Covid put the kibosh on travel plans for a year+ and this was the first jaunt I took in several months. 

Fully vaccinated, I went to Tampa for a couple days. Plan was to see a baseball game, hit up a museum or two, and do the boardwalk along the beach. Tropicana Field was still doing seating by pods and there were no single tickets available for when I was there so I ended up buying two tickets to get in. With the Baseball Trip not happening this year, I figured it was still cheaper than it would have otherwise been. 

However, it seems only one side of Tampa Bay has beach access and I was on the other side. Wasn't walking distance and I didn't want to Lyft over for a couple of hours and have no "base" so I decided I'd hang out on my side of town. Dali museum was near my hotel, but tickets were sold out for my availability. Not great planning on my part! No beach, no museum. 

Still, I walked about, saw some Chihuly, and generally relaxed. I wanted to read in the sand and that didn't happen, but I did sit in the wind and read next to the pool and enjoyed some peace. 

Random Edit: I recalled something mildly interesting, extremely mild. I took Lyft between the airport and my hotel and had two dramatically different experiences:

• Airport -> Hotel: I was picked up, the driver was masked up, and he said not one word the entire trip; it was perfectly pleasant!
  
• Hotel -> Airport: I was picked up, but the driver had no mask. She also had three kids, all boys, all of whom she home schooled, which was more difficult after the divorce, but she felt was important they had a foundation of faith. Two of the boys went away to college, one to play baseball, but he decided to return home amidst Covid. She likes her Skyline "all the way," runs at least four mornings a week, and has very strong opinions about quality ice cream. Also, perfectly pleasant, but should have been wearing a mask. 

Baltimore! I believe this was the fourth NCTE I've attended. Atlanta, Kansas City, Austin, and now Baltimore. My view is pretty much as long as I'm teaching English I'll make attending NCTE a priority. I know everyone doesn't have that ability, but it's been by far the most beneficial conference related to ELA I've attended. 

The information is great, but the people are gold. To meet people you've only interacted with on Twitter -to put a personality to a tweet- and have a chance to learn from and with them and then go out to eat, it's one of the highlights I look forward to every year. As I'm writing this the NCTE conference for 2020 in Denver has already been canceled due to Covid. 

I'm supposed to be in Australia right now after having finished presenting at an international conference and NCTE being canceled stings a little more. 

It's difficult describing what a conference experience is like if you haven't experienced similar. Imagine knowing a code and having this insider knowledge. Most days, in most spaces, there are only a few of you that know the code / all the inwords. But, then you go to a place with thousands of people and everyone knows the code and you start with this shared knowledge and understanding that you don't often get. That's what it's like!

I was a cheerleader in undergrad and trying to explain to my friends that weren't cheerleaders what we did at practice was confusing on the best of days unless we all stood up and I physically showed them. But during Nationals when everyone for 1.5 miles was a cheerleader or dancer, groups could form on the beach and throw basket tosses mixing and matching because everyone knew the routine. 

NCTE is being surrounded by thousands of people just like you and still being seen. To some extent. They aren't perfect, but they are good. 

​So good that I made a friend that came from (I want to say...) Palau to attend. Do you know how far that is from Baltimore?! If you flew from Baltimore to Hawai'i I believe you'd be about halfway. Listened to George Takei welcome us then went out for steak.
 
I don’t remember exactly what it was…. bone in ribeye maybe? With crab meat on top. And a bunch of other stuff. It was the recommendation of our wonderful server. And I probably ate more steak in that setting than I’d eaten up until then in life.

​I won’t try to recount every impactful moment, but in reviewing pictures it was somewhat surreal to see my professor’s name cited in a session I attended. My friend Marvell lives in Baltimore and it's always great to spend time with him. Don't get to hang out nearly as much as I'd like, but it feels good to catch up and decompress a bit. 

That's San Francisco, right? I'm going with yes. The 2019 baseball trip brought Mike and I to San Francisco! 

It was my first time in California and the farthest west I've been since a trip to Reno when I was a cheerleader during undergrad. We watched some baseball, walked around a great city, played trivia, met up with my friend from high school, and watched more baseball in Oakland. That's a tale of two cities - Oakland and SF. 

Trip highlight was probably walking the Golden Gate Bridge and making our way down to the water. It was peaceful, beautiful, and encompassing. I enjoy traveling and have a long list of countries I want to visit, but we have absolutely stunning sights all across this country and I'm glad the baseball trips give me a reason to explore some of them. 

Knocking off these two (Oakland needs a new stadium badly) I have 6 more: NY Yankee, Tampa, Seattle, San Diego, and both LAs. I think Seattle should come with a trip up to Alaska cause why not and it's my goal to have Dodger Stadium be the last one since they had the audacity to leave NY. 

I'm trying to chronicle my travels, but you know... life. 

Typing during the second week of July 2020 about the first week of June 2019. I went to the IDEAS Conference in St. Simons, Georgia and presented the last day about Thinking Maps. Previous to that, I attended workshops on fingerspelling and Foundations of Literacy. 

Long days, but I saw my first Tesla closeup in the wild, had Brunswick stew for the first time, and met a friend that came up from Jax for sushi. I believe I went to the same sushi place seven years ago.