Welcome, New Year!
It is travel planning day for me at work today. I have only a few business trips this year, but they’re all in the spring and early summer. Next week I go to Philadelphia. In April, it’s San Franscisco (the one that I am most excited about), and in late June, it’s Anaheim.
Yes, I’m scheduled to go to Anaheim for several days at the end of June.
This conference is for the American Library Association. It will draw between 25,000 and 30,000 librarians to the Anaheim Convention Center, which is right next to Disneyland and the California Adventure Park.
So, to sum up: I am going to spend several days in early summer in the desert, next door to Disneyland at the peak of tourist season, at a convention center with 30K other people. And, oh yeah, there’s no vegetarian restaurants for several miles in each direction. And they don’t let me have a rental car for these trips.
But let me tell you, I am going to rent one anyway. Because there is no way that I can keep my sanity without something of a reprieve.
Also, I want to see some of that area. I had a conference in Long Beach a few years ago, and I didn’t get to see much of that area either. I did go up to Hollywood and saw some of the touristy sights, because they were accessible by the LA Metro system, but Anaheim is not.
And I do not want to go to Disneyland. I have zero interest in Disneyland. Especially at $91 for a one day ticket. I can get a rental car that can take me to several area state parks for the entire length of my stay for only $120. I think I know the better deal.
I’m getting a rental car for my trip to Philadelphia next week, too, but only for the last day. I want to drive up and see Bryn Mawr, as it’s where Tracy did her undergraduate work, and I want to toodle through the Main Line towns, just for the fun of it. We’re staying downtown for that conference, and Philly has a great public transit system, so there’s no need for a rental car for any of the other days of the conference.
Anaheim, in the middle of summer, with 30,000 librarians. Who the fuck thought of that?
I want to travel for work, damn it! That’s one of the few things I really regret about my work–that because I don’t work for a school or corporation, I don’t ever get sent on free business trips. *sigh* I just have to keep hoping that Brandi’s company will continue sending her periodically, though we’re afraid that getting to go somewhere two years in a row in 2006 and 2007 was just a fluke, and it might be a long time before we get to again.