After all the travel in May it was nice to be back to a more normal level of travel for June.  My timing for my trips could not have been better planned, as I was home for some key events.  One key family milestone event I was glad to share was my son Adam’s fourth grade end of the year class party.  When I mentioned to his teacher that I would be happy to help the Room Mom, she explained that they no longer had a room mom and that so far no one had come forward to help with the class party.   So I ended up volunteering as Room Dad.  Although I’ve planned professional meetings and conferences over the years, I have to say I was more nervous to get it right for this event which was my first time being in charge of a class party.  But it turned out to be great fun.  The kids were very happy with my day-glow spin art project; that plus a few rounds of Freeze Dance and the signing of autograph books took up most of the time.  After serving 22 4^th graders ice cream and a snack, I was very happy to return to my “easy”  job of running a hotel training company operating 24/7, not to mention ready to vote for an across the board increase in teacher pay!  Adam was very pleased that his Dad was in charge and it made it all worthwhile.  Here’s a picture of us that day:

                                                   

It was also great to be in town to celebrate my own birthday, which is always very special since my son Adam was born the day before and we always celebrate together, and my wonderful Team KTN decorated the office and bought me a very cool Sony MP3 player that I have to say is cooler than an IPOD since it has a built in speaker.  In fact I'm listening to it right now as I post this blog from my room on the road, so here's a shout-out thanks to Colleen, Karla, Kat, Shelly, Sarah, and the rest of the gang who helped make it special, some of them sneaking in on their day off.  Here's a picture of me with Colleen (left) and Karla (right) below, and then one of my son Adam and I blowing out the cake that Cathy made for us: 

                                          

                                            

Next up for me was a one night trip to Orlando to visit my dear friend Barb Bowden, who readers of t his blog know was recently promoted to General Manager of The Peabody Orlando.  The occasion was a very special reunion dinner with some of my fellow founding members of the HSMAI Revenue Manager’s Advisory Board, many of whom were in town for the current HSMAI Revenue Manager’s conference and/or for the HiTech conference, which were scheduled to start the next day.   Since I had to depart on another business trip, I have to admit I was on there only for the special dinner Barb had arranged!  We had a wonderful time reconnecting and sharing memories of the early years of the HSMAI board, many of whom I’ve known for over t decades.  Here’s a picture of me with some of the original members of our board:  (Left to right)

Kristi White, TravelClick, Tim Wiersma, The Procaccianti Group, Elizabeth Cambra, Outrigger Hotels & Resorts, Barb Bowden, Peabody Orlando, Courtney Granger, Preferred Hotel Group, and Doug

                                      

Besides reconnecting with my fellow HSMAI alumni, it was great just being there at The Peabody on the evening of the start of the HSMAI Revenue Manager's Conference in conjunction with HiTech, right across the street at the Orlando Convention Center.  I ran into so many old friends and make several new connections which I know will endure.  With the HSMAI RM board meeting in a private room right next to us at the Cappricio Grill, I also got to see Bob Gilbert, President of HSMAI, Jason Smith, Fran, and many others.  An unexpected and great surprise was to bump into Chris Crenshaw, Regional Dir. of Revenue with Loews Hotels, who is now part of the board!  It was great to hear the update on his wife and the new baby, and I was able to get someone to grab this pic of me with Barb and Chris:

                                                     
The next day while everyone else headed off to the conference I headed back to Ft. Lauderdale where I picked-up Cathy from the airport, as she was returning from a girlfriends getaway, and then the next day it was time to head off with Colleen Tuttle, our Director of Training, to the world renown Lake Austin Spa resort, which has won accolades ranging from the Top Destination Spa (Conde Naste Reader’s Choice 2008 and 2010) and Top Five Destination Spas Worldwide (Travel & Leisure 2009), to Top Rated Destination Spa (Zagat’s 2009), plus numerous others.

Since we were working with the spa reservations team, I was especially glad to have Colleen with me to bring her perspective as an experienced spa guest.  It was great to sit back and watch her engage the participants in experiential based training on how to relate the spa experience to all five senses.  Not to mention it was nice to have a travel companion on the road for a change!  We arrived early enough to tour the resort and for Colleen to see all the beautiful gardens and landscaping they have planted there.   We also had time to enjoy a complimentary spa treatment as part of our familiarization process.   The next day during the training it was great working with the enthusiastic and experienced group of participants from the spa reservations and spa front desk team.  Here is a picture of Colleen and I with the group that day, along with several photos I took on our property tour:

                                                           
                                                          

                                      
                                  

                                              
It is difficult to find words to describe the experience of walking through the garden at Lake Austin, and for gardeners of any level  you will appreciate how they combine ornamental flowers right with vegetables into a completely symbiotic and balanced place on all levels.  The flowers ward off the pests from the vegetables, while providing beauty.  Blended in are herbs that provide incredible aroma, while the flowers attract butterflies, which I have seen several times almost in swarms there during my two visits.   The best part is knowing you will be enjoying those same vegetables and herbs at a dinner table, where the room is likely to be decorated with those same flowers.  The next morning I awoke early in search of coffee, which was easy to find freshly brewed in the lobby, and I felt so blessed to be awake on this day to see the sun rise over the fog at the pool:

                                           

After being home for a few days it was time for my last trip for the month of June, which was back out to the MGM Grand to conduct a training needs assessment for the front desk operations.  It was very interesting to go behind the front desk and to observe them in action firsthand.   The best part was that I got to meet Shadi Omeish who is their new Director of Front office, and who was most recently with Four Seasons Beverly Hills.  Shadi and I connected right away and I’m very excited to be going back out in July to conduct the actual training.

Flying back home from Las Vegas on June 30, I found my flight to be late, but I did manage to grab about 4 hours of sleep before I headed into my office for my last 4 hours before vacation.  We all know how that goes.  But fortunately my team had everything covered, so I was on time to pick up the kids, load up the minivan with Cathy and after grabbing dinner to go we were on the road by 7pm for our first 5 hours of our road trip vacation.  I was feeling about all emotions ranging from stressed to blessed as we headed up the Florida Turnpike taking my road home to Kentucky.