Successful sightseeing

Middle Ages Brewing Co., Syracuse, NY

Today, on the long drive between Albany and Rochester, NY, I managed to complete my goal of eating/drinking at all three of the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que locations in the state of New York: first Manhattan, then Rochester, and today Syracuse. A small victory in the life of a Program Manager, but a victory none the less.

Also, it happens that my aunt suggested that, while I was making that pit stop in Syracuse, I check out the Middle Ages Brewery. It's a great little place with a medieval theme to its interior decoration, and I just happened to get there with about twenty minutes before the beer tasting was closed for the day. Good beers, but what else could be expected from a brewery where all the batches are measured and made by hand? Oh, did I forget to mention that it's about a two minute drive from the original Dinosaur Bar-B-Que location?!


After a week of miserable, rainy days, my presenter and I enjoyed the mostly-clear skies and beautiful sunset on the rest of our journey to Rochester, where we'll end this oh-so-short four day week.

Next week is Spring Break, so I'll catch you on the flip side.

Weekend in Hotlanta

It ends up that there are only two airlines that make a direct flight from Nashville to Atlanta: Delta and Pacific Wings (their subsidiary, Tennessee Skies, in this case). Pacific Wings actually only has 9-seater prop. planes and flies out of the Nashville executive airport...sweet! I'm excited as this will be my first flight on a real "small scale" prop plane and certainly my first trip through an executive airport.

Not our plane, but you get the idea.

No crazy security lines, plush waiting room accommodations, free hot chocolate and Otis Spunkmeyer cookies; and REALLY nice restrooms are just some of the perks of flying through such a small airport. What a different experience that I shall not yet claim as "bad" in any way (we'll see what turbulence in a 9-seater plane feels like).

C'mon, Hotlanta, show me what you got!

Just a Little Philly Time

To start off this week of travel, I flew from Chicago to Philly, not a long flight at all. I got in early and, instead of the instructed cab ride, I got a rental car and headed into the city for a few hours of remaining sunlight (yes, that's right, sunlight in Philly!).

Being a Sunday afternoon, I was actually able to find some good parking and was incredibly eager to head to some of the locations participating in this year's PHILAGRAfiKA to see some great works on paper, which I wrote about in an earlier post. I ended up walking all around the Rittenhouse Square area of the city, which is just wrought with art galleries, small shops, and other nice things; a livable section of the city, actually.

A quick trip by Gallery 339 (fine art photography) and The Print Center, among others, yielded no results since most art galleries are only open from Tuesday through Saturday. There were a few events scheduled for earlier in the afternoon, but my arrival time from Chicago put me in a bit later than I needed.

Overall a good trip through the city, with a quick jaunt down South Broad Street before watching the US Men's Hockey team tie up the score against Canada through a restaurant window with some valet parking staff.

On the way back to my rental car (thankfully no parking ticket was issued for my expired meter), I stopped at a local dessert shop called Scoop DeVille, which was fan-tas-tic. Their ice cream blends (cookies & cream with peanut butter chip cookie dough, for me) are to die for. It's definitely going up on the Program Manager Restaurant Blog! That cup of heaven kept me awake on the drive out to the Cherry Hill area for a restful night at the Hampton Inn out in Voorhees. Love that place. The week is cruising along at a quick pace (as they all do) and my weekend stayover in Atlanta with Ciara will soon be upon me.

Philadelphia's Scoop DeVille sweets shop

Don't judge me.

Last week, another one of my many on-and-off double presenter weeks, I found myself on the east coast (big surprise), specifically in Harrisburg, PA. Now, this particular evening was after a long day, but luckily not a super long drive, so all four of us (yup, one presenter had his wife along for a few days) got to the hotel at a decent hour. I wasn't particularly hungry when we arrived, so the other took our minivan and went out to dinner at a local micro brewery while I hunkered down in my room. While they were away, I started exploring the hotel to find out where our presentation rooms would be the next day only to come upon quite a nice surprise:

A totally free, if not slightly sketchy, dinner! A group had been meeting in this room where a full buffet dinner had been served and had left not long enough ago for the food to yet get cold (this is how I can justify myself). Plenty of chicken and mushrooms atop some fettuccine; fresh salad fixings, desserts, sodas, and other yummies with no hotel staff in sight! Luckily for me, I had earlier noticed that my sleep room had both a microwave and fridge, what luck. Needless to say, I had plenty to eat that night (and a little for lunch the next day) with a few trips up the back staircase to my room.

These days where I get to my destination early are quite heaven-sent. Being productive and happening upon things like this are my relief from the tension of double presenter weeks.