Trip to Omaha (and more)

Really long post here, but just to get caught up on everything. First things first.

My trip to the Weather Analysis and Forecasting/Numerical Weather Prediction Conference began with a relatively early flight on Sunday so I could travel with Jim, Trevor, Matt, and Greg. Of course with Frontier's seating rules, we couldn't sit near each other, but they were short flights. I thought overall it was a worse flying experience than Delta, except for cheap fares and comfy seats. We got into Omaha by mid-afternoon, which allowed for time to settle in and a quick nap. Ironically, we ended up on the same hotel shuttle as Carolyn (my thesis committee member from Monterey). I went out to dinner with the Utah people, and then afterward we walked along the Missouri River. There was a little carnival set up, and we learned they had just opened a new plaza at the base of the almost-new pedestrian bridge across the river. While strolling, we had a nice view of a towering severe storm to our south. We walked far enough to say we went to Iowa, and then turned in for the night as the sun was setting.

Monday was the first day of the conference and nothing eventful happened. We decided to come back to the hotel after dinner since it began raining and a squall line was threatening (although it never quite made it to Omaha).

Tuesday morning was an adventure. Levi (my office-mate and roomie for the conference) is Mormon, and there was a Mormon historical site and museum (where they spent a winter while traveling west) in Omaha he wanted to see. Since the morning's talks consisted of modeling updates, I agreed to go. I always hate going to conferences and the only thing you see is the hotel and airport. While there was nothing exciting about the museum, there was an old-fashioned diner (Harold's) next to the bus stop where we ate lunch. It reminded me of something from home (not to mention the tree-covered hill we walked down to get to it)! The waitress was sweet, and the food was homemade and awesome (I had chili, cornbread, and lemon meringue pie)! But here's the cool part: we randomly sat in the booth where Jack Nicholson sat in a scene for the movie "About Schmidt"! They had posted a small plaque commemorating the movie shoot. I took a picture of the plaque but unfortunately didn't think to take one of the booth itself.

Tuesday evening was the AMS-organized trip to see the Omaha Royals-Round Rock Express baseball game. This is the stadium where the college world series is played. They rented a limo/party bus for us, which seemed like a waste of money for the short distance, but maybe that's all that was available. The stadium was virtually empty. Not many students went, both teams were pretty terrible, and Omaha lost 3-2 in 10 innings.

Wednesday was another typical day. Dr. Lackmann from NC State gave a presentation, and it brought back so many memories of undergrad! There was an organized student dinner that night. However, I was hanging out with the NC State people, who only chose to go and stay for a short time. We then went to another restaurant for a sort of NC State alumni dinner. The only person I was really friends with was Adam, who graduated with me and is still in grad school there.

I had my presentations on Thursday, but not until late afternoon. The poster went OK; only a hand full of people showed interest. The presentation wasn't terrible, but it wasn't excellent either. I only left time for one question, and it wasn't mean. Feedback was mostly positive. That evening I finally felt like I could relax and went out on the town with a group of students from various schools. Omaha has the "Old Market" area, which is a revitalized area with numerous restaurants, bars, and shopping. It was just a 10+ minute walk from the hotel, with not much in between (Omaha is a small city after all).

Friday morning was split between a few talks and getting ready to leave. Dan, Levi, and I had the same flight back. Once we got to Denver, we discovered our flight was delayed just over an hour. We already had a 2h15m layover. So I did a lot of reading, walking around, and watching planes and clouds (a tornado watch was in effect one county north!) since my laptop battery died and my charger was packed. I hear there is some sort of shopping mall there, but its location wasn't advertised that I could see. I sat down in a dead gate area to eat supper, and a pilot nearby saw my NC State shirt and said he went there too and was from Raleigh! After another short delay getting our plane into the gate, we were on board. But then we sat on the taxiway for a while. The pilot finally announced there were storms nearby that had delayed takeoffs, and we were somewhere between 15 and 30 in line! Like in any good traffic jam, we pulled a u-turn and went to another runway. After a little more waiting, we were finally in the air for a bumpy ascent. We made it back to SLC almost 2 hours late, but I was still in time to attend a friend's birthday party.

Omaha was nice, not nearly as bad as some made it out to be. It definitely reminded me of home more than SLC does. The weather was great, especially Wed/Thu, although I wished there would have been some big storms. The Doubtletree Hotel and conference center seemed subpar compared to previous experience. It wasn't really a dump, it just seemed like nothing had been updated since the 80's. The conference itself wasn't too bad, with a number of good talks. Overall, a very nice trip, and pictures have been posted.

***************************

The internship with the National Weather Service has started. I am working with the scientific services division, which basically does research and development to help improve operations at the forecast offices. Right now they're working on some verification projects involving precipitation forecasts, which I have started processing some data for.

Our clunky old dryer finally died. The landlord said he wouldn't replace it because he doesn't plan to rent after we move out. Luckily we found a nice used one on Craigslist, and the person actually delivered it!

The weather pattern the past week has been unusually cool, moist, and unstable. We have had thunderstorms almost every afternoon, and east-coast-style ones at that! Thursday morning was interesting in that a rotation formed in the cloud base (mini wall cloud?) right over the university! I never imagined that I would be able to witness something like that in Utah! See pictures of that (and a nice double rainbow) in the weather section of Webshots (up to pages 9-10 now).