2005
Trip to Hawai'i (March 5-9)

I got to go to a conference in Hawai'i for work this March. This was my "annual" conference, which I
previously attended in San Francisco, Toronto, and Las Angeles. Due to a not-huge budget, I missed
it the last two years (New Orleans and Philadelphia), but somehow managed to make it this year, in Honolulu.
I was not able to take any extra time with the trip, so I was just there for four days, but at least it was a
nice warm break from Alaska in March!

	This was taken out of the window of the plane (duh!). I flew on Northwest both there and back, and they were actually good flights (if a little on the long side).
	The convention was at the Convention Center (go figure). The Center is HUGE, like most large-city convention centers. It looked fairly new, and was very nice. The conference I was attended had something like 5,000 attendees, so we took up the entire thing.
	This is (believe it or not) the roof of the convention center. They have gardens and a couple of these ponds/streams up there. Very nice, but it was darn hot on that white roof, under the Hawaiian sun.
	On the third day of the conference it just dumped a load of rain. Being from Alaska I'm used to COLD rain. It's quite different seeing it rain and it still be warm out. Kind of neat to see, actually.
	My hotel (The Hilton) was right on Waikiki, so several nights I went out there to check it out. Waikiki is one of the most famous beaches in the world, so I expected it to be packed, but instead this is what I saw! There was almost nobody out there! What gives with that? It was in the low 70s, so maybe that was cold for them? Who knows, who cares-it was paradise for me.
	Ya can't go to Hawaii without watching the sunset, can you? Actually, the sunsets are just as nice in Alaska and last about ten times as long (in the summer, at least). Still, it was nice, being on the beach, standing in the water, watching the sunset. I just wish someone was there to watch it with me.
	This was Hilton's private little boat dock. I never saw the boat docked there, but apparently they have their own boat to take you on a tour of the bay. I didn't get around to doing that, though.
	This is my coworker and friend, Pam, walking down the beach ahead of me (my other coworker and friend, Kathy, was behind me). We walked a ways down the beach, then headed inland for dinner. There were a LOT more people on the street than on the beach! It ended up raining on us on the walk back to the hotel, but it was still a warm rain, so it was kinda fun.
	This was at the Honolulu airport, if you can believe that. They definately know that most of their money comes from tourism, and decorate accordingly there.

Overall I had a great trip. Would have been ten times better if I had more time there, but I can hardly complain
about getting a free trip to somewhere so beautiful. Oh yeah-the conference was good, too. :-)