PreCAST

So far, the conference experience is starting great as expected.
Yes, I know, the conference officially doesn't start until tomorrow's workshops, but as always, the conference is up once the people start to gather.
In hope of having some time to fend off jet-lag, I took an early flight, landing on Friday after a 12 hours flight to Newark, followed by 2.5 hours flight to Orlando (which I nearly missed after not checking that my gate wasn't moved - it was), then all I had to do is to try and stay awake (my Fitbit did not detect any sleep during Thursday, which was the night of the flight. I believe I did manage to squeeze in a couple of sleep hours) and hopefully, that would take care of the jet-lag. It seemed to work, I woke up at 7 AM after ~8 hours of sleep and set to explore the location. Well, it's humid, and hot. so walking about is not very pleasant, and Cocoa beach is a rather dull place, if you are not into surfing or simply staying at the beach.  I spent most of my day out, then rented a surfboard just to see what I can make out of it (never before have I ever held one of those, let alone try to use it). I had a nice time, but the sea claimed my hat.
I got to, briefly, meet Liz Keogh and Darren Hobbs before being picked up by Curtis Petit and his family for dinner.

Yesterday, I woke up at 4:30 AM (Jet lag? or simply because I slept my 6 hours? I don't know) and went to see the sunrise at ~6:00, where I encountered Anne-Marie Charrett. I then set out to find a new hat and from there to see the Kennedy Space center at Cape Canaveral. A tip for future visitors - Cape Canaveral is *Not* where the space center is, it's over 12 Miles to the north of that. I'll have to check the Kennedy space center another time. 
At the evening I got to meet some wonderful people - some for the first time. I met Curtis again, with Matt Heusser, Maria Kademo, Ben Simo Liz and Darren and we headed out for dinner.

So far, so good, looking forward for today.