We're just back from 12+ hours at the second annual Tucson Festival of Books held on the UA campus. Organizers told us that overnight this is the 5th largest such event in the country. And after a wildly busy day, I have to agree.
We were swamped from before the official opening and never slowed until after it closed. We ran out of many publications and maps, not to mention sales receipts. More than 250 kids (and a fair number of adults) entered our 'name the baby mammoth' contest to offer suggestions for our life-size one-year old mammoth replica from Siberia. And we answered untold numbers of questions about Arizona geology - where to prospect for gold, how big an earthquake might we expect, what rivers drain the Prescott region, what career opportunities exist in the geoscience, and on and on.
We start again in the morning. With a fresh supply of books and maps, and enough name the mammoth forms to get us through the day. We hope.