Work Travel | In Retrospect

On returning from vacation I worked, and rested, for a few days and then I scurried off to Baltimore. It seems I go yearly now for a conference. Sometimes the conference is in May, sometimes it is in June, this year it was June 2 through 4.

So what can I say. When I first moved to Virginia, 30 years ago this week, Baltimore was for me a day trip destination. I traveled up there several times with friends to go to concerts, explore the Inner Harbor, see the Fourth of July fireworks, or to, well, visit friends. And I saw several baseball games there before baseball returned to Washington the year of my 33rd birthday. Eventually it waned in importance until for two years I dated a native Baltimorean during what we will call my “early divorcee” period. To a large degree I know Baltimore. And the Inner Harbor isn’t it.

Baltimore has its own hometown brands such as Under Armour, seen above from Fells Point along the water on an early morning run. There’s also a big Domino’s Sugar warehouse with a big light up sign. For years it was a finance capital as well.

All these tall buildings in the center are what was the financial center of Baltimore.

But now this is it – over there across the water.

When I’m in Baltimore I still try to get out a bit. Sometimes in the company of others –

This example, to The Choptank in the historic Broadway Market building in Fells Point.

But sometimes alone, as was the case last year when I escaped for dinner at a rooftop bar by myself. I didn’t find photo evidence of that this time though.

This year the first night I had dinner at Be More Thai the first night with my boss. I thought he wanted to talk about work and long range planning, or perhaps what happens when he decides to go and become a farmer. Instead, he just wanted a quiet meal. As you can see I had the very large rockfish. He had vegetarian fried rice. Now a month later he’s the one who has had a heart attack and not me of course. He’s fine now, don’t worry, none of us thought he was the type that would scare us this way!

My second day in Baltimore this year was LONG. But first, Coffee.

I visited Ceremony Coffee in the historic Cross Street Market. I knew they roasted good beans; they were the coffee served at my coffee shop of choice in my previous job, before Covid and before I became disillusioned and left. After coffee I took a 45 minute stroll along the water front. And then spent 7 hours on the convention floor. And then a series of happy hours.

Our first was at Blackwell & Hitch sponsored by one of our business partners.

This was followed by casino night and old fashioneds. Then when casino night ended, we decided to storm the pirate ship, as I put it. My former company was sponsoring an event on a tall ship. I believe it was the Pride of Baltimore (II, if you’re keeping track), but to be honest I really wasn’t paying attention.

Coincidentally the same ship sailed to New York to take part in today’s Tall Ship Parade for the 250th Anniversary of Independence. Anyway, our group had a good time on the ship. I actually saw my old boss and had a pretty detailed conversation on the benefits of graduate education in business.

Anyway, eventually they kicked us off the ship (threw us into the harbor so to speak), so we left for a pub (if you’re keeping track, we left the conference at 4pm and it was now 10pm). I have photos from the pub but I’m not sharing.

My Oura ring tells me I walked back to the hotel after midnight.

June 4 (Day 3 if you’re keeping track) started bright and early. And I found another coffee shop.

This was cool because it was a barber shop in a cafe.

See the barber pole? Anyway, I won a 10% discount off my next drink there by choosing the correct color.

That was Baltimore for this time around. Again, I’ve spent a fair amount of time there. I’ve run 5k races, 10k races, and I ran from Towson straight down the spine of Charles Street in the Charles Street 12 mile race. I’ve been in a mosh pit in the football stadium as The Offspring were on stage. I’ve been to art museums; I’ve cheered as the Orioles won. And, most importantly, I’ve had someone call me “Hon.”

I spent most of last week in Las Vegas – all expenses paid. Well, most. I did spend a fair amount of gambling money. Was it worth it? It was fun.

I’ve been to Las Vegas seven times if you include the time (pictured above) I spent about 40 minutes there due to a canceled flight and a four hop flight across the United States on Southwest Airlines. Once for a wedding, once for a meeting, another time for a conference, twice with my ex-wife (once with friends from home and once with friends from the UK), and now a final time for another conference. The other six visits were more than 20 years ago. I’ve stayed in old Las Vegas (downtown, on Fremont Street), at Caesar’s (1980’s Las Vegas), off the strip at a generic hotel, and twice at the Luxor. This time I stayed at Mandalay Bay.

The Luxor is one of the first things you see when you land and leave the airport in Las Vegas. When it was brand new it was clean and shiny. Now it’s kind of dusty, but strangely inside it is clean and new, or at least new-ish. I spent a fair amount of time here as I was staying next door at Mandalay Bay and I felt it better to not be gambling in front of my colleagues.

This is a view of where I stayed – Mandalay Bay. I was actually here for a conference. Mandalay Bay has a fairly large conference center attached which is about 15 minutes walk (I should know, I did this walk about five times a day for five days) from the hotel tower.

I also did a fair amount of walking and running while in Vegas. I averaged about 16,000 steps a day last week including the weekends.

My view from the hotel included part of the airport and the Las Vegas Strip heading south. To the right, barely off camera, is this:

Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada! Found on my morning run. Some people told me I would not enjoy running in Las Vegas as there are homeless people around, but on my inspection there was less hassle than running at home especially running south in this direction. I took the photo above just at sunrise on my first morning in Vegas. Two days later I ran to the north.

Heading north from Mandalay Bay two miles takes you to Caesar’s Palace, past Paris and The Bellagio and much of that madness. Compared to 25 years ago development is much more dense on the central part of the strip. The area around Excalibur, The Luxor, and Mandalay Bay feels to be practically abandoned in comparison.

There have always been wide pedestrian walkways along Las Vegas Boulevard but now there is street level development in front of most of the hotels where in the past there were open areas. This doesn’t mean you can pull over on the street – the street in most places has a barrier between it and the walkway. You walk perhaps half a mile between major intersections and for most of them you take an escalator to cross above street level. In the old days they still had many of these escalators but now there seem to be double as many and you simply cannot get to the street if you desire to cross at street level instead. This appears to be done for the purpose of reducing traffic queues. It also helps you, if you’re up at 7a.m., get extra fitness in by running up and down the stairs in addition to running on the street.

The ironic thing is the night before – about six hours before actually – I walked 40 minutes from the Bellagio to Mandalay Bay but then decided I needed to head out for more exercise!

The Bellagio fountains, as seen in Ocean’s Eleven, were beautiful as always.

Beautifully lit up at night.

Walking past the Luxor we thought we saw bats.

On closer inspection we did!

Or maybe they were giant pieces of confetti? We have videos so I’m certain they are bats.

We had some social time while in Vegas in addition to the conference. We actually had been at The Bellagio to see Cirque du Soleil’s “O” show.

The theater at The Bellagio is massive and deep as well. The stage itself opens up to a large pool where the acrobats and dancers continually launch themselves over the course of the 100 minutes show. There are trapezes, huge swings, a boat which floats in the water, and water platforms.

In addition to this, on the last night of the conference the sponsors hired The Goo Goo Dolls to put on a performance!

The Goo Goo Dolls put on an amazing show.

So, about the travels.

I flew out Monday morning at 7am to make the most of my week. This means I woke up at 4:15am. I had lounge access at Reagan National Airport – a choice of two lounges really but I visited the same Centurion lounge we visited back on January 6 for Antarctica. I had used points to upgrade my employer-paid flight to domestic first class so I would arrive fairly fresh – and this worked as I had a full meal, good movies, and a relatively comfortable flight. My baggage did indeed come out first but it didn’t come out until maybe 45 minutes after I landed.

I checked into the hotel at 10am as they had a room ready for me and I was able to unpack and do some conference calls. This reminds me – I have to expense the early check-in (yes, there was a charge).

I had what I think is called a “Dream Room” at Mandalay Bay – more than comfortable enough for two people to spend several days but I was alone.

I did not get a chance to use the large soaking tub. I wouldn’t have skipped it if it had a whirlpool!

Then I had some free time before my co-workers and business partners all showed up so I took a lengthy walk. I planned this in advance because I figured I’d be juggling conference, free time, and my day job and fitness all week.

My walk that day took me as far as Aria. As this is an MGM hotel (along with MGM Grand, The Luxor, and Mandalay Bay, and a handful of others) I went inside and played blackjack poorly for a while. I would have loved to explore the property more but at that point I needed to head back.

At this point my schedule for the next few days started to be dominated by work. Some of the work was fun – we had a few good meals with our sponsor for instance, one being Mexican and one being sushi, and we had an excellent happy hour where we had three shot bourbon pours! Half of my daytime hours were spent working with my team back home, though. And Thursday before the concert? I took a family therapy call with my 9th grader via Zoom on the lawn outside the conference center!

All in all it was a nice break even though half my hours were work. On the way home, again, I was upgraded, and this time I tried out the Priority Plus lounge at the airport. So far I prefer American Airlines’ Admirals Club lounges the most, but I don’t have access to them except when traveling internationally AND upgraded.

I had the opportunity to look for lounges at St. Louis as well when our flight diverted due to an air traffic control outage.

I also had the opportunity to try out Bandana’s Barbeque when we spent the night in St. Louis. For the record there are better hotels than the Airport Marriott in St. Louis.

I’m happy to be back home where the dog is though. It will be good to be home for a couple of months now.

Next up? Buffalo strangely enough! In two months!

Things I have done in Baltimore

The marvelous world of business travel to Las Vegas!