Sunday, October 14, 2007

Boca Raton, FL

Last week I was blessed with the opportunity to attend a training session to learn about a new online learning development tool, Lectora 2007. The class was held in their Boca Raton office, which is a couple miles from the ocean and miles of beaches. I say blessed because not only did I get to learn a lot about using the tool and I was in a beautiful place, but my husband got to join me. I am going to see if I can add the photos to my actual site, but if I can't, I will add a new post so you can see them.

One particular photo I wanted to comment on is the picture of the choppy waves. My husband and I, on the first full day, spent the day at the beach, playing in the ocean. I had a teachable moment for both of us. We hadn't been in the water very long, and I had already lost my sunglasses (thankfully not the prescription ones!) and almost drowned more than once. I do well enough balancing on land, but an ocean with constant wave motion is another. My husband taught me how to stand and lean into the water and let it carry me a little bit instead of fighting to maintain my balance. Once I figured it out, I decided I no longer needed to cling to his hand for survival.

He made a comment about me letting go of his hand, and I had to remind him that standing in the water was a learning process for me. Once I had observed and practiced the technique, I was able to do it on my own, just like anything else that has to be learned. I wish I had learned that lesson BEFORE I lost my brand new sunglasses. However, I got them for $1 instead of the $10 on the pricetag, so I feel that was an inexpensive lesson.

It turned out to be one of those perfect days, and I have a very funky tan pattern by which to remember it.

Free tip: If you are going to be standing on an extroardinarily windy beach to apply sunscreen, make sure it's not the spray-on kind.

2 comments:

Robin Lindbeck said...

I'm struck by several things:

--there are lessons everywhere, every day if we just stop to notice them

--seems to be that there is a parallel between your learnings at/in the ocean and learning in general

--and I've got to start going to the same meetings you do (Boca Raton, indeed! :-)

(nice pictures)

Anonymous said...

What a great trip. Your pictures made me wish I were there. As we turn to web 2.0 I think we will have less travel to beautiful locations such as this. Seminars will be held on-line which is less expensive.