Yup Atlanta that is. Last weekend was #SQLSAT220 or #SQLSATATL.
Atlanta is a 4 hour drive from here so we were hopeful in getting their early in the evening. But much like every trip nothing starts out on time (KLT’s fault I am sure) and the drive took a bit longer as we hit crummy traffic. We ate a nice big steak lunch, while I know that seems like a lot the plan was we’d not eat dinner and it is kind of a tradition to eat a steak meal before leaving on a trip if departure time permits. We borrowed my neighbors GIANT vehicle (Infinity QX56), man that is like riding around on a couch.
So we arrive on Thursday and promptly head to the L-Store. I really love the price of stuff in Atlanta. We did end up having to grab a bite to eat. But mostly it was a quiet evening in our hotel.
Friday we went to Webb Bridge Park and walk a little over a mile to look at trees. It’s funny but the best part of the walk was the pond. We walked up on it and were quickly faced with a school of Blue Gill and turtles, once we started counting turtles it went 2,4,5,9! Kerry said “Hey they are staring at us” and I replied “I bet they are waiting on food, Pavlov at his best”. Of course we had to test this theory – we walked 5 feet away and watched them all swim towards us and park facing us. For fun we walked back.
So once that was over we decided to stop by their mall for a quick peek. WOW! The first store had a person playing the piano. Nothing special unless you are a little girl, that mall has an American Girl Store and Café. RIGHT! That explains the pink line at our hotel. Back to the hotel to grab Kris so we can grab a bite for lunch. At the recommendation of others we went to The Varsity. Interesting little burger joint but the best part is the spending time with great friends. Later we were all headed back into the hotel, including everyone who had pre-con sessions. Oh how seeing #sqlfamily makes you feel good. We all headed out to the speaker dinner that was held at Bahamas Breeze. I hope that everyone there understands that the problems we encountered were not the fault of the planning group. We had issues and they were just about to the point of causing us to pack up and head out to buy our own dinner. We had service issues and it was clear that no one was listening to the group of people who had organized this event. I felt bad for them. Having served my time as a waitress I understand how things can go poorly so quickly. We return to the hotel to sit in the hotel bar and enjoy each others company. Something amazing happens when you get a group of like minded people together. I have to say the Marriott in Alpharetta is pretty awesome, full bar, food and Starbucks Coffee.
Saturday, finally the main event. They have such a lovely venue, Georgia State University – Alpharetta. If you haven’t switched to speed pass you should do so now, especially if you are hosting an event of this size. That is all. I spent a fair amount of time, OK all of it at the PASS both. I love talking to people and telling them that Summit is coming do you have the discount code from your group? It’s so much fun. My session went really well it was the first time for a full house. There were a few people who asked a lot of questions but I felt like it was a good thing as they were learning. It is so hard to gauge what works and what doesn’t. It always surprises me that session comments will contain exact opposite feed back. I am never sure what to do? How do you decide what is a “yeah I should have done that” and what is a “did you read the abstract”. It’s difficult and I hope that one day I will be way better at judging these things. But it does make me think harder and write more when I am leaving feedback for someone.
Saturday night we all headed over to Alpha Soda for the after party. What a cute little diner place. The appetizers were flowing and the conversations were never ending as well. A group of us decided to make some dinner reservations and head out for a nice sit down. Reservations were made by Joey for 6 at Cabernet. WOW! OMG! and WOW! So I might have felt a little under dressed but once we sat down who can see your pants. 4 of us ordered their fixed course menu with wine flights and the other 2 ordered off the menu. I have to say it was probably one of the best meals and service I have had in a while. YUM! YUM! YUM! Back to the hotel for hanging out in the Lobby and Lobby Bar. What a great time we had; card games, talking to strangers, making strangers play card games and chatting up the bar tender all evening (he has to do all the serving food orders and coffee). We even met a small group of service men that were there for a funeral. They were nice guys and we bought them a bucket of beers!
Sunday is our 2nd annual trip to Ikea. We leave with shopping list in hand only to find ourselves sitting on the interstate waiting on POTUS to travel by, he was headed to a graduation to speak. It was funny because we could see by the reactions of those around us that no one really new why we were stopped. Remember that giant car we borrowed well that means we were tall enough to see the police cars ahead and we had heard on the news it was coming. Seriously folks were trying to drive on the shoulder to get by. After sitting for about 20 min we were back on the road. Oh Ikea what a tangled web you are to navigate. 3 hours and $500 later we are back in the car and headed home. Finally after getting home and dumping the luggage and etc. on the floor I start cooking Sunday dinner, yes more steaks! That makes Thurs, Fri, Sat and Sunday steaks. I might need a by-pass soon.
All in all it was a great weekend, we loved hanging out with our #sqlfamily and love having that opportunity to pay it forward.
P.S. I don’t want to mention names in my post, I don’t want to accidentally forget someone and possibly hurt someone’s feelings. I love everyone and had a wonderful time!
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