Day 5- The conference begins...

Oh yeah, this is why I am here. So we wake up at our less than desirable hotel and I have to head off to James Cook University for the conference at 8am. The hotel switch was a little tricky given that checkout at the one hotel was at 10am and check in at the other was at 2pm. Rather than have Rachel drag our suitcases on a half an hour walk closer to town, I loaded up all our luggage in the rental car and headed to the University. Rach decided she would leave our hotel at check out and then take a walk to the new place and just hang out at the beach for a few hours. Worked out well, I left at lunch from the conference and we checked into our room about an hour early. A HUGE UPGRADE!!! We are in a corner room 12 floors up directly on the beach. Amazing view and a much better room. The location is key though with restaurants all along the strand, and of course I can hear the waves crashing on the beach as I type this! Nothing much else to report though, since I sat most of the day in a room listening to talks and Rach spend most of her day reading on the beach! I got a pretty good tour of the city on the way back from the hotel though as I tried a new route and missed a turn or two. I have become pretty accustomed to driving on the left side of the road though. I thought it would be much harder, but my brain has seemed to have just made some sort of switch and the only thing I really need to think about still is the signalling- although I was tempted, I didn't hit the windshield wipers once today! We had dinner at a nice steakhouse on the beach and had a great conversation and dinner. Nice to just be able to sit and listen to your wife without continually interruptions... Rach seems to be doing ok away from the boys. I am pretty used to it with all the travelling I do, but Rachel rarely leaves them for this long. We found out that Rachel's great aunt passed away which is interesting because her dad and mom were close to her and so will go to the funeral. They do not know when it will be, but the boys might get to go to a funeral while we are in Australia! Luckily, or perhaps unluckily, this will not be their first- so it won't be that big an issue, but nonetheless we hope it works out that they can drop the boys off at my parents house to avoid having to deal with them! That's all for now. Tomorrow looks to be another uneventful day of conference for me and beach for Rachel!