This week, I'm at the Engineering Educators' conference. The positive -> the San Antonio River Walk; the negative -> another windowless convention center. It took most of a day to fly here from Portland, but I I arrived in time to enjoy some TexMex and a local brew. There's about a 30 degree temperature differential between San Antonio and Portland. For me, it was nice to warm up and get back into summer clothes.
My partner, Sam, and I spent all day Saturday setting up our booth at the conference - lots of electronics which can be temperamental at times. But on Sunday, I got to run around a bit before the Exhibit Hall opened. I got up early to find some breakfast and stumbled upon the Alamo. You can tell it's early, because there are no people in the picture. If I would have taken this is the middle of the afternoon, it would have been packed.
I brought along my paints and did a little sketching. It was really peaceful until people started peeking over my shoulder.
On the way back to the hotel, I passed St Joseph's Catholic Church just in time to join in their weekly Mariachi Mass. The Mariachi band was in the choir loft, so I couldn't get a picture, but they had a guitar, maracas, and a couple trombones - a very lively mass. It was also bilingual - half in Spanish and half in English (everything spoken by the priest was in English, because I have a suspicion that he didn't know Spanish).
