We had a great trip to Phoenix, the green desert - weather much different than the Chesapeake Bay. Even with temperatures 19 degrees below average, the days were in the 80's, and they had not had any rain since February. We had fun seeing the Diamond Backs baseball team play with Randy Johnson, their 6’10” pitcher, getting the win in their beautiful Chase stadium. We also saw the Pueblo Grande archeological dig showing how the Hohokam lived in the valley with their amazing hand dug irrigation systems from the Salt River dating back to 450 AD. We also had a lazy afternoon on a bass boat on Lake Pleasant. A couple of folks caught striped bass, but all I caught was a tree branch... it really put up a fight though! IBM had wonderful motivation sessions where we heard from Sam Pamisano, our President, and Frans Johansson, the author of the Medici Effect, and 2008 Grammy winner and civil rights activist Angelique Kidjo. Angelique Kidjo is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and has become a spokesperson on African child-labor issues and an advocate for the children who have been drugged, kidnapped and forced to become child soldiers in African wars. She is also an amazing vocalist and she and her band performed for us. Talented Leann Rimes, country and pop musician, gave us a closing night concert including some of her original songs, for a sweet end to a memorable event.

On our return to the east coast, and with TNTY in dry dock having its propellers “tuned”, we spent the night in Annapolis, Maryland.