An SWMCCC Weekend - Fabulous!

Each year, SWMCCC (South-West Michigan Council of Camera Clubs) holds a four day teach-in at Hope College, located in Holland, Michigan. The timing was great, fitting neatly into our nebulous schedule, and so we booked our places. Foolishly, as it turned out, we decided on dorm room accommodations and, to round out the college feel, opted for the cafeteria meal package - a second serious error!
In 1847, Dutch Calvinist separatists, escaping from persecution in the Netherlands, founded the city of Holland. Like other Dutch centric cities in this area of Michigan, in Holland, if you ain't Dutch, you ain't much. Turns out however, that Holland is high in the national "place to retire to" rankings with pleasant summers, and winters somewhat eased by heated sidewalks downtown. Certainly, for the few days we were there, the weather was absolutely fabulous. The city population is about 40,000.
Hope College caters to about 3,300 students and, even though this is a small percentage of the overall population, their presence greatly influences the nature of the downtown area in the number and quality of restaurants, coffee shops and the like. The college itself extends into the downtown area and covers 120 acres overall starting one block from downtown. Hope is a private, liberal arts college, started by the (Dutch) city fathers in 1866 with a religious affiliation to The Reformed Church in America. Slideshow here.
As for the program, it was splendid. Megabytes, megapixels, software, hardware, models-a-plenty, nerds everywhere and even some great images from 8:00 in the morning until 9:00 at night. Overall, tons of reasons to buy more stuff and stop worrying about ever understanding the last lot. Highly recommended. Read the Backstory here.