Work Trips 2012 - a recap

I tend to travel a lot for work, at least I have the past few years. This year I thought that would come to an end, due to budget cuts. But then several trips (all but one below) came up unexpectedly.

First Trip - August - trip to Puerto Rico to conduct an audit

View from my hotel room:

A walk on the beach:

 Interesting cemetery near the beach:

Beautiful sunset:

And of course I had to visit my creepy stuffed friends in Old San Juan:

Second Trip - August - Not too far away...but I was able to attend a local conference in Ocean City, MD.  It was fun to see former co-workers and friends from the local AWWA section.

View from my hotel room...not as nice as PR, but the sunrise was pretty:

My former boss won the big AWWA award at the conference (pictured here with wife and daughter). He's the one who introduced me to AWWA...which lead to my involvement with Water For People:

After the conference, I spent an afternoon at Assateague State Park before heading home.  Even though I sat close to the giant pile of horse poo...

...two families with 3 kids each still set up camp directly in front of me! Blocking my nice view of the ocean:

But I still had a good view of the horses as they started walking down the beach:

First group that approached:

Then there were two:

Posing for the camera:

It was fun, until a third herd approached and bullied the other two further down the beach:

But then they gave the inconsiderate people in front of me a little scare - heehee:

Third Trip - September - Region 2 Office NYC

Continuing with the theme of pictures out my hotel window:

But I also had a view of the new World Trade Tower:

I met a friend for lunch who works at a school in Chinatown:

Courthouse...look familiar anyone? (bom bom)

View from the Region 2 Office...pretty amazing:

Fourth Trip - October - Region 6 Office Dallas

View from my hotel room, at night, because it was not too exciting otherwise:

Region 6 Office:

My hotel:

Downtown Dallas, view from City Hall:

City Hall was quite an interesting building:

I stumbled upon a cemetery on my walk around downtown...and of course had to go looking for dead generals...but only found Mayors of Dallas:

Close, but not quite:

A sculpture downtown:

Union Station (for my collection of Union Stations across the nation):

Cannot go to Dallas without visiting Dealy Plaza:

Dallas at sunset:

Fifth Trip - November - New Orleans (and I thought the Federal Govt was not supposed to have conferences in the Big Easy...oh, I see, if an outside organization hosts, then it is okay...)

It was rainy the first day, view from my hotel room:

But the sun finally came out (even though it was super cold and windy the rest of the time)...the Mighty Mississippi:

The French Quarter (from the roof of my hotel):

Street view:

Cute (and maybe even affordable?) houses in the Garden District:

(okay, this one probably is not affordable)

Cemetery at sunset (cemeteries seemed to be a theme of work trips this year...):

 And in case we thought we walked by somewhere important:

Lastly, only in a CVS in New Orleans (notice one full aisle is dedicated just to red wine):