The day started bright and early with a 7am flight departure out of Philadelphia that left on time, got to Salt Lake City about 25 minutes early and the connecting flight landed in Santa Barbara right on time. You’d think an affiliate marekting conference in Santa Barbara would be be crawling with early arrivals since the hotel rate is good tonight but so far there don’t seem to be any familiar faces.
The hotel is just about sold out except for some outrageously expensive suites. CJ is still showing registration is available for CJU 2008 which is unusual since it usually sells out as much as two months before the conference kicks off. You’d think the down economy would boost attendance at a performance marketing conference but maybe budget custbacks are keeping people back home at the office.
In any case, it is beautiful Santa Barbara weather, maybe 70 degrees and sun. The beach is right across the street with some kite surfers taking advantage of the sun and wind. As usual there are tons of sailboats out in the harbor, bikes and a number of variations out on the beach and the sidewalks. The hotel is great as always, definitely one of the best places I’ve stayed over the years.
The Stelers are set to take on the Browns tonight starting in a few minutes so I’ll probably go get dinner and maybe a few beers and watch the game. Tomorow should be AWESOME. Since the conference doesn’t start till Tuesday, tomorrow is a free day and I’ll be doing some horse back riding, going to some wineries (which has never been a big thing for me but it sounds like this might be prety cool) and then out on a sailboat. There is supposed to be some Danish villiage that there will be time to go through and misc other sights to see. The tour will be with Captain Jacks Santa Barabara Adventure Tours and the specific tour will be the “Captain Jacks Top Deck Tour” that should provide a pretty good sampling of a nice chunk of the cool stuff to do around here. Since CJU doesn’t really get going till the welcome reception on Tuesday at 6pm, I may line up some other adventure stuff on Tuesday as well, maybe head out the Channel Islands for a little kayaking. Well, it looks like the Steeler game is starting so it’s time to sign off and go watch the game. Tomorrow should be an awesome day.
