The Adventures of Lorie and Brian Groth

The town/area of Valletta is my favorite to walk around, but Sliema is pretty nice too. We went out one night in Sliema with some new friends so we got to see how the locals live.

Most of the time was spent walking around, with a couple of boat rides between peninsulas and one cave tour. The cave tour, by boat, was part of a bigger tour that let us see the countryside too.

We also got to experience some big waves, which were fascinating to see.

But then I got to experience a wave the wrong way: one surprised me and knocked me off my feet, almost washing me into the ocean. I was cautiously watching the height of waves coming into an inlet and looking for sprays over a big wall, and all was good. Then when I peeked around a corner, I snapped a photo, noticed the wave was getting bigger, and got out of the way. However, the wave came around the wall I was assuming would protect me and knocked me off my feet. I grabbed some orange construction fencing to keep from getting swept off the platform.

Someone watching me filmed it and told me about it as I walked back; soaking wet back to my hotel.

Watch the video here: https://youtube.com/shorts/dvZTn_bVHO4?is=2E2g7vM1yD8FucAo

A week on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands included walks in, around, and between San Cristóbal de La Laguna La Laguna where we’re staying (in the hills) and Santa Cruz de Tenerife (on the coast).

We hiked in the mountains one day, amongst the trees with the island’s mountain in view until sandy dust from Africa obscured the view later in the day.

We walked between the towns one day when it was really hot, which melted us and we all learned that 3 hours of walking downhill on pavement made our calves sore.

In town, some of the buildings are quite nice, while others needed quite a bit of work. All of them have nice courtyards in the middle, with a few town squares here and there.

Most of the islands seem to have mountain peaks, which is probably how each island formed. I took this photo in a museum during a rainy day.

I also saw Sting while in Las Vegas. He opened with “Message in a Bottle”

I’m in town for work, but got up early for a long walk just after the sun came up.

South of London, on the coast, is Brighton, England. A friend recently moved there, so a few of us made the trip down for a day of walking in the sunshine and exploring the boardwalk that runs along the coastline. Since it’s winter, there were only a couple of these shacks open, which are big enough for 2 lawn chairs but they’re quite expensive to own for some reason.

The sunset did not disappoint, but that should be expected when it’s a clear day at about 1C.

While in Dublin for a couple of days of work, we were able to squeeze in a short visit to the Guinness brewery and museum, called the Guinness Storehouse.

We did the Guinness Connoisseur Experience, which includes a bit of a history lesson and tasting 4 different types of beers. We also got to learn how to pour a proper pint.

The museum is set up a bit for Christmas too, but we didn’t have time to go through it all. Although, we have seen that part before.

See the video of me pouring a pint, or at least the first half, because it has to sit a bit before filling the glass: https://youtube.com/shorts/EAX6d-YJriE?si=nyae9LQ8Z46PDqwb

I think we saw 6 or 7 markets in Cologne and another in Aachen, which is about an hour train ride from Cologne. They each have a different look, and each market has their own unique mug for their various type of gluhwine (mulled wine). Most of the foods are the same though.

One exception was this guy with melting cheese. There were lots of other cheese options (we had a few) like raclette, which is usually a half round of cheese with the flat top melted onto bread. This guy was just doing it different (see the photo), probably with a different type of cheese. I didn’t try; one can only eat so much cheese and bread in a day.

My favorite market was the one with gnomes taking a chair lift up a roof, so I have a daytime and nighttime photo of that.

She is happy anywhere she can chase down and kill a stick or ball. Regardless of weather!

I helped train about 1000 Salesforce employees the day before Dreamforce, which is a big annual Salesforce conference. The topic was all about our AI offerings, Agentforce. I took the stage that day quite a few times since most of the day was for everyone to get hands-on experience with the products and that’s what I help with. Sometimes I share the stage with others and sometimes we don’t even plan it; it’s a combination of intense and loose all day.

Then during the week I gave product demonstrations to customers and discussed what they could build for their own companies.

One evening a few of us got free headshots at a party and I attended one of the concerts at the event too, although I think I enjoyed seeing a few robots more.