Flying into Denver.
Flying into Orange County.
Driving into work.
DOE has invited me to the operations review for the ATLAS experiment. It is going to be at UCI Irvine. Best location to fly to is Orange County (SNA – SaNta Ana) going through Denver.
After a short stop with a BLT it went on to Orange County. One of those flights with a very tall and broad shouldered seat neighbor, but he was very nice and offered some fudgy chocolate which I of course accepted. Finally we made our way into Orange County airport. What a nice view and how densely populated the area is.
California turns out to be pretty wet (it had been raining a lot before I came) but as I walk across Mac Arthur Bd to my hotel (Atrium Hotel at John Wayne airport) it was dry and the walk was very short.
The hotel turns out to be one of those standard decent hotels with an outside pool under palm trees that I did not use, but it made me regret not having brought my swim suite. The temperature reminds of a nice spring day and this is how it stayed for the next two days. We had a nice dinner in ‘Toni’ Bahamas restaurant, helped by some gas heaters (it is called Tommy, but we liked Toni better).
The review ended around 3pm on Wednesday and my flight back will begin in a few hours (9pm). The notorious red-eye flight to Newark and then on to Boston, right in time at 9am to start a full day of work which will end with a squash match at 7pm in Concord-Acton. Good stuff!