The Crabby State

I have been in Baltimore, Maryland for the past 5 days for the Annual IBTTA conference (International Bridge Tunnel and Turnpike Association). It has been a fun filled, pack solid event for me. I flew in Sunday and barely had time to check into my room before we had the opening reception at the Baltimore aquarium. Very nice place and such a great event. I liked the aquarium better than the one in Boston. They had great food and of course open bar. :)

Monday officially started off the conference with the first keynote speaker Michael Beschloss, highly regarded presidential historian. His speech was very funny and very interesting. He is an independent so would not give us his preference for the election but he gave us some statistics as to why McCain or Obama could win. After his speech, he gave out signed copies of his latest book. Very cool.

Have you heard of the cake show on Food Network called Ace of Cakes? Well, the place that the show takes place at is called Charm City Cakes and it's in Baltimore. The conference had them make a cake for us.

Monday night was the HNTB client appreciation dinner. Every year this is a big event that fills up with all our tolling clients. This year's event was at the Museum of Visionary Art. What a neat venue. We had just the best food too. I've included some of the pictures that i took of the art. It was also great to get to spend sometime with the CEO of my firm and his wife who is just fabulous. Plus all the great time i had networking with the KS turnpike Board members.

The ball of bras....

Robot family

Tuesday was full of sessions and lots of presentations. Tuesday night we took clients to the Orioles baseball game. It was really fun to see Camden Yards and to collect another mini bat that i do when i go to baseball stadiums.


Wed was the final day of the conference. We had our second keynote speaker, Steven Covey. He is the well know CEO of Franklin Covey (planners, etc...) His talk was about trust which i found very interesting. His book is called the Speed of Trust and i am definitely going to read it. I spent the rest of the day sightseeing around Baltimore. I went to Fort McHenry where the famous battle occurred in 1814 that inspired the Star Spangled Banner poem/song. Very neat history. Also spent some time in Fell's point which is full of shops and lots of Bars. ;) A few of us spent our time in the bars. I liked One Eye Mikes the best. ha ha Its a Grand Mariner bar if you can believe that. Also tried some drinks at Max's Tavern, the Green Turtle, Todd Connor's and B....


Thurs i flew home. So happy to see Mark and Julia. i missed them both so much. Next year's conference is in Chicago. Hope Mark will come with me to this one!! Thanks to Sally for coming to KC to help Mark out and watch Julia for us. We are so appreciative!!