IGES 2006 was in St. Pete Beach, Florida (on the Gulf coast, near Tampa Bay). While I can't argue with a few days sitting on a beach (see above) I have to say that resort style holidays aren't my cup of tea.  I love the beach, but I think I prefer a Cape cottage to a Florida resort.

The Tradewinds Resort (where the conference was held) was nice, but pretty much chock-a-block full of old fat people lying in the sun for 12 hours a day. The surrounding area is just miles of mediocre resorts on one side of the road and strip malls on the other. After the meeting was over we did manage some recreation on the big water trikes, but they're not as much fun as they look. Jo and Jordana are above, me and Pam are at left.

Another thing about these resorts is that they're aimed at people too lazy to leave the grounds, so the food is ordinary and overpriced. The drinks were outrageous: I paid $6.50 for a can of Corona (who the hell serves Corona in a can?).

The drink prices were especially silly, since there was a liquor store a ten minute walk away. We quickly learned our lesson and I picked up the last sixer of Sammy O-fest, and some Fin du Monde. We also made a habit of going through a bottle of Sapphire each night in Andrew's room parties.

On the Saturday after the meeting five of us (Jordana, Pam, me, Josine and Andrew, above with some flamingos) went to Busch Gardens. It's a kind of neat combination of theme park (Pam and Jordana went on the crazy roller coasters below) and nature reserve.

We were also treated to free samples of quality Anheuser-Busch products (pictured below). It was funny to observe the proximity of the kids play area (Dragon Land) and the drinking zone.

Above: Pam and Jordana are being hauled up the big incline at the start of the first crazy coaster they went on.

Below: I'm 90% sure the two pairs of bare feet in the third row from the left are J&P.

Left: Pam is barely tall enough to ride all the rides, and I'm barely visible inside a Land Rover looking at a hyena, which is even less visible through the leftmost part of the windshield (try clicking on the zoomed in version).

All told it was a nice way to spend a day when it was nice weather but not quite hot enough to really want to sit on the beach all day. We went on a few ill-advised water type rides at the park as well, and it's not that sweet to be soaking wet on a 75 degree day. Next year's conference is in scenic York, England. Um, I think I'm busy that week.