Labor Day Weekend

This Labor Day I decided to go camping. Because no one could go with me, I started alone on Friday morning. I could have camped at Mirror Lake, where we'll have our traditional picnic on Monday, but I decided to try for a quieter, more out-of-the-way spot, so I drove down to Christmas Meadows and grabbed one of the only two unreserved places (this campground has only 11 spots anyway).

I camped Friday and Saturday, left the trailer there so I could get back Saturday night for church on Sunday, and plan to go back Sunday afternoon with Chieko to camp and head over to Mirror Lake on Monday.

Here's my camp spot. It has lots of room for tents, and it has a double-long table. However, the table sits on a slope, so for it to be level, one end is really short. The tarps are for the rain that never showed up. The camp host said it has rained every day for the past month, which is typical for the Uintas. 

For dinner I'm making Dutch-oven Mediterranean lamb stew and pineapple carrot cake with orange-raspberry cream cheese frosting. 

This is the stew cooling off a bit. 

And finally I am enjoying my dinner. I made a slight error with the carrot cake. When I was ready to cook it I realized it's supposed to go into a 14-inch dutch oven. I don't have a 14-inch dutch oven, and I accidentally used the only 12-inch oven for the stew. So the cake had to go into the 10-inch oven. Well, that didn't work, because it filled the oven to the top, with no room to rise. So I split the batter into two and cooked two layers. That actually worked quite well. The cake is just extra tall with cream cheese frosting in the middle and top. 

What stars you can see without city lights. 

Saturday morning I took a stroll up the Christmas Meadows/Stillwater trail, one of Brian's backpacking favorites (actually, I backpacked a little way up here a couple years ago). I was hoping to see some wildlife at sunrise. I saw one moose running past the cabins on the opposite side of the meadow, and a couple of trail runners (people). But that's about it. Oh, some birds, too. 

And here's pretty much what I did the rest of Saturday. 

I did consider renting an ATV at the Bear River Lodge, but the selection was a little lame. 

It's now Saturday night, and I'm home for tonight and tomorrow morning. You'll have to wait until Monday or Tuesday for the rest of the outing. 

Okay, I'm back. We drove back to our camp spot Sunday evening. This time Chieko came, too.

Jennifer and Stanton joined us in their tent. Others were going to come up, but the threatening weather scared them away. Surprisingly, the weather in the Uintas was probably drier than in the valleys. We heard a couple sprinkles during the night but woke up to blue skies with a few fluffy clouds. (Except in the direction of Mirror Lake, where the skies were black when we headed there Monday morning.)

Jennifer and Stanton cooked steaks and corn on the cob on the open fire, and Chieko and I reheated lamb stew (Chieko wasn't here for the first serving on Friday night). (Yes, that is my blue camp shirt that you've seen in every camp and lake picture for the past couple years. It's still serving me well.) 

Stanton then treated us to a tent-door-as-stage puppet show. After dark we marveled at all the stars and the Milky Way. Saw a couple of shooting stars, and watched two satellites zoom across the sky. 

Monday morning we drove back to Mirror Lake for the Annual Mirror Lake Labor Day Picnic. This is the group, minus the Austins. Brian and Caleb backpacked Sunday to Packard Lake, Caleb's first backpacking hike. And it was pretty strenuous. They went home while most of the rest of the group did the walk around Mirror Lake. 

The weather looked like storms, especially when we got there in the morning, and we were prepared. Rain fell for a couple of minutes, so we got to try out the ponchos and umbrellas, but mostly we enjoyed a cool, dry, sometimes breezy day.  

Chieko is digging into her tinfoil dinner. This is all tradition on Labor Day at Mirror Lake. 

Annie. 

California Dental Association North Show in San Francisco

So, while I am attending CDA North, I also catch a bus to Japantown Thursday evening for dinner, walk around Chinatown the second evening and take the Cable Car to Fisherman's Wharf on Saturday for lunch. Here is what I see.

This isn't Japantown; it's Chinatown, but I put this picture first because this is the way a lot of tourists are seeing San Francisco. Segways and little gas powered, two-person, sit-down go carts are popular. While waiting for the cable car at Fisherman's Wharf, I and the other tourists watch an Asian couple in their early 20s that have just rented a couple of bicycles. The girl has apparently never been on a bike, and the boy is walking alongside her, holding onto the seat and trying to teach her. We watch her crash about three times, and then they walk the bikes back to the store. I would not like to learn to ride a bike here: steep hills and too much traffic. 

This is Japantown. I think this girl is tanning. Really. On the concrete between the entrances to two halves of the Japantown mall. 

The cupcake store. I can never bring myself to spend $3.50 on one of these little cakes. But I do spend $3.50 on strawberry shortcake at the Andersen Bakery across the walkway.

I can also bring myself to eat a ramen dinner with gyoza. This is why I come to Japantown. My favorite ramen shop in Northern CA is in San Mateo, but without a car I can't get there. So this is good enough. I also stop in the store downstairs for some Japanese bath salts. 

I am staying at the Westin Market Street (actually 50 3rd Street), just a block or so from the Moscone Center, where we have our show. 

Just so you know that I really do attend a trade show in San Francisco, here is our booth. Notice that it has plenty of workers but few customers. That's because we have one of the largest booths at the show, so someone sticks it in a corner, and this aisle, which showcases two new products that need a lot of exposure, is a near-dead end, so few people wander down here. 

This is a demo skull at a dental implant booth. 

Now to Chinatown on Friday evening. 

Lots of T-shirts. 

Several guys are playing this stringed instrument in different locations, some alone and some in groups of three or so. I give this guy a couple bucks for letting me take his picture, and when he stops to take the money, the music continues. 

You can buy a beanie here. 

These back scratchers are handy and cheap. 

Home decorations. 

Expensive jewelry. Just kidding. Several stores do sell pearls and jade, but I have no idea how to judge quality or real from fake. I'm guessing this stuff on tables on the sidewalk is not the most expensive available. 

Tights and a couple hats, anyone?

Meat and vegetable sellers start hauling their goods out about 5 p.m., and the crowds are big. Chicken feet seem popular. 

So is fresh fish. The fish that's barely in the picture on the bottom left is still flopping. 

The streets parallel and perpendicular to the main Chinatown trinket street is where you'll find all the fresh vegetables, fruit and meat. 

This mural is on the side of an apartment building in Chinatown. 

One reason I attend trade shows is to meet with magazine reps and consultants. Tiffany from DPS treats us to lunch at Fang near the Moscone Center. As we're finalizing our selections from the lunch menu, Peter Fang walks over, takes our menus and tells us, "You don't need these. I'm the chef. I'll take care of you." And he starts sending out wonderful dishes one at a time. 

This is the last dish, deep-fried shrimp and apple pieces in a unique sweet-and-sour sauce that is delicious (this is Trevor, the marketing campaign manager for our Mac-based product; his identical twin flies helicopters over the Grand Canyon from the Las Vegas Airport). 

On Saturday I venture to Fisherman's Wharf for lunch via the Cable Car. (This picture is at the Wharf-end of the ride; the other end is at Powell and Market Streets, close to the Apple Store. You should always know where the Apple Store is when you travel.)

When we approach a Cable Car coming the other way the conductor warns us not to let body parts hang out too far. He also scolds the lady who keeps holding her iPad in front of him to take pictures out the front window of the car. People should not take pictures with their iPad anywhere, anyway. It just looks silly. 

As we come down the hill toward Fisherman's Wharf, if you squint, you can see the Oracle America's Cup boat cruising right to left. 

Here's the Oracle boat (two Oracle boats are in the Bay) as it approaches the Golden Gate Bridge. I think the Louis Vuitton Cup, which is a qualifier for the America's Cup, is going on now. That's what I heard others on the pier saying. What do I know? 

The Prada boat passes Alcatraz Island. 

Panhandlers are plentiful on Fisherman's Wharf. This guy not only ignores the sign (he probably chooses this spot because of the sign), but he has a 7-Eleven cup in front of the McDonald's entrance. Street performers are also abundant, some entertaining (the gold guy) and some not so much (the Michael Jackson imitator and the juggler who never juggles). 

Interesting signs abound. 

I come to Fisherman's Wharf for clam chowder in a sour dough bread bowl at Boudin's. This place has always been popular, but it has grown over the years into a huge tourist stop. Here a worker is making sour dough turtles and teddy bears behind a street-side window afixed with speakers and microphones. 

From the cable car back we can see the pyramid Transamerica Building that gives San Francisco its distinctive skyline. 

And from this street, the Oakland Bay Bridge. 

Dentistry Show, Las Vegas, August 7-11, 2013

I'm kind of a cheapskate when it comes to staying in hotels. I love a nice hotel, what with the down comforters, soft pillows and billowy beds and all. But I don't like to pay a lot of money when I'm pretty much only going to sleep there. However, when the company pays, and Chieko is going to spend a bunch of time in the room (and fitness center) while I attend conference meetings, I'm all for a nice place. Here's our room at the Aria Resort in Las Vegas.

We'll start with the water tornado in the Crystals shopping center next to and part of the Aria. The shopping center has a bunch of these. They're about four of five feet tall. They add a nice touch to the Donna Karans, Christian Diors, Guccis, Tiffanys and Versaces stores. 

You can drive this McLaren (or one like it) on a race track, for a price. It's on display in the mall. If you have to ask how much...

And here's a peek at Las Vegas Boulevard from the pedestrian bridge that goes from the Crystals to the Planet Hollywood Miracle Mile shopping center and casino. 

Here's what breakfast looks like at the Egg Works. 

Here's what dinner looks like at Todai Japanese buffet. 

And in case you're wondering, this is what goes on at a dental user conference. 

This is the Bellagio water show. The show happens every half hour, except in the evenings when it goes off every 15 minutes. It also has much better music and a more spectacular water show at times, but this is the one I videoed. 

Here's the tour of our room in the Sky Suites tower at the Aria. I know, it's not a great video, but this is the best I could do with my little Canon waterproof camera. 

Now, if I were going to Las Vegas and paying for my own room, I would likely have stayed at the Oasis in Mesquite for $30 per night. 

It looks like this is no longer an option.