Photo Memory - Technical Conference in Maine

In July of 2003, I had been working at ENSCO for over twenty years. We were growing as a company and corporate wanted to share technical information among the different divisions of the company.  The first all-subject conference was held in Sante Fe.  The second one was held at the Samoset Resort in Rockport Maine. This memory is a good one and I wanted to share a few photos I took.

 I drove to Maine and was planning to double the trip as a vacation in Vermont. On my drive to the technical conference, I stopped in York Beach Maine to take a photo of the Nubble Lighthouse.

It was the end of July and Maine can be very beautiful this time of year. The resort was on the Atlantic Ocean and they had a fantastic golf course that surrounded the resort. My room was on the top floor of one section of the hotel and had a small balcony. This is the first picture at the resort that I took from my room.

Samoset Resort View in Rockport Maine

With this view, I was curious why all the shades were drawn tight. I opened them up the first night and found out the hard way. The damn sun rises around midnight. It is not quite that early but it was near 4 AM. The blinds were drawn tight again.

Of course, I was able to find the bar in the resort. I was not the only one. Other co-workers found their way down also.

Jose & Nancie Marin at the Samoset Resort Bar

Co-workers Mike VanEss, Tom Buist & Stephan Maminakis enjoying a beer or stout or lager or ale...

The conference would be both presentations of papers by fellow workers, and a poster session each day. Typically, lunch was provided at the resort. The first night, ENSCO would through a Welcome dinner.

Tom Buist and his wife Cyndi, Date Chynwat and his wife Nate at Welcome dinner

Of course, there was some alcohol involved. But the most important thing was the abundance of Maine lobsters...

Lobsters served at the ENSCO Welcome Dinner

 I heard that Dr. Doug Burns ate seven or eight of these creatures...This was all speculation but he was known to chow down pretty good at these events. I think I ate more than one.

I did give a paper at the conference. I remember I had been working for years on statistical models for calculating the uncertainty in a transport and diffusion model. I worked with a Ph.D. robot that worked at ENSCO and knew this subject very well. I wanted to start my slideshow with a video of a motorcycle rider jumping to a roof and missing by inches, falling into the bushes. A great example of the uncertainty in a problem. My problem was that we had to copy out presentations to a master disk, and unknown to me was that the video was a link and did not get copied. I clicked on the play button in the Powerpoint slide and nothing happened. After a few tries and failures, I explained to the audience that uncertainty was always around, even in a slide presentation. Could anyone predict that the video would not work?

I should have done a poster like some of my other Florida Division co-workers did...

Randy Evans showing his poster on Real-Time Atmospheric Modeling

Dr. Doug Burns showing his poster to Mr. Joe Vervier and Dr. Greg Taylor

 Of course, there was time for play too. Some of the Northern Divisions (from Virginia and New York) challenged the Florida (my) office to a basketball game. Of course, Florida must have won.

Basketball challenge at the Samoset Resort between ENSCO Divisions

 Some of us just watched including some of the wives....

Basketball fans including Joe & Kathleen, Sandy, Kathy and Patty at Samoset Resort

 We also got to go out and eat on one of the nights. Rockport is a great town and we found a nice restaurant that could seat our large group. Dr. Gavin McDaniel sat at one head and was joined by the Marins, the Burns, the Wombles and the Chynwats. I think we found Doug and Imogene's long lost son. It was Doug's doppelganger.

Dinner at Rockport Maine

 We also went on a sunset cruise aboard a large sailboat. Some of my co-workers were asked to help trim the sails.

Mike VanEss waiting for the order to pull the rope on the sunset cruise

Stephan Maminakis pulling his rope to raise the sail on the sunset cruise.

 Of course, there was a beautiful sunset as seen from the Atlantic Ocean...

Sunset over Rockport Maine

 The conference, other than my screw up, went really well. A lot of great information was shared, and it was a great opportunity to meet people that work in other parts of the country. The last day, I had the privilege to play the golf course for only $75, a discount because we were staying there. The foursome was me, my boss and Division Manager Al Siegel, fellow worker and meteorologist Mark Kienzle, and another Division Manager Bob Steele.

 I took a few picture while playing. This one was of the resort. My room was on the top floor, right over the top of the man standing in the rough...

Samoset Resort as seen from the golf course

 We got down to the end of a long hole. The tee box for the next par-3 hole was near this walkway into the water. There was a lighthouse at the end. Also, a large Navy ship was passing a large sailboat. It was just a beautiful sight and things could not be better...

Jetty near golf course at Samoset Resort

 But things did get better. The next hole was a par-3 up a steep hill. The green was slightly hidden but the flag was near the front of the green. I think I dribbled one up the hill and Al went into a sand trap. Then Mark hit his shot and was going right towards the green. The ball hit the green and disappeared immediately. I told Mark it was in the hole but he thought it just bounced pass. We could not see the green so we did not know.

I think I hit my second shot up before Mark was able to check. There, in the hole, was his ball! A Hole IN ONE!  Not only that, the ball mark was not to be found because the ball had gone into the hole in the air. The edge of the cup had a half moon, ball size, chunk missing. Unbelievable.

Mark Kienzle (pin behind him) shows off his hole-in-one ball at Samoset Resort in Rockport Maine

 Sad to say, Mark would pass away about ten years later. He had a heart operation that needed to be redone, and he died on the operating table, while he was in his 40s. I worked a lot with Mark, and I will always remember his beautiful shot in Maine. And that smile afterward....

Al, Bob, and Mark in the fairway; we were close to heaven on earth!