Here we are sitting in the Phoenix Airport just waiting for our plane to arrive. It’s been a good trip. I’ll post some pictures when we get back. It’s somewhat difficult to do that here in the airport. The weather was nice (90s), we went swimming (Britton went every day), and walked around downtown trying out various restaurants. The conference was pretty good.

There were a few snorers but overall it looks like there is some good work going on in the tobacco free movement across the nation. I went to one session that talked about how the tobacco industry tries to pit health advocates against each other, how they try to play both political parties with their rhetoric and put all the onus on the individual user rather than on the product that they make and market heavily. It was pretty neat to be at the conference when they announced FDA regulation even though that was a controversial “win” because it keeps Philip Morris as the industry leader by a large margin.

Overall, it was a nice trip and I think Britton enjoyed it more than the Minneapolis one in late October 2007. Phoenix is an interesting place. They’ve obviously poured a lot of money into revitalization, but there was virtually no one on the streets even on a Friday night. Compared to Denver it looked like a lost city. A lot of the people that worked there said that without the convention center and the conferences there it would be completely dead. I think they are trying to do some urban renewal. Last night Sara and Koabi came up from Tucson to have dinner with us. Phoenix apparently has a fireworks display every Friday night that the Diamondbacks are in town (more$$$!). It was fun watching them on the deck through the water misters at the restaurant.

UPDATE

We’re back in Colorado, so I thought I’d add a couple of pictures:

With Koabi and Sara in Phoenix -Misters and Fireworks

Palm Trees outside the Hotel

Cool architecture