On September 14-15, I was privileged to attend the 2009 Molecular Genetics/Cancer Genetics Research Conference, held at Hueston Woods Resort in College Corner, OH.http://www.huestonwoodsresort.com/
It was a great learning experience, as well as a wonderful way to meet fellow students and network among the professors and scientists that work for OSU and surrounding companies.
We left around the 11:30am hour, to ensure that we made it by 2pm... our drive time was suppose to be about 2 hours, giving us ample time to check in, find our room and roam around the lodge. Well, in theory that sounds great. In reality, Niki was sitting shotgun with the directions... and we all know how that goes. The plan was to take I-70 to exit 10 (route 127)... We noticed something was not quite right when we passed the state line into Indiana. Which I might add has a beautiful state line sign... but does not compare to the arch for Ohio... but nonetheless it is beautiful. Anyhow, so about 5-10miles into Indiana we come to the conclusion that exit 10 was *somewhere* behind us...back in Ohio! Mensan casually tells us, "Oh, I saw that exit"... great... too bad I never told Mensan or Ayanle what we were looking for. LOL! So we turn around and find our way. We make it to the Hueston Woods Resort with, literally, minutes to spare. We check in, get our books and badges, and drop our belongings off in our rooms... well, all but Mensan and Ayanle--they were staying in the cottages, about 2 miles into the state park (same property). The four of us (myself, Dr. Simcox [Mandy], Ayanle and Mensan) enter the first conference session already underway--but not too late to not catch up. Phew!
By 4pm, Session I was over... most of us were released to set up posters and tour the lodge; so during this time Mensan, Ayanle and I went out to their cottage. Along the way 1) Mensan drove Mandy's car- now, it is a manual transmission...and it had been years since he had driven one, so I was a bit on the edgy side (I won't lie- I was nervous!) and decided I was going to sit in the back, and 2) Ayanle, ever so nicely, asked me, "would you rather have your room or a cottage?"... my response (based on the outside looks and distance) was, "my room... it is closer to everything." Doh! When we entered the cottage, it was like a diamond in the rough.... The cottages are spacious two bedroom, full bath, full kitchen and screened in balcony/rear porch. It was AMAZING... jealous of their oasis was an understatement!
Dinner was back at the main lodge at 5pm. We had Italian, in a buffet manner. Beverages were served... and since the Cancer Center was footing the bill, Mandy, Mensan and I all had a glass of wine. Yummm. After dinner came Session II. A lot of interesting research is going on at OSU. Many were focuses on thyroid cancer and breast cancer. One lab in particular is working with an outside source (from my understanding), to come up with a vaccination for a particular type of thyroid cancer. I had written down some bullet points, but can't find them... so I can't really elaborate :( Sorry. So aside from thyroid cancer, breast cancer is a hot research topic. Most of the research is done with mice--transgenic mice... if you are not clear as to what transgenesis is--basically it is taking one gene and introducing it into a living organism... the goal is to have that 'new gene' expressed in that organism and future offspring. So in a nutshell, scientists are introducing cancerous cells into a host. This is the same thing that I am working on in our lab... but now I am getting off topic. I apologize :)
Around 8:30pm that session was complete and we were off to the poster presentation session (upstairs/lobby) and reception. The reception was more of a social drinking and gathering. Each person received two drink vouchers...some got more then others... so you can imagine how much alcohol was consumed by 150+ people! 11pm and I was tuckered! I headed off to my room... and still, no sign of my roommate.... as it turns out, she never made it to the conference; neither did Mensan and Ayanles roommate. That was nice for me... It truly did turn out to be a mini-vacation!
Tuesday morning I woke up before the alarm went off... dag-nabit! So I decided to stay up, make coffee and get an early start. I headed out to watch the sunrise... which was captivating! Watching the sky turn from innocent shades of blue, to radiant shades of red was awesome...it has been a long time since I have had time to actually watch the sunrise above me. If I had the time, I would do it everyday for the rest of my life :) I found my conference mates, and we headed off to the hall for breakfast and Sessions III & IV.
By 12:30pm is was time to bid our farewells to this mini-getaway retreat. But of course, we ran into a little problem....
With the gas light on and time ticking by us, we could not find the exit out of the state park! We were trapped! Eventually we came to a crossroad with two choices... Go to Eaton, which was 17 miles away-- or to Oxford, which was 5 miles away. Mandy opted to go with the latter. After finally getting gas, we made our trek home and were back to OSU by 4:30pm. Safe and Sound :)
The morning sunrise... if you look close enough, in the far left picture you can see the moon. In the right picture, atop the roof is a big black vulture.
and I 
Mensan down by the dock
While out watching the sunrise, on day two, I decided to do a 360* video of the lodge. I was hoping to catch some of the nature sounds...but it didn't work out to well.
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