San Diego

I recently went to San Diego to meet with some of my clients – mainly to make sure they remember me, but more importantly to talk with some of them about current projects. I had a really good time, played a little golf, went sailing, took some of my clients on a coastal cruise from Mission Beach to Del Mar and back. I’ll post some photos when I get a chance, but just wanted to say that I was shocked at all the development there. It really is growing at a remarkable rate and I was most surprised with how much downtown has developed. The skyline was dramatically different and the number of condo’s has exploded. It’s still nothing like Chicago, but it’s a lot nicer than in the days boefore Horton Plaza was built.

Anyway the food was tremendous as always, as were the prices of everything, except one thing – wine. It was so nice to be able to buy a bottle of good wine for under $8. I do miss it, but it’s not the place that I grew up with anymore.

Here is a linky to the full-screen version

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Panama City Beach Bums

I don’t know who thought if it, but the genius in the School Board (on the state level) decided that the students needed a Autumn Break – Thursday through Monday off. So we decided to take advantage of it and head to Florida for the long weekend.

Originally we were going to Red River Gorge and go camping but Dr. Ernie (missed all my ethics classes in college) Fletcher, our Governor, had to declare KY fire hazard and initiated a fire burn ban throughout the state since we hadn’t had any rain all summer. Then Samantha said she wanted to go to the beach, so I jumped online and started looking for deals.

We found rooms at the Holiday Inn SunSpree in Panama City Beach for just over $100 a night and decided it would be worth the 12 hr drive to get there.

For those that know me, you might remember that I spent seven months in Pensacola FL back in the ’80s when I was in the Navy. During that time I spent most of my time in Pensacola, but ventured to many of the beaches in the panhandle – Ft. Walton, Destin and PCB. It’s known as the Emerald Coast because of the blue-green waters, but I remember it for the most beautiful white sand of the beaches. So soft and clean you could swear that they were made sugar, and so white that you can actually get sunburned on the underside of your body due to the reflection. I can’t think of a single beach in the world that I have been to that has more awesome beaches than here.

We are had great time, spent the whole day at the beach and the pool Friday, Saturday we went on a sail/snorkel ride to Shell Island, and Sunday we spent back on the beach.

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