Visiting the Bluegrass State

I got home from California just in time for Easter. A little more than a week later, I was heading out again to another conference. This one was quite a bit closer to home, however.

Last weekend, I attended the Kentucky Conference on Health Communication (KCHC). The conference was held in Lexington, KY, just 5 blocks from the UK campus. Although Kentucky is only about an 8 hour drive from our home in Durham, another student presenting at the conference and I chose to fly. You would think that with such a short distance the flight would take no time at all. You would almost be right--the part that gets in the way is the plane change.

There are no flights that go direct from the Raleigh-Durham airport to Lexington. Lexington is a smaller airport, so we first had to fly to Charlotte, NC and from there fly to Lexington. The flight from Raleigh to Charlotte was just your average plane and average flight, although we were only in the air for a little more than 25 minutes. The second leg of the trip, which is about an hour in the air, is a slightly smaller plane. Below is a picture I took as we were boarding.

While at the conference I enjoyed hearing presentations on health communication, talking to others who study health communication, and helping present on how searching for pancreatic cancer information increased following Steve Jobs' death. The conference was short (just Friday and Saturday morning), so a friend and I spend Saturday afternoon before our flight out checking out the UK campus. Below is a picture of me outside their museum of art.

Overall, it was a nice trip. It was short, but that was good because it gave me Sunday to get ready for the week. Classes are winding down (one more week!), then it is time to get ready for comprehensive exams and eventually a dissertation. I can't believe how fast these last few years have gone! 

Traveling to the west coast

One of the Willoughbys was not in NC last week. I was out and about, bouncing around between city and suburb in California. I went down for a conference in San Francisco called SexTech and got to spend time sight seeing and catching up with family as well.

SexTech is a conference about youth and using technology to provide youth with sexual health information. Before heading to the city for the conference, I spent some time with family. My parents drove down from Washington, and it was wonderful to spend time with them. I hadn't seen them in a few months!

Then the conference started on Sunday. I had a great time hearing about text messaging programs, mobile video apps and digital comics all geared at helping teens learn about sexual health.

While there, I also got in a little sightseeing. My cousin Sarah joined me in San Francisco because she has a great love of the city.

While there, we ate food from food trucks (delicious!). Sarah had a grilled chicken sandwich and I had Occupy SF Fries, which were french fries covered with pulled pork, tomatoes, sauce, jalapenos, and cheese. They were delicious as well!

I also spent some time exploring in Chinatown. They have some great scarves for some great prices. We even rode on a cable car!

For the most part, we ate a lot of good food. We went to a small Italian place, a cute cafe, a Japanese restaurant (where I ate sushi--I know--crazy) and a Greek bakery, to name a few. We also went up to Top of the Mark, which is on the 19th story of a Nob Hill hotel and has 360 degree views of the city, to have their signature martinis.

Overall, it was a wonderful conference full of excellent information, and it was also a great trip full of lots of great memories.