June 20, Tuesday, CST
First day of the conference. I always enjoy these types of things, but I never come to them. The view from the room was nice during the day too.
Went down to registration at 7a, and then met up with my friend Amit for breakfast. We ate at the ridiculously priced breakfast buffet from the hotel. The conference did provide breakfast, but not until 8a. And I was famished. However, based on the price I definitely won’t be doing this again tomorrow.
Went to the opening keynote, and heard from the CTO of the City of Chicago on how they use MongoDB on restaurant inspections and mosquito traps. Probably the best talk I’ve heard.
We broke out into sessions for the day, had lunch, and then more sessions in the afternoon. Some good; some not. In the evening there was an “after party” at a converted auto factory for attendees. They clearly knew their target audience: there were classic 80’s arcade games, huge Jenga tables, and a ping pong tournament. And one guy getting very animated over Whack-A-Mole.
And a few food stations, one of which had prime rib. (I love prime rib).
After that, back to the room for the night. Meanwhile, the girls spent their day taking the truck to have the power steering leak fixed and an oil change, and cleaning the inside of the rig. The inside had been needing it.
June 21, Wednesday, CST
Day 2 was more of the same. Although this morning we had breakfast via the conference (which was just as good, IMHO). At lunchtime, Amit and I took a walk out on the streets of Chicago.
After the conference wrapped up they had a craft beer tasting, which was interesting.
After that, I took a walk down the street to grab a more reasonably priced dinner. I stopped at Eataly, Chicago (fabulous, BTW), and then Shake Shake for dinner. Beautiful architecture in Chicago. I can’t wait to come back with the family at some point.
Back to the room where I had a bit of work to do. Amit flew out this evening, and I was flying out tomorrow. But I did see some fireworks out the hotel room window tonight.
The girls spent the day cleaning (some more) and swimming.
Milewski Road Trip 