Hello San Diego

Last Sunday I headed down to sunny San Diego for the Crittenden Mortgage Broker Conference. On the way down I took the I-5 south a little too far south and almost ended up in Mexico, unfortunately Jordan wasn't up for Tijuana. The opening on Monday was very interesting, only about 200 guys, but most were very legitimate. Even though most of them were legit, it was so funny to hear them brag about the deals they had done; probably a lot like old men talking about their last fishing trip. I did expect it to be bigger but after talking with some of the guys I was not disappointed, we will definitely get some good business from this conference.

Just a quick interesting fact from the world renowned news anchor Ron Burgandy, "San Diego is originally translated as meaning The Whales Vagina." I bet most of you didn't know that.

Chicago/London Trip

The last few weeks have been a blur. Tuesday (9/26) morning I flew out to Chicago for the start of a week long business trip. The city was great, unfortunately I only spent about two days there. The short time in Chicago was to attend "The Money Show" where the focus was networking with registered investment advisers. Despite the short time I did get to check out down town, and sample the deep dish pizza.

The following day we packed up the display booth and shipped off to London. The flight was about 8 hours, and not too bad. We were welcomed to London with rain and bad food. That afternoon we set-up our booth for "The World Money Show." This was Diamond Bay Investments first international showing. The investors (as always) had very interesting questions that made the days go quick. The Brits were extremely opinionated, and had a lot to say about the US. I felt that we had a good response, but many were hesitant about the US real estate market. The spin that UK news reporters put on US news way out there.

This was a shot from the London Eye, it's a huge Farris wheel with capsuls you ride in. Over 400' tall.

The biggest disappointment was the food. I couldn't even find decent fish-&-chips. We didn't have a ton of time but still managed to check out a few sites...Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, The London Eye, and Buckingham Palace. Lucky for Laura I had time to stop at "Harrods" (huge British department store).

After four days in London it was time to head back, this was the part that I dreaded. It was pretty much was the worst thing I have every done. After siting on the runway for 2 1/2 hours the plane finally took off. Because we were late taking off I missed the connection in Chicago. I wasn't able to get out until the next morning, so 24 hours of return travel turned into 36. I was glad to be home, and to see my cute little wife.