International Fragile X Conference, Part One

We got back from the conference a couple hours ago. It was the best one yet. We got to the hotel around one o'clock in the afternoon or so. We preregistered for our rooms and left our bags with the bellhop. Next we went to the conference registration area and signed up and got our official conference bag and binder. We walked around for awhile, and stopped to eat lunch at a place called The Shed. We got a call from the front desk that our room was ready, so we picked up our keys. We were waiting in the Union Station for my sister and I saw Erika, Oma and Punkin (if you don't know who I am talking about, well, you should, so click HERE.)I yelled, "Erika?" and she and her mom and sweet boy came over for a minute to talk. After that,we went to the room and hung out until it was time to go to the first session, "Married...with (Fragile X) Children". We looked through our binders and noticed our friends Frank and Isabelle were not on the list of attendees. We were a little bummed, but headed to our session. Well, guess who we ran into? Frank and Isabelle! And they moved to the US in the past year. We met up with other friends from past conferences, and introduced ourselves to some others.

After that session, we headed to the Grand Hall, where they had a welcome reception. They had hors d'oeuvres and a bar. I had a few glasses of wine, and we went to a film being presented called Life With Fragile X. It was good, and they hope to release it to a public television or cable channel for broadcast soon. I am excited about the prospect, and the makers of the movie, Kathy Elder and Greg Mishey did a wonderful job. It will help spread awareness to the general public about FXS.

After the film, a group of us went to a bar/grill called Hoolihans, or aka-Hooligans by people (Kelly) who had too much to drink.

Here are some pictures from the first day:

me and Kelly before our first sessionErika and Punkin at the Welcome ReceptionErika and her mom Kelly and Tony at "Hooligans"
Frank and some doctor from Canada at Hooligans I forget his name. Anyone know? And beside him is our friend Tracy Anyway, we stayed out until 11:30pm or so, and headed back to our rooms.

More tomorrow....