This summer, I got to go to the International Society of Glass Beadmakers annual conference "The Gathering" in Houston and it was awesome. How many conferences have "open torch time" and the local fire chief wandering around the room?
The 2015 conference is in Albuquerque, New Mexico, so I am hatching up a plan to show my kids "the west." As a kid, I moved from Washington, DC, to Oxnard, CA, to Syracuse, NY in the course of 2 years. My parents used the trip out west and back as an opportunity to show us the great national parks (Mt Rushmore, Yellowstone, Yosemite) and many other wonders - and I haven't had a chance to do that same for my own kids. Living on the East Coast, I'm not sure if I want to drive the entire way, but I think flying in to Denver (where we have family) and heading southwest via Albuquerque to Tucson (where my Mom lives) will hit a lot of the highlights.
