We had a wonderful and stress-free drive from Knoxville today, but before we got on I-40, we took a side trip to Oak Ridge and the Children’s Museum, which is a converted elementary school chock full of hands-on exhibits and activities for young people. The kids had fun learning about everything from microscopy to textile making at the turn of the century to trains to ornithology. Well worth stopping at if you have little ones and need a diversion for several hours.
The hotel resort is enormous, almost like a small town in itself. If you’ve ever driven by it on I-40, I can now confirm that it is even bigger than it looks from the outside. (This actually works out great with the kids, since by the time they get wherever we’re going, they’re too pooped to get crazy.) There’s even a “Pub District” where I hung out last night with Bill Nottingham, Jesse Keating, Andrew Overholt, Karsten Wade, and Jonathan Blandford. They stopped serving suds at 11 — or did they? — so I was left wondering if they had been “subsidized” to make sure we would all make it to the next morning’s keynotes.
No worries though — I am really looking forward to hearing CEO Matthew Szulik, Richard Wirt from Intel, and Cory Doctorow from the EFF. Time to go grab some breakfast, especially coffee. Mmm, coffee.