Work Trip to Anaheim

I left for Anaheim on Sunday and I'm finally going home tomorrow.  This was my first time coming to the Newborn Screening Symposium, so a lot of the topics were a little over my head because they were more technical.  The best session was one where the parents and patients that were saved/affected by newborn screening shared their stories.  I think it was a good way to reinforce to the meeting attendees that what they do matters and saves lives.  My purpose in going to the meeting was to present a poster with my boss.

On Wednesday night, one of the vendors and corporate partners rented out a club and held a Halloween party.  I was very impressed that many of the meeting attendees came prepared with costumes.  The hosts dressed up as superheros: The Flash, the Hulk, Catwoman, Robin, Green Lantern, etc.  I brought Julie's shark costume for this event.

The meeting ended at noon today and by 12:15 PM, my boss and I were on the hotel shuttle to Disneyland.  Yay, finally!  We decided to do Space Mountain first because the 2 other coworkers that were coming later were busy packing up after the meeting and didn't seem interested in Space Mountain anyway.  We were about 20 people away from the ride and then an announcement came on to say that it was temporarily closed.  We waited it out and about 15 minutes later, it was back on.  Wow, that was an intense ride.  You couldn't even see me in the post-ride photo because I was crouched behind the guy in front of me, holding onto the bar for dear life.  After we met up with our coworkers, we did several more rides until the park closed: Indiana Jones (this was my favorite ride of the day), Winnie the Pooh (second favorite ride), The Haunted Mansion, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters (third favorite ride), Star Tours, Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, and Pirates of the Carribean.  We ended with Peter Pan, which was very similar to the ride at Disney World.

After Peter Pan, Ben and I went shopping and my boss and Ben's boss went to get one more ride in (Thunder Mountain).  I got a Disneyland magnet and 2 Stitch pins.  We headed out around 8:30 and then went to Red Robin for dinner.  Whew, what a busy day!  Glad to be going home tomorrow :)

Haunted Mansion

Me and my coworker, Ben