This has the potential to be a rather long post. I'll do what I can to keep it short ... let's see how I do!
The basic overview. The International Material Handling Conference is held every two years and every other time in the US or abroad. I've attended every one since 1994 and I was part of the 4-person planning committee for the IMHRCs held in 2002 (Portland, Maine), 2004 (Graz, Austria), 2006 (Salt Lake City), 2008 (Dortmund, Germany), and 2010 (Milwaukee). So, as you might guess, this is THE conference that I look forward to every other year. And because I've been so involved, Sue knows many of the participants. So, it's a good one to try and get Sue and the kids to (Sue has been to every one hosted outside the US and this was Grace's third one and Henry's second!), but because it is so jam-packed, they usually leave early or stay late.
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| The Rotunde Fountain: We met here at 7:50a every day (conference) |
The IMHRC this year was held in Gardanne, France, which is in the south of France. We stayed in hotels in Aix-en-Provence (this is where Cézanne is from). It started with a reception on Monday night and concluded with a dinner on Thursday night. Sue and the kids flew in with me on the Saturday before and we had two days before the conference started. They left on Wednesday morning so that the kids would (only) miss three days of school that week. I stayed through the end of the conference on Thursday and then my annual hiking buddy, Brett Peters, and I were joined by research pal, Eric Ballot from a university in Paris, to hike the Alps on the France/Italy border Friday afternoon through Sunday afternoon. Eric caught a train back to Paris on Sunday and Brett and I stayed in Lyon and parted ways Monday morning at the airport. So, as you can tell, there is a lot packed into this trip!
I'll try to hit the highlights ...
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| Grace at the beach! |
Before conference: Henry woke up Sunday morning with a high temperature, a splitting headache, and no appetite. I jumped into a cab to the only pharmacy open on a Sunday morning and got him the French equivalent to Tylenol for children. Sue stayed with him in the morning while I took Grace to the beach in Marseille. It took a while to get there and back (bus to subway, walk a bit to a bus, and then walk more to the beach), but Sue and Grace went out for a late lunch (for Sue) and ice cream while I stayed with Henry. We also had some good fortune in that another guest at the hotel needed a doctor and the folks at the front desk knew about Henry and the doctor came by to confirm that yes, this was just a virus, and yes, the pharmacist recommended the correct course of action. Interesting story: After telling Grace that the lifeguards probably didn't have much to do (I actually said, "probably only one rescue a month."), we saw two children being rescued by adults that weren't the children's parents within half an hour of each other. But like I said, the lifeguards ...
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| Woo Pig Sooie! |
As luck would have it, our big plans for the trip were for Monday and Henry woke up feeling good with a strong appetite and no fever, so we continued with our plans. And what plans they were! As you have no doubt learned by reading our blog entries, Sue always finds the most fun thing to do with kids wherever we travel. And AIX was no exception: going for a hike with a llama! That's right ... we journeyed outside the city a bit to a farm where they have llamas. After about a 1-hour tour of all the other animals (dogs, chickens, ducks, geese -- more on one of these later!, a giant pig, horses, goats, etc.), we received instruction on llamas (don't touch their face or their legs), brushed them to get to know them, and then took them on a short walk around their property. If we would have been up for it, she also takes guests and llamas on extended hikes where the llamas will carry the stuff (but not people).
Anyway, it was such a unique experience and a lot of fun. I was so impressed to see Henry and Grace leading their llamas around the hills over AIX. In fact, when the halters of Grace and Henry's llamas were removed, their llamas were so at peace with them that they just stood there to get more petting.
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| Grace, Henry, Susan and Sue lead their llamas away from the farm. |
When I set up the outing (Sue's about ideas, I'm about execution!), the owner asked if we wanted to bring a picnic or should she provide it. I said the latter. So, when we were done with the llamas, she said to take a dip in the pool (we had brought suits) while she prepared our picnic. We had in mind cheese and break and some wine (we're in France, right?). Anyway, she prepared us a 4-course meal, complete with French foie gras, spreads, salads (course 1), steaks and potatoes (course 2), different French cheeses (including one that was close in taste to Gouda, which I told her the kids love, but she said that she couldn't serve because it's Dutch and not French!) for course 3, and then a local pastry for course 4. Wow, does she need to learn what the word "picnic" means!
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| Group shot! Bill, Susan, Grace, Russ, Henry and Sue |
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| Bill and his girlfriend! |
And one of the things that made this outing even more special is that we shared it with our friends Bill and Susan that have pretty much been our sabbatical counselors this year. They've adopted us and shared the wisdom of their sabbatical in Munich about 10-12 years ago (their son was about 10 at the time) at key points and brought us US treats, etc. So, this outing was a way for us to say thanks. As it turns out, they had as good a time as we had, especially Bill, who attracted the top female goose who clearly thought of herself as a human. They were almost inseparable. I always knew Bill was good with the chicks :-)
Anyway, we highly recommend this if you visit AIX. Here's the info. Marie-Sophie Raud, Aix-en-Llama:
We recommend you call vs. e-mail (she's outside all day and hates the Internet).
The IMHRC is a great conference, but the schedule is grueling (meet at the fountain by 7:50a every morning and return to the hotel around 11:30p or midnight every night). Of course, the evenings were quite enjoyable, with lots of social time and good sites to see.
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| The IMHRC is known for its outings: Russ on the cliffs above Casis. |
In the interest of your time and mine, I'll skip to the post-conference hiking trip. When you hike in the Alps, you hike hut to hut (much like in New Hampshire in the US). Although I missed the camping, I didn't miss the weight of a tent, sleeping bag, stove, lots of food, etc. on my back, I can tell you that. We hiked 4 miles in on Friday afternoon after driving 3 hours to the trailhead. It was an easy hike and we enjoyed a great french lunch.
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| Backpacking ... French style :-) |
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| Nice views, right from the start ... |
When we arrived at the hut, we claimed beds on the bottom level of the bunks, checked dinner time (6:30) and headed out for a 10,000 foot summit 4-5 miles and 4,000 feet of elevation gain away. Well, we didn't make it to the summit, but we cleared 9,000 feet and saw some great terrain and make it back at 6:33 for dinner :-)
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| We were trying to make it up to that peak ... |
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| We almost made it by our turn-around time ... don't ask me what I'm doing ... skiing down the side of the mountain? |
One of the differences between US and European national parks is the use of the parks by animals for grazing. We had a herd of big, beautiful cows grazing pretty close to our hut. One of the advantages, besides hearing their awesome cowbells, is that we had fresh butter and milk. The milk was not homogenized and it had a little cream skim on the top, just perfect for making hot chocolate in the morning!
Eric told Brett and I that Saturday was going to be a "big day." He even wondered if we should get up before sunrise to be ready to go at first light. As it turns out, he was right. We hiked for almost 12 hours! Before the trip we told Eric that Brett and I usually go for 10-15 mile days and 2,500 feet or so of net elevation gain. Well, in Europe they measure trails by time (which sounds bizarre at first, but you soon realize that either system is flawed) and total elevation. So, your classic apples to oranges comparison when he said that this hike was 8 hours and 7,000 feet of elevation. The 8 hours sounded do-able, but the 7,000 feet was way intimidating. But hey, we had light loads and he was sure we could do it. So, we tried.
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| One of our first passes of the day. |
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| Ibex! Most of you know that I'm a big fan of wild goats since my days on Crete in high school :-) |
Well, we must be too old to hike at the speed they think because, as I said, it took us 12 hours (with two lunch breaks of 20 minutes or so each). But that 7,000 feet was A LOT, especially with the heat (and subsequent dehydration). But, on the bright side, another Eric surprise ("hey, do you guys have ice axes for crossing snow fields? No? I'll bring extras.") added a technical aspect to the hike and I can now say that hikes that require ice axes don't intimidate me anymore -- and it would have been nice to have more time to practice "butt skiing" down a glacier using the ice axe as a rudder -- fun! As it was, we arrived well after the 6:30 dinner, but Eric must have used his "slow American hiking partners" to get pity from the hut owners and they still agreed to serve us (hot) food. I cannot tell a lie ... I hit my bunk (the top level, of course, due to our late arrival) at 8:45p with my clothes on, my contacts in and my teeth unbrushed and didn't wake up until my first "bio break" at 11:30p (when I yanked out my dry contacts and brushed my teeth).
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| Not a place you want to be during a white out and/or thunderstorm ... |
Our last day of hiking was just one of those weather days where you are glad that you have options. It rained hard overnight and then sporadically during the morning. When we were a mile or so below the pass we had a decision to make: hike over the (high) pass, risk a white out and possibly hiking through a thunderstorm above tree-line while exposed for a couple of hours or take a lower pass and come out quite a distance from our car (which would require hitchhiking back to our car). We erred on the side of caution and it only took 4 cars for Eric to get a ride to our car. Brett and I found a very small restaurant and enjoyed sitting by a fire and a traditional French dish that was a lot like the best scalloped potatoes I've EVER had while we waited for him to return.
Side note: The road that we traveled to our car is the famous Col du Galibier mountain pass that is part of the Tour de France every year (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Col_du_Galibier). The road was covered with encouraging notes to the riders.
Brett and I dropped Eric at the Lyon train station and he was able to get home a little early and Brett and I had enough time to go to a GREAT French restaurant a wet 10-minute walk from our hotel. (Side note: I chipped my tooth by biting down too hard on my fork. I'm off to get that repaired today.) Both of our flights went off on time on Monday morning (me to Munich and then Graz and Brett to Frankfurt and then Houston). I was greeted at home with hot weather, but also my great and loving and supportive family :-)
Russ
