Immediately after a weekend of Key-razy fun with the gals down in the Florida Keys, I headed up to Ft. Lauderdale for the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS). This was one of the largest conferences I have ever attended and there were scientists, natural resource managers, and policy-makers from all over the world crawling all over the Ft. Lauderdale Convention Center. About 2,500 of us filled the entire convention center with presentations and posters. There were many good talks given, and it was difficult picking out which ones to attend. I don't know how the organizers coordinated the scheduling of over 10 concurrent topic sessions! I definitely filled my brain with plenty of new knowledge and I felt the squeeze of all that information overload by Friday afternoon...
Not only did the conference enlighten me, I also got to visit with friends from my graduate school days in Miami. And oh, how I missed all you guys!! We had an alumni get-together at Southport Raw Bar, where the beer runneth over and mini key lime pies were delicious. The next night, we had more fun together at the exceptionally tasty vegan restaurant, Sublime. I'm all about the Sublime Picatta, which comes with grilled asparagus, olive oil whipped mashed potatoes, and lemon caper sauce. I'm usually sold on an entree when I see the word "capers." I love those tasty, salty little things!!
Thursday night was the closing banquet for the conference, which is another way of saying "PAAAAAARTY!!!" Charles Darwin even made an appearance, making it an official nerd-fest. No worries, I just got myself another frozen rum runner to make myself feel less nerd-a-rific. Seriously, people....DARWIN??? I would bet that man wasn't even cool when he was alive....
After the plenary session, morning talks, and lunch on Friday, I flew the coop for Syracuse, my entry point to an all-too-short vacation on the St. Lawrence River with family and good friends. Say good-bye to new coral reef science, Darwin (UGH!), and say hello to vegetating...again!
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Trip Stats:
"Free" schwag (= AWESOME): Metal (reusable) water bottle, canvas briefcase, reusable grocery bag, 18 month calendar of coral
Number of times I nodded off during a session: I would NEVER! (....at least 3 times)
Cups of coffee for the week: clearly not enough (see above)
Number of times no one recognized me: At least 5 (I'm still not wearing my name tag around my neck, people)
Number of times I got hit on by a room service waiter: 1 (No, I don't have a saltwater aquarium, Dude)
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