I’ve been in San Diego this week for the Consumer Electronics Association Technology and Standards Forum. It’s a pretty nice place and the meeting turned out to be very successful.
The trip got off to a less than stellar start when I arrived at O’Hare and found the main parking lot was full. I had to head around to the economy lot and catch a shuttle bus and train to get to the United terminal, whereupon I found I was too late to check in for my 12:20pm flight. After about 20 frustrating minutes on a courtesy phone talking to a completely incompetent United agent I managed to get rebooked on a mid-afternoon flight. I eventually got to San Diego about 5:30pm and found my way to the Holiday Inn in National City. Although a pretty old hotel in a fairly scungy part of town, the staff were good and my room service dinner of ribs and apple pie was outstanding.
The meeting the next day was at the far more salubrious (and expensive) Hotel Del Coronado about 15 minutes away across the Coronado Bridge on the other side of San Diego Bay. The last CEA meeting I went to was also at Coronado, although on that occassion I stayed at Chula Vista and drove to Coronado around the southern end of the Bay. However, when I got to the meeting I was a little confused by the fact that the surroundings seemed completely unfamiliar, making me think I was suffering a bout of memory failure. Fortunately in conversation over lunch one of the other guys pointed out to me that the last meeting was actually at another hotel a few miles down the road.
Here are a few photos I took during the trip -
The Hotel Del Coronado -
The Coronado Bridge from my hotel room in National City, the I-5 on-ramp in the foreground -
A couple of shots looking west towards the Naval Base from my hotel room -
