The Brave Astronaut family has returned from the Fall 2007 MARAC Meeting in Williamsburg. You can see some of the "business" highlights here on this blog (now that he has finally updated it!). Of course, for the lighter side of things, you can go to ADR's blog.
Since my last post, I had my session on Friday afternoon. It was well attended and I think it went rather well. The other sessions I went to were good as well. I attended several sessions at this meeting on the strength of a really good program with a wide variety of topics covered. I am on the Program Committee for the next two meetings, to be held in May 2008 in Chautauqua, New York and in November 2008, right here in Silver Spring, Maryland. For the Chautauqua meeting, I am responsible for getting two sessions off the ground. Stay tuned to see how they develop.
Friday night's reception took place at the Swem Library at the College of William and Mary and a good time was had by all, including Little Brave Astronaut and my MIL, who was a great help during the meeting so Mrs. Brave Astronaut and I could fulfill our professional duties. After the reception, we accompanied Ralph and Alice (you know, the Honeymooners) to their new favorite Williamsburg haunt, the Blue Talon Bistro. This evening marked the fourth night in a row for them visiting the restaurant and the second time for ADR. At several people's urging, I kept the number of our group low (Lord knows I have a problem doing that), but we got bumped up by ADR and his party of four. So we were ten for dinner and we got split into two tables of five. But the meal was amazing, from the escargot to start, the braised beef entree, and the burnt sugar ice cream for dessert.
Saturday, the final day of the conference was more sessions, the morning business meeting, discussed on Geof's blog, and once the conference wrapped up, it was once more into the pool of the time share. After a brief dip (I will say here, that the pool was very nice, but it was an indoor pool, not necessarily a heated one), we met up with the Honeymooners yet again and the Sweetest archivist and her family for a take out dinner at the recommended Pierce's BBQ.
Sunday morning dawned early and we checked out of the time share and enjoyed one last meal with the Honeymooners at one of Williamsburg's many pancake houses. Then we hit the road, eschewing the outlets for a direct trip home. We opted for a different route, avoiding I-95 and the anticipated Washington Beltway traffic around the Wilson Bridge. The route took us through the Virginia countryside and through the middle of Fort A.P. Hill. We also traveled backwards up the escape route of John Wilkes Booth, passing first the Garrett Farm, then the Mudd Home. We crossed the Potomac over the Nice Bridge (easier than Booth did), and then up through Southern Maryland. We also had the opportunity to visit the birthplace of George Washington, which we also passed on. The batteries in my camera were dead. We will have to return with a plan next time.
1 comment:
Your talk was great! I've received several compliments on the session, and a request to do something similar for Silver Spring. Since you're on the PC for SS, we should talk.
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