Two whole weeks on the road, and I’m finally settling back into the regular world in Yosemite.
The first stop was the Search Engine Strategies (SES) conference in NYC. The chance to immerse myself in SEM and SEO, learn about what is creating buzz in the industry (like all of the social marketing outlets, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook to name a few) was quite a luxury for someone as new to the field as I am. It gave me a real leg-up in figuring out what was important, and also what is possible, in terms of creating and marketing yourself on the web.
Hanging with the Crew, and exploring NYCs restaurants and bars was a real departure from my normal life, and I discovered pretty quickly that I just really like my sleep. We had a great time though, and I rarely eat so well. This is a picture of Brian after the dinner-sized appetizers and a thick chunk of steak, contemplating the desert tray, during our dinner with iCrossing. He wasn’t alone in being over stuffed, but still tempted by the after dinner treats. Chocolate cake… mmmm.
Even with all that exploration though – there were so many NY things that I didn’t see. Didn’t explore Central Park. Didn’t take the subway (we were expensing the taxi rides, and did a bit of walking). There are many good reasons to go back and check it out again.
When I got to VT, I found out that my niece and her friend had also been in NYC during the time I was there. It’s a quick trip for them from their home, and M’ana is a veteran, so they saw a lot of the city.
VT was great. We did quite a bit of XC skiing. It was a joy to ski the flats and rolling terrain that we don’t have here. The hills are shorter than ours, but brutally steep. In addition to getting to spend some excellent time with Tom’s parents, and all of his siblings and their families, we also managed to sneak in a visit to Aunt Polly, Uncle John and Aunt Barb, Greg B., Jeff B.