Scouts and AERA

Here I am in my official Scout uniform. Yes I am taking a picture of myself in the mirror... :) We had our first Pack Meeting last week and we had three of our boys receive their Arrow of Light and they moved on to the 11-year-old scouts now.

This week, I have been in Denver for the American Education Research Association conference (AERA - the biggest conference dealing with research in education). It has been a good conference and I have learned some things that I feel will help me with the work on my dissertation. I have decided I really do like Denver. The people here are just good people.

I was looking for a cheap hotel close to the conference, but there really weren't any. Most of the hotels were $300-400 per night. Tonya and I decided we would find one a little further away, so we didn't have to pay so much. I made reservations at a Days Inn on Federal Blvd. Well, I talked to Clint the day before we left and he said to really be careful in that area, so I got online and was looking at pictures of the area and the way we would need to walk to get to the convention center. I decided we didn't really want to stay there, so we canceled our reservations and found this other little hotel called the Knight's Inn that was only about 1.5 miles away and the area looked pretty good. I called to make a reservation and the guy that answered the phone said I was calling the Ramada. I was a little confused. He said they had rooms, so when we got here to just ask for "Joe." We got in the next afternoon and got a room.

The hotel is definitely old, but it was clean. So the Ramada and the Knight's Inn look like they were two that merged and they run both of them out of the Ramada. They have had internet and they have free breakfast. We have been super impressed with the staff. They have been so professional and definitely customer-service oriented. Even when people have asked dumb questions, they have been patient and they don't even joke about it after the people leave. The hotel has worked out great. It is over by Elitch's and there are also nice walking paths all along the Platte River. I have enjoyed my time here. Now we are on our way back to the real world again...