middle of August. If you've never been to Phoenix in August, then you'll just have to take my word for it...HOT HOT HOT. August is not the best time to visit Phoenix. 90 degrees at 9 am is excessive. The plus side = the AMAZING hotel. The JW Marriott Grand Desert is a beautiful golf resort in northern Phoenix with multiple pools and a lazy river. The bathroom in my room was the biggest hotel bathroom I have ever seen. It was larger than my Modesto and Mountain View bathrooms combined. Separate tub and shower with dual sinks....HUGE!

After that a week long show in San Francisco. San Francisco = long commute, no hotel. Nothing too exciting except for a dinner proposition from a gentleman easily 30 year my senior. I do not look old enough for that to have been appropriate. The week right after was the most exciting trip(s) yet...Boston AND Seattle.

The Saturday after the show in San Francisco, I took a red eye flight to Boston, Massachusetts. I arrived at 8 am Sunday morning. Unable to check in at the hotel for several more hours, I decided to start the sight-seeing. So I started walking at 10 am, my first stop the Visitors Center at the Boston Common.



From there I started on a guided tour over the first half of the Freedom Trail...a walk through colonial history. I was led by a quirky history teacher dressed as a British soldier dressed in the red coat who sought to debunk many of things we are taught about the American Revolution from childhood. Being the history nerd that I am, I loved it all. At Granary Burying Ground, I found the tombstones of some of America's founding fathers.




<---- Paul Revere

Samuel Adams ---->






Then, the Old South Meeting House, the site of where the Boston Tea Party was conceived. It is now a cool little museum, but unfortunately I was too tired at the end of the day to make it inside this one.


Then it was the Old State House where the line "taxation without representation" became infamous. The building is now the museum that houses a lock Daniel Webster's hair. Just steps outside the front door, is the sight of the Boston Massacre marked by a star in the brick.















After that my guided tour ended at Faneuil Hall, the center of the Freedom Trail and historic Boston. It was a lively area with street performers and lots of tourists. From there I began the second half of the Freedom Trail on my own. This part of the walk talk by the oldest tavern in America, the oldest restaurant in America known as the Oyster House. My first stop was Paul Revere's house. It is a very tiny place restored to look like his family's house.



Then I walked through Little Italy and beautiful parks to reach the Old North Church. Remember, one if by land, two if by sea? This is the church where they hung those important candles. It is a BEAUTIFUL church, with a ridiculously long line to get in. I chose to skip the inside tour and just glimpsed through windows and admired from the outside.


After that it was across the bridge to Charlestown, a very quaint town where it is hard to believe people actually live. It looks like something out of a movie set with American flags on every other house. It was not until I saw a group of kids playing street hockey that I realized people actually get to live in this spectacular place. For you movie buffs, this is also where "The Town" starring Ben Affleck takes place. It is on this side of the water where I found the Bunker Hill Monument and the USS Constitution also known as Old Ironsides.















That concluded the tour and marked the beginning of the return trip. At the end of the day I walked over 12 miles, after only 4 hours of horrible sleep on the plane. I was quite exhausted. The next day, I was so excited to visit Cheers, the bar the awesome TV show was based on. The food is average but it is must visit spot for any true Cheers fan...because sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name!