Here we are sitting in the Phoenix Airport just waiting for our plane to arrive. It’s been a good trip. I’ll post some pictures when we get back. It’s somewhat difficult to do that here in the airport. The weather was nice (90s), we went swimming (Britton went every day), and walked around downtown trying out various restaurants. The conference was pretty good.
There were a few snorers but overall it looks like there is some good work going on in the tobacco free movement across the nation. I went to one session that talked about how the tobacco industry tries to pit health advocates against each other, how they try to play both political parties with their rhetoric and put all the onus on the individual user rather than on the product that they make and market heavily. It was pretty neat to be at the conference when they announced FDA regulation even though that was a controversial “win” because it keeps Philip Morris as the industry leader by a large margin.
Overall, it was a nice trip and I think Britton enjoyed it more than the Minneapolis one in late October 2007. Phoenix is an interesting place. They’ve obviously poured a lot of money into revitalization, but there was virtually no one on the streets even on a Friday night. Compared to Denver it looked like a lost city. A lot of the people that worked there said that without the convention center and the conferences there it would be completely dead. I think they are trying to do some urban renewal. Last night Sara and Koabi came up from Tucson to have dinner with us. Phoenix apparently has a fireworks display every Friday night that the Diamondbacks are in town (more$$$!). It was fun watching them on the deck through the water misters at the restaurant.
UPDATE
We’re back in Colorado, so I thought I’d add a couple of pictures:
With Koabi and Sara in Phoenix -Misters and Fireworks
Palm Trees outside the Hotel
Cool architecture
I’m glad you enjoyed your trip. That is really cool weather for Phoenix this time of year!! We visited Scottsdale and Sedona in January and found it interesting but dull. Like you said, it was kind of dead at night, but maybe that’s the economy? I read about the new tobacco regs and thought of you. It said tobacco users may be down to 5% in 20 years. That would be good for everyone’s health (you could say the more successful you are the less you’ll need to work, which is opposite of most jobs!). We also just got back from a convention, of the League of American Orchestras in Chicago which was fantastic. The nightlife was great, even us old farts were out every night past midnight, going to theater (saw “Jersey Boys”), several concerts, clubs, restaurants and a huge cocktail party. I presented at the convention and we picked up two awards for our orchestra for excellence in programming and volunteer work. Chicago architecture is over the top so we took an architecture boat ride through the city on the river to ooh and aah at the ginormous buildings. Now we’re back in the country and enjoying that too, hoping for warm weather for our Saturday barbeque!
Hey Annie,
Yah we had a pretty good time there. The conference was interesting. I haven’t read that about the tobacco rates dropping, but that would be great news indeed. The FDA regulation is controversial even in our field mostly because it keeps Philip Morris as the industry leader and they already sell 50% of tobacco that is sold…
Sounds like you’re having a great summer as well. BBQ sounds good! We’ll have to stock up at the store this weekend.