Walking in the Rain

I started to walk to the UH campus this morning but turned around after a few minutes due to the rain. I did bring an umbrella but it was packed in my suitcase that I just checked in with the bell desk. Kind of sounds like an excuse. Today is the first day of the APAN portion of the Joint Tech meeting and the content is definitely less interesting. Dale from UNL, showed a video as a lightning talk with highlights of Lincoln, NE, which is the location of the next meeting. Largest chicken museum stands out as a highlight.

Wednesday afternoon - I walked back to the hotel to catch the bus to the airport. I figured that I should get as much walking in as possible. It kind of drizzeled for most of the way back but I never really got wet, at least not from the rain. Once I got back to the coast, the rain stopped completely. I guess that is more of that micro-climate I keep hearing about. Stopped to have a pistashio gelato to cool me off. It is miserably hot and humid. But at least I'm getting some exercise in.

I went down to look at the world famous beach and to me, it looked like a small, sorry looking strip of sand packed with people almost piled on top of each other. I don't see the attraction. But I was never really a beach person anyway. On the way to the hotel, I wandered through some of the shops along the way but most were either high end stores or trinket shops so I didn't get anything. No chocolate, no trinkets, no coffee. Between yesterday and today, I think I got in about 15 miles. I was originally thinking about coming back before lunch and walking up the road to Diamond Head. I heard that there were a bunch of caves at the top and that it was once used for a radar installation. The high humidity and heat kind of discouraged me. Maybe some other time.

Wednesday evening - Right now I am waiting for the shuttle to the airport. Actually, it's sitting here in front of me but it's early. Whenever I travel, I seem to spend a lot of time sitting around waiting. Not the best strategy for staying in shape but I seem to get more than enough exercise when travelling. At least I got in a fair amount of walking during the last couple of days. At least enough to get myself thrown off one of the Nike+ challenges. I guess they didn't like me so far ahead of everyone else. I will be on the plane all night and get into Fairbanks tomorrow morning. It's going to be a long night.

The Alaska Airlines ticket counter isn't even open yet so more waiting around. The continuous background of Hawaiian music is starting to get on my nerves. It seems to be playing just about everywhere you go. They actually have a live band playing in the terminal.