Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

I'm headed down to Orange County for 48 hours. Well, technically, it's more like 50 hours that I'll be in town, But "48 hours" scans better than 50, right? Like "24 hours in Phoenix" would've scanned better than 26 hour in Phoenix. Which turned into more like 28 hours. But at least I remembered to pack shirts this time. Yes, I checked twice to make sure. 😅

The purpose of the trip is work. We've got a deep-dive training seminar on a newly (re-)launched product. We'll be at a hotel in Newport Beach for two days.

Now, before you think, "Newport Beach? Is this some kind of boondoggle at a beach resort?" understand that Newport Beach is just the name of the city. The hotel is actually several miles away from the beach. It's two blocks from SNA airport. I'll be attending two days of seminars at an airport hotel.

Santa Ana, California. Thu, 12 Oct 2023, 8:30am.

It was an easy flight down from San Jose to Santa Ana last night. Though the flight was full, literally every seat occupied, we departed pretty much on time and landed 15 minutes ahead of schedule.

Santa Ana, Orange County Airport (SNA), is always a pleasurable airport to travel through. No, it's not because of its proximity of Disneyland. I've never actually been to Disneyland, though clearly that's where at least 20% of my fellow flyers were headed. (Their shirts with the mouse-ears logo gave it away.)



The reason I like SNA is that it's right in the middle of the action. On approach you can see that you're flying right over one of the business districts, in the city of Santa Ana. Literally the flight path follows the 55 freeway the last few miles and crosses I-405 (pictured) just before touching down on the runway. Office towers and hotels surround you as you land.

Once on the ground, everything's right there. Rental cars are in the parking garage across from the terminal, so it's just a short walk if you're renting. Ride-share and taxis are even closer.

I stayed overnight at a Holiday Inn a few miles from the airport. Yes, there were closer hotels. Yes, there were also nicer hotels. And yes, some of them cost twice as much— or even more. Thus my choice of the Holiday.



The view from my room is... not great. There's a back parking area and a retaining wall. Then there are views of other, nicer hotels. 😅 The photo above has nice lighting because I took it this morning at sunrise. Yesterday evening after I arrived it was all gray.

What to do last night was a question. I was prepared to have it be a quiet night in at the hotel. I even packed my swim trunks and sandals so I could relax in the hot tub if nothing else. Instead I looked up our cousins who live about 5 miles away. They didn't answer at first but returned my call later, and we were able to meet for dinner around 7:15.

It was good seeing cousins "Mark" and "Ellen" again. The last time I saw them was 3.5 years ago now, for a funeral when Mark's mother passed away. Definitely good to see them at a time when they're not dealing with grief and having to coordinate a dozen unhappy things.

After dinner I walked back to my hotel (we'd eaten at a restaurant 2 blocks away) and promptly stayed up too late. 😅 I didn't get to sleep until after midnight. Blame it on unfamiliar surroundings breaking my evening wind-down routine... or just screwing around on the interwebs too long. 🤣

This morning I was up early. I ate breakfast downstairs around 7 and was seated at my computer by 7:40. My work computer. "What are you doing up so early?" one of my colleagues asked when I slacked him to have a quick meeting. "I'm getting at-my-desk things done now so they're not still hanging over my head tonight after being in the field most of the day," I responded. "Good move," he agreed.

Well, speaking of being in the field most of the day, it's about to start.

At the moment I'm in Austin, Texas, here to support a trade show tomorrow. As I've traveled from home in Silicon Valley I've noticed a huge dropoff in voluntary mask wearing.

— Back home in Silicon Valley, when I go to a local supermarket, voluntary masking is well over 50%, closer to 2/3 at some stores. It varies by the demographic the store attracts.

— At SJC airport yesterday mask wearing was at 25-30%.

— When I was at SNA airport (John Wayne/Orange County) for a connection, masking had already dropped to about 10%.

— And here in Austin, masking is essentially zero. I went out for dinner and drinks last night with a friend, and of literal hundreds we saw passing by (it was a busy night in the club district with college graduation recently) not a single person I recall was wearing a mask.

You might think from these behaviors that the Coronavirus risks are past. Sadly they are not. As I note in my periodic Tier Tuesday blogs, the infection rate has nearly tripled in a month. The only thing that's in the rearview mirror is the general public's willingness to care.