THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 2012

We were all very tired last night so we decided to sleep in today and meet for breakfast at 9:00 a.m. Except for the conference board members, Sheryl, Linda and Noel who had to be at the conference by 7:45 a.m. Linda provides the IT support for the conference and it is a HUGE job. She has way more duties than any one person can accomplish which isn't helped by the fact that most of the presenters don't send her their materials and power point presentations ahead of time which just makes the conference VERY stressful for Linda. Noel is the Treasurer so he had to be at the conference early this morning for the people who registered today. Sheryl is the Executive Director of the Association and I think I mentioned before one of the founding members. So . . . those three had to work. The rest of us met for breakfast at 9:00. Oh wait -- Sandy overslept so she missed breakfast entirely! She said she woke up at 5:00 a.m., realized she could sleep a little longer, and woke up for good at 9:27 am. She was very sorry she missed out on the morning activities. Anyway, after breakfast David, Sue, Carol and Diane headed out to the Gemeentemuseum specifically to see Vermeer's painting of The Girl With The Pearl Earring. It is only temporarily housed there because the museum where it is permanently housed, The Mauritshuis Museum, is currently undergoing renovation. Sheryl, Noel and I went to The Mauritshuis Museum last year and loved it and especially loved Vermeer's paintings so we are happy they got to see some of his work. I'm not sure what else is there but I remember one of them mentioning the first floor was modern art. In any event, they enjoyed it.

I walked over to the conference and helped a little bit at registration. They really had plenty of people helping so I wandered around a bit and talked to people and went back to the hotel. I was sitting in the lobby reading and Sandy came in. She had been out walking and sight-seeing. Just a few minutes later David, Sue, Diane and Carol returned to the hotel from the museum. Our group planned to take the tram to the Kerhaus -- a luxury beach hotel overlooking the North Sea. The planning committee looked at holding the IACA conference there and a lot of us wished they would have! It is a spectacular hotel opened in 1885. Sadly, before the hotel even opened, it burned to the ground. Within a year it was rebuilt. Many famous people have stayed there -- the Rolling Stones even performed a concert there in 1964. Other famous guests are, of course, Dutch Queens, Henry Kissinger, Marlene Dietrich, Emperor Hirohito of Japan and many more. I cannot wait to show you all pictures. Anyway, we all took the tram there to have lunch. Sadly, the restaurant was closed for a private event. There was a lot of activity going on there with security and TV equipment, etc., so it must have been a pretty big event. We decided to walk along the boardwalk to find another place to eat. My first choice was a place called "Peuky." No one else thought it sounded appetizing so we walked on to a place called Columbia Grande Cafe. We sat on the terrace in the sun and it was heavenly. We chose the perfect day to go to the beach because it was blue sky, sunny and warm. We could not have asked for a better day! We all ordered similar lunches . . . lovely bread/buns with melted cheese, tomato and pesto. Carol also had salmon on hers. And we shared french fries. After lunch we walked down the boardwalk just enjoying the North Sea and people watching. Along the boardwalk were quirky cartoon-like metal sculptures that were cute and funny. We have pictures of them. We were running out of time so we headed back to the Kerhaus to have drinks on the terrace. It was gorgeous and the view of the sea was stunning. We just had coffee, water and soft drinks. I think Diane maybe had a glass of wine. Alas all good things have to end so we took the tram back to The Hauge to get dressed up for the conference's gala dinner.

We all gathered in the hotel lobby at 6:30 p.m. to take taxis to the event. We were all dressed up -- the men in suits and the women in cocktail dresses. I had a new dress that David picked out for me before we left home. Yes, there will be pictures! The gala was held at the Nieuwe Kirk (new church). It was built in 1649 and finished in 1656. What a beautiful building. It has not functioned as a church since the 1970s. When we walked into this magnificent building we were shown downstairs for the cocktail hour. Waiters passed wine and hors dourves that were very pretty. Our Sheryl, of course, snuck upstairs to the dining room and scoped out the best table for us and put a reserved sign on it!!! She is so great! After about an hour we were ushered upstairs to the dining room and quickly found our "reserved" table. It was a table for 12 so two other people joined us. A retired judge from Brazil and his wife who were delightful! Their English was very good and David, Sue and I talked to them a lot. He is now a professor of environmental law which I found interesting. The dinner was pretty good. The salad was white asparagus with smoked salmon. Didn't eat that. The main course was round medallions of chicken (and other birds the waiter told me . . . I didn't pursue that and just ate it), over mashed potatoes. It was very good! The waiters kept our wine glasses full and I loved the wine. David wrote down the name of it and I believe he told me it was from Argentina. There were just a few short speeches so that was tolerable. After dinner I saw Judge O'Scannlain so David and I walked over to visit with him and we asked Linda to take our picture together to e-mail to Judge Redden to show him I was hanging out with Judge O'Scannlain in The Hauge! That might surprise him.

Then they ushered us downstairs again for dessert and coffee. Loved, loved, loved the desserts! No surprise there, I guess. Waiters passed very small, varied desserts (so you could have more than one). We had delicious chocolate mousse and then orange sorbet in a phyllo cup. I think there were other choices but that was enough for us. We all took taxis back to our hotel and called it a night. We had a GREAT time and it was a wonderful thing to do our last night in The Hague.