• Flights: I don’t mind flying, but being stuck three people in when you want to go to the bathroom and you have incredible heartburn for 5+ hours is not fun. However while flying out we were chasing the sun as it was setting which was amazing. I had the window on the south facing side so I got to see some incredible gradients and such. And if anyone ever has to pick up baggage in the Phoenix airport, I feel for you.
• Mr. Pibb: There’s a Coca-Cola bottling facility in Tempe so most of the place offer Coke products, including Mr. Pibb!! Something I’m not used to seeing since I’m in the northeast, but it’s amazing.
• Weather: The first day out, the weather was phenomenal, it was like a perfect Spring day. Thursday and Friday however there was some rain or just the feeling of pending rain but not too bad. However, we were sitting outside at a Happy Hour talking about CAS Thursday night, and got hailed on thrice.
• The Big Bang: Thursday night I went out looking for a bar. Being only three blocks away from ASU this was not a difficult task, but which bar to go to first. We walked into a basement bar called “The Big Bang” which advertises itself as a dueling piano bar. Holy Cow! If you are a fan of live music and find yourself in Tempe go to The Big Bang. We had an amazing time. The “I’m only going out for 1 drink” night turned into a night in which we had t o leave at 2:00 because Tempe closes down at 2:00.

So it was a good trip. I was completely exhausted Saturday night when I got back to Albany, but with my love of live music I went straight to Mahoney’s to see Replica. Just a couple more days of not working on projects then I fly down to Orlando for another conference.