Today Eve and I just got back from spending 5 days in Vancouver, Canada. This was one of the neatest trips we've had since... uh... well, since we've met! Why was it so neat? Why was going to Canada for a nerd's convention so fun? Why do I even refer to it as our 2nd honeymoon? Why don't you see our kids in any of the pictures of the trip? Well read on to find out!
The story starts Sunday when Eve and I flew to Vancouver for the start of Siggraph, a yearly convention for the computer graphics community. Whether it's for videogames, movies, or any other type of graphics visualization, all kinds of companies and educational institutions involved with computer graphics have some type of presence at this conference. Since finding out a few months ago that a presentation that I, along with 5 other coworkers, had submitted on the Crowds pipeline for Cars 2 had been accepted for Siggraph, Eve and I knew we wanted to make this trip. And it was conveniently scheduled the week before our anniversary. And it was the first year ever that Siggraph was going to be held outside the United States.
Once we stepped out into the Vancouver airport, we knew right away that Vancouver was going to be a beautiful place. Why? Because the airport was beautiful! I mean if the airport is beautiful, you know there are probably a few good sites to see in the city. I mean, there were cascading water and little ponds all over the airport. You'll have to be sure to check out the link to our pictures at the end of this blog posting to know what I mean.
And then there was our hotel, the Pan Pacific. Now ever since I'd received a recommendation from a coworker to book a room in this hotel since it was "close" to the convention center where Siggraph was being held, and since he said it was on the waterfront and was a "nice" hotel, and since it was one of the most expensive hotels that could be booked through Siggraph (it'll be good to remember while reading this posting that Pixar was footing the bill for my trip since I was a presenter at Siggraph...), I figured it would indeed be a nice place to stay during our trip. But what I didn't realize was how beautiful it was (nicest hotel I've ever seen, has 3 restaurants in it, a swimming pool, hot tub, and spa on the roof of the eighth floor, a stunning harbor view from our hotel window...) and the fact that it was right above the east building of the convention center, so my walk to and from Siggraph each day was practically non-existent.
And then there was our hotel, the Pan Pacific. Now ever since I'd received a recommendation from a coworker to book a room in this hotel since it was "close" to the convention center where Siggraph was being held, and since he said it was on the waterfront and was a "nice" hotel, and since it was one of the most expensive hotels that could be booked through Siggraph (it'll be good to remember while reading this posting that Pixar was footing the bill for my trip since I was a presenter at Siggraph...), I figured it would indeed be a nice place to stay during our trip. But what I didn't realize was how beautiful it was (nicest hotel I've ever seen, has 3 restaurants in it, a swimming pool, hot tub, and spa on the roof of the eighth floor, a stunning harbor view from our hotel window...) and the fact that it was right above the east building of the convention center, so my walk to and from Siggraph each day was practically non-existent.
The convention lasted until Thursday morning, and since Eve didn't have a ticket to the conference (mine cost over a thousand dollars, so I wasn't about to purchase one for Eve on my own tab...), we parted ways during the morning and afternoon hours while the talks and presentations of the conference were happening. But with the hotel so close, we easily met up to eat meals and spend our evenings together.
Siggraph itself was interesting, as it's always fun to see the latest and greatest of what's happening in the graphics industry. And besides seeing others from work who attended the conference, I also ran into some professors and fellow alumni from BYU. It was also fun to get my head scanned and then printed (see above picture) in some type of plaster or clay from a 3D printer (it literally takes 3D models that are represented in a computer and prints them in real life). I'm really lucky to have gotten it printed at all since I was initially told that getting it printed would be likely impossible since there was a large number of people waiting before me to have their head files prepped and then printed. But luckily one of the guys doing the 3D printing saw my speaker badge and decided to bump me up to the top of the queue (yes!).
Speaking of presenting, my group was scheduled to present Wednesday afternoon, so I had most of the week to worry about it. Though it wasn't too big of deal because although our full presentation was 40 minutes long, I was one of six speakers, so my part was only 5 - 7 minutes long. But on the other hand, I was only expecting to be speaking in front of a hundred or two hundred people, which turned out to be more like 5 to 6 hundred people.
The most fun Eve and I had was on our last day, Thursday, when we got a personalized tour of Pixar Canada and then biked around Stanley Park. First of all, if you hadn't already heard, Pixar opened an additional facility in Vancouver a couple of years ago that is working on additional content to our movies (all feature length films will still be made in Emeryville, though), which so far means more Cars and Toy Story shorts. My shading lead at work, who was also attending Siggraph, gave Eve and I a tour of the Pixar Canada studio Thursday morning (it's a lot smaller than the Emeryville campus, as they only have 70 employees so far, versus our 1200). Later that day Eve and I rode to Stanley Park on a tandem bike we rented and spent the afternoon exploring around the park. It was the first time I'd ridden a bike in probably eight years, so Eve was very brave to let me be in front to steer and power the bike. Stanley Park is a very nice and large recreational park in Vancouver, from where I took most of the pictures of our trip.
Siggraph itself was interesting, as it's always fun to see the latest and greatest of what's happening in the graphics industry. And besides seeing others from work who attended the conference, I also ran into some professors and fellow alumni from BYU. It was also fun to get my head scanned and then printed (see above picture) in some type of plaster or clay from a 3D printer (it literally takes 3D models that are represented in a computer and prints them in real life). I'm really lucky to have gotten it printed at all since I was initially told that getting it printed would be likely impossible since there was a large number of people waiting before me to have their head files prepped and then printed. But luckily one of the guys doing the 3D printing saw my speaker badge and decided to bump me up to the top of the queue (yes!).
Speaking of presenting, my group was scheduled to present Wednesday afternoon, so I had most of the week to worry about it. Though it wasn't too big of deal because although our full presentation was 40 minutes long, I was one of six speakers, so my part was only 5 - 7 minutes long. But on the other hand, I was only expecting to be speaking in front of a hundred or two hundred people, which turned out to be more like 5 to 6 hundred people.
The most fun Eve and I had was on our last day, Thursday, when we got a personalized tour of Pixar Canada and then biked around Stanley Park. First of all, if you hadn't already heard, Pixar opened an additional facility in Vancouver a couple of years ago that is working on additional content to our movies (all feature length films will still be made in Emeryville, though), which so far means more Cars and Toy Story shorts. My shading lead at work, who was also attending Siggraph, gave Eve and I a tour of the Pixar Canada studio Thursday morning (it's a lot smaller than the Emeryville campus, as they only have 70 employees so far, versus our 1200). Later that day Eve and I rode to Stanley Park on a tandem bike we rented and spent the afternoon exploring around the park. It was the first time I'd ridden a bike in probably eight years, so Eve was very brave to let me be in front to steer and power the bike. Stanley Park is a very nice and large recreational park in Vancouver, from where I took most of the pictures of our trip.
Being the first time Eve and I have both been gone away from our kids for more than half a day (except when Eve has been in the hospital giving birth), the trip felt like a second honeymoon for us. Eve's mother and sister, Heather, had flown from Arizona to watch the kids for the week while we were away. I have to say it was quite relaxing and refreshing to not have to worry about the kids for a few days, almost like we were newlyweds again. And while I will probably later deny it, I did miss the kids to some extent, as I found myself on occasion wishing I could show Haylee, Cameron, and Landon this, or wanting them to see that. Or being eager to see their reaction to this or that. Anyways, here are some more pictures of our trip:
https://picasaweb.google.com/trent.crow/SiggraphVancouver?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCKKburjYwfPqYQ&feat=directlink
https://picasaweb.google.com/trent.crow/SiggraphVancouver?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCKKburjYwfPqYQ&feat=directlink
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