My mom arrived in Nashville on Saturday so she got to see my new apartment and sleep in my brand new guest bed. It was nice to have her here, if only for one day, to see my new digs and know that I’m safe.

We left for Norfolk on Sunday around 4pm and arrived on time around 6:30pm. Got our rental car and drove to Nags Head, NC where my brother had already checked in to our hotel. My mom had found this cute hotel called the “Surf Side Hotel”. Its a beach-front hotel, with 3 pools, and a 2-bedroom suite that faces the ocean. We were only staying for 4 nights, so my mom didn’t want to rent a condo (but let me tell you, if I ever go back, we’re renting a condo or beach house. Those things are AWESOME!).

The room was really cute and comfortable, but there was one unfortunate circumstance we had not anticipated. The fires in NC had driven all the little gnats to the ocean. And the ocean wetness drove all the little gnats into the nearest hotels. So, when we arrived, we noticed a few dead gnats on the tile floors (where there was tile, because the room was mostly carpet). At first it was just a few, but as the night went on, I noticed them on the bedspread, desk, and in the bathroom. By the morning, there were HUNDREDS of dead gnats and many live ones in the room. We called a few other beach-front hotels and they were all having the same problem.

Those of you who know me know I’m not great with bugs. Okay, I really despise the little creatures. But I can deal with them when I am in their territory…you know, hiking, camping, whatever. But when they invade MY safe, clean hotel room and make it unbearable, I cannot stand it. Luckily I wasn’t the only one with qualms, so my mom and brother and I decided to find another place.

My brother’s friends, Sam & Bea, just happened to be staying on Roanoke Island, which is still the “Outer Banks”, but is on the Sound instead of the ocean. His friends confirmed that they were NOT having the gnat problem there, so we went to visit the little inn where they were staying. Located right on the Sound’s edge in the town of Manteo, the Tranquil House Inn is an adorable 4-story inn with single, double, and suite rooms. My mom was really intent on having an ocean view to begin with, so when we were forced to flee to the island, she was glad to see they had a sound-front room available. The room was so pretty and they have a gorgeous deck that looks out over the marina.

We were very pleased with our choice to move to Manteo, even though we were no longer right on the ocean and away from the hustle and bustle of the main drag, still only an 8-minute drive away. Monday and Tuesday were unbearably hot though. We barely did anything those first two days. I went to the beach once with Sam & Bea, but it was just too hot to stay outside very long.

Luckily, Wednesday and Thursday turned out to be gorgeous days, so we took advantage of it by going to the beach and checking out some of the local tourist sites, such as The Elizabethan Gardens, named after Queen Elizabeth I, The Aquarium, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, the oldest and tallest brick lighthouse in the country, and the Wright Brothers’ National Memorial.

We also got to know a few locals and spent our nights at “Poor Richards“, a sandwich shop by day, a hopping locals bar at night. I almost went parasailing, but was told, compared to skydiving, it’s really not that exciting, so I saved my $80 for something else!

All in all, we had a really great time in the Outer Banks. I can see why people fall in love with it and go back year after year. Although next time I’ll probably try to stay on the beach, I highly recommend Manteo for small families or romantic getaways.

The conference was made up mostly of hour-long education sessions, complimented by plenty of time to explore the 850+ exhibitors, which was quite amazing. A few of the keynote speakers were Bill Frist, Tennessee’s own former Senate Majority Leader, Steve Case, Chairman and CEO of Revolution Health, Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO of Google, and Steven D. Levitt, author of FREAKONOMICS. Quite a good group of speakers. Their content was highly applicable to the current healthcare situation in the US and I learned a lot about where we stand as a country, which was a little frightening.

The education sessions were only an hour long and ranged from topics of EMR to Process Improvement to IT infrastructure. So many were going on at once, we only had the chance to see a fraction of the sessions. I generally picked the ones relating to EMRs and was quickly reminded how different Vanderbilt is as far as EMRs go. Its shocking to find out that there are still large health organizations that are just now starting their EMR adventure. Not to mention the fact that Vanderbilt is one of the very, very few institutions that uses a home-grown system. That made it difficult to relate to a bit of the content, but it was still helpful nonetheless.

On top of the daily activities, we had evening events every night sponsored by different vendors/suppliers, which meant we got to go to SeaWorld, Universal Studios, and some of the best restaurants in the city. It was a good way to meet the companies with whom we work and also get to know other customers.

I could really go into some detail about the conference, but since this is my first day back at work, I should probably save the details for later!

I will just mention that we had a great time in Orlando. The weather was nice the first few days, but then it stormed and got pretty cold for the last two days. We stayed in a nice condo with plenty of room for the two of us and had the freedom of a rental car, which wasn’t used too much but still nice to have. I wish we’d had a little more time for site-seeing, but we were there for work after all!

I didn’t know Polar Bears ate carrots and lettuce. I’m pretty sure they don’t have those in the Arctic.

I had reserved a regular 4-door economy car, but they let us upgrade w/o change in cost.

Very nice. I like.

It was a sunny day down at Long Beach’s Rainbow Harbor.