After returning to the hotel Thursday night, we recorded this adrenaline-fueled report on the evening’s festivities..

Speeches were given, balloons were dropped on my head and buried me up to my knees. And the crowd participated in a stunning effect during Katy Perry’s performance…

The instructions were: turn on the flashlight on your smart phone. My phone is too dumb to have a light, and too lame to have a battery that would handle it.

There will be a lot more to talk/write about in the coming days as some of this is processed.

Just know that our delegation gathered for one more “happy hour” in the hotel lobby after we were finished recording this report. I think it was Martha who told me, “we still have a lot of beer left that we have to finish before we all go home.”

I post this from the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station, and we look forward to getting home and reuniting with our cats.