Every January I am a part of a meeting that includes 15 of our supervisors who are located all over the country. Despite our normal objective of holding our meeting somewhere warm, we had planned to go to Pittsburgh this year instead. As soon as I found out, I was already bracing myself for the frigid temps and the potential for logistical issues because of snow.
I was in shock come mid-December when we found out that our group was invited to bolt on our meeting to another meeting happening around the same time in Palm Desert, CA. Our travel would be covered and we'd get almost a week in sunny California. It seemed too good to be true, but it wasn't!
A few short weeks after the plans were made, I had just recovered from Christmas break and was on my way out to L.A. In order to get a direct flight, I flew from Dulles to Los Angeles. This ended up being a great move all around because I got to see a little of L.A. on the front end of the trip and the drive over to Palm Desert was beautiful.
A little time on Hollywood Blvd...
Although it was quite far away, I was thrilled to see the infamous Hollywood sign and grab a quick picture.
After the couple hour detour in Hollywood, we headed east towards Palm Desert to get there in time for the kickoff reception that evening.
What a beautiful drive!
Even though I did not have a prime room on the rear side of the hotel, my front-facing room still had a pretty spectacular view.
Because the meeting on the front end wasn't as relevant for me, I was granted some time off in the afternoon on the first day. I felt a little guilty knowing that all of the guys were indoors in meetings while I was enjoying this... (of course, the guilt quickly disappeared!)
That evening was the National Championship College Football game. Our group all watched the game together in a nice suite at the hotel. It was an even more intense and interesting game to watch because one of my co-workers played football for Ohio State back in his college days.
A few photos around the resort I snapped during breaks from our meetings. The pool and landscape were oh-so-tempting!
A group shot at the end of our meeting with a spectacular backdrop!
While most everyone above works out of different offices all over the U.S., I spend at least a couple hours on the phone weekly with these folks. It was nice to meet in person for a change!
More to come on some of my free time after the meeting...
