Leg two of my travels...
Newport News, Virginia. Home to the Reducing Tobacco Use 2011 conference.
The conference was conveniently held at the Marriott at City Center.
(photo courtesy The Marriott City Center)
City Center at Oyster Point is a new development with shops and restaurants.
The conference really delivered what was proven to be an excellent agenda. Thanks to a great line up of speakers, I learned new information about tobacco treatment in disparate populations as well as policy strategies for sustaining tobacco prevention at a local and state level.
Traveling 3433 air miles across the country, unlike Anchorage, Newport News was in full "spring" mode. Temperatures were in the 60s upon arrival and increased to the low 80s by the time I left. Outside the hotel was a walking path circling a gorgeous fountain. This path provided a great opportunity for some exercise during conference breaks.
Although the trip was relatively short, my travel partners, Dana and Cheryl, and I made the best of our trip. After mingling and networking with other conference attendees at an evening reception Tuesday night, we enjoyed happy hour and dinner at Red Star Tavern.
After the conference ended Wednesday afternoon, Cheryl left to visit her family in Connecticut so Dana and I decided to see what else the area had to offer. Because Virginia Beach and Williamsburg where a bit too far away, we enjoyed an evening in Hampton, VA (10 miles away from Newport News) at the Peninsula Town Center which was a nice escape from the familiarity of City Center. We shopped and then dined at The Pub which had a great selection of British beers.
(photo courtesy The Pub)
Later, Dana and I went to Luckie's Dueling Piano Bar. After arriving, we found out that piano duels only occurred on Fridays and Saturdays.
Instead, it was WAKA Wednesday. For those that do not know, WAKA stands for World Adult Kickball Association. Who would have thought?
So, we went next door to NASCAR Sports Grille.
Thursday morning we went for a run and then ate breakfast at Aroma's.
Dana then left to catch her plane while I still had a few hours to enjoy the sunshine. I strolled around City Center one more time, grabbed lunch at Taste Unlimited, a great food store and cafe, and then checked email on a bench beside the pond.
It was a long 16 hour commute back to Anchorage and I ended up being one of the lucky ones NOT to have their bag come out of the baggage claim shoot.
Ugh.
The waiting game begins...supposedly my bags are in Atlanta.