Las Vegas and San Diego

The American Association of Dental Group Practices (AADGP) held its annual meeting in Las Vegas February 1 through 4, and being responsible for marketing to the multisite (group) segment, I attended to learn about the show and attendees so we can plan for the event appropriately in the future. After Las Vegas, I was thinking of driving on to Tucson for a warm bike ride, and Randy was considering going along, but Leona had a knee replaced last week, so Randy was out. I decided to go to Tucson alone and do the bike ride. Also take photos at the airplane boneyard. But then Chieko decided she wanted to go. So we changed Tucson to San Diego, eliminated the bike ride and dead airplanes, and added the San Diego Zoo, beautiful beaches and a lot of good food.

These first few pictures illustrate what a trade show looks like. If you think flying around the country to attend these shows is glamorous, your opinion differs from mine. I used to enjoy going to new places and seeing new cities, but the show parts are kind of a grind. 

This is a very small show, so we have just two tables, a backdrop, some pull-up banners and two or three sales people answering questions. At some shows we have just one six- or eight-foot table, and may not have room for the backdrop. 

Henry Schein Dental, the consumables distributor side of the business, has a large booth. We are the software, or practice solutions division. 

Dentists, or in the case of this show, dental service organization (DSO) business executives, attend classes at these shows. The classes are the main attraction. At most shows, dentists attend continuing education (CE) classes that they need to maintain their status. The trade show area, also called the vendor fair, is a bit of a sideshow for the attendees. It's a place where they can see the latest in technology and software, if there is anything that's latest. 

These small meetings start out with breakfast and include lunch. The food here is really pretty good, not bad for conference center fare. 

Back at the Aria Hotel and Casino, the Chinese New Year is being celebrated. 

The casino has dragons and roosters (this is the Year of the Rooster) throughout the place. The birds are made mostly of fresh roses and orchids. 

This is the main lobby dragon. The tree is growing Chinese gold coins. 

This rooster is in one of the side halls. 

The rooster's tail is mostly orchids. 

The first night in Las Vegas, we ate dinner at Sushi Takashi, where we had a 10-course dinner, supplemented by a free bowl of seafood-and-miso soup. The owner is from Hokkaido, and his recipes reflect dishes there, especially the complimentary soup.

Here's the Aria from the foot bridge over Las Vegas Boulevard. 

And Planet Hollywood, where the dental show is being held. 

Some hairy chested guy getting a tattoo in the Miracle Mile next to Planet Hollywood. 

By Friday I had gotten tired of the conference food and ate a Pink's hot dog for lunch. Pretty, pretty good. 

Like Times Square, the heaviest tourist areas of Las Vegas have a bunch of people hanging around in cartoon character costumes waiting for people to snap a photo with them and leave a tip. I'm pretty sure these are not sanctioned by the characters' copyright owners, as I doubt Disney would approve Minnie Mouse taking a smoke break on Las Vegas Boulevard. 

Here Pika Chu and his little buddy are heading down the escalator for a smoke break. 

Storm Trooper. 

Just a few shots of the people who passed by the top of the escalator outside Planet Hollywood. 

This guy almost rode his bike down the escalator. He hopped off at the last second. 

On Friday evening, Chieko and I went to see Celine Dion in Caesar's Palace. She is a tremendous singer and performer. We thoroughly enjoyed the show. I decided that if I played the violin, and became professional, I would want to be in her band. This piece in particular was just a lot of fun. 

Saturday morning we headed to San Diego, stopping to admire this Joshua tree. 

You may have read this on my Facebook page: This is the mystery of the escape of the Lens Family. When we stopped at a gas station before leaving Las Vegas, I noticed the Pelican case that was holding my three most-used camera lenses was able to slide somewhat on the top of Chieko’s suitcase in the car's trunk. Still, I left it there because it was in the most protected spot if we happened to get rear-ended. Fast forward 90 miles, and we are pulling onto a small side road just before Baker, CA. We stop to take a photo of the Joshua tree in the photo above, and I notice the open-door light on the dashboard is lit. No side doors are open. It has to be the trunk. Sure enough, the trunk lid is open, and the Pelican case is gone. Gone with my lenses. (The camera body and a new wide-angle lens are on the car's backseat.) I picture the case bouncing down the freeway at 75 mph. But that doesn't seem logical. I'm sure I would have seen the trunk lid bouncing open and the open-door light on the dashboard if the trunk had been open on the freeway. So I revise the picture to the case bouncing out when I exited the gas station in LV, and the force of the wind from driving at 75 mph holding the trunk closed on the freeway. Either way, my lenses are gone. From the Mojave Desert backroad I call our insurance company and file a claim. And we head back to the freeway. Just before the on-ramp, low and behold, there’s the Pelican case resting top side to pavement on the other side of the road. I open the scraped-up Pelican case and discover it has perfectly protected all three lenses, as well as some filters and batteries. But the mystery remains: Why didn’t I notice the trunk was open, either by seeing it in the rear view or by the light on the dash, and why did the case wait until 90 miles into the trip to jump overboard, just after I exited the freeway? So I again revise my picture to the Pelican case sliding across Chieko’s suitcase when we exited the freeway, catching its handle on the trunk’s emergency escape latch, popping the trunk open, sliding off the suitcase over the top of the trunk lip, bouncing once on its handle edge, and skidding to a stop on the pavement. The only problem with this theory is that the emergency escape latch is tucked pretty tightly against the roof of the trunk. How and when the trunk got open, that's the mystery. That the Pelican case protected the lenses from a three-foot drop and 35-mph slide just amazes me.

Chieko in the Mojave desert. 

Finally, we reach San Diego, just in time for a great sunset. 

The next day we headed to the San Diego Zoo. This is one big zoo. We need to come back sometime and see the Safari Park. 

A fern canopy over the walk. 

One of the pandas with his new bamboo chopsticks. 

This is an African land otter. 

A friendly Tasmanian devil. 

Duck. 

Koi. This is a great zoo. 

The prices are also great. A personal-size bag of chips is $4.08. 

I decided flamingos are not all that bright. One would panic, spread his wings and start squawking and running to the left. Soon the whole flock was squawking, flapping their wings, and running to the left. The next thing they're doing the same panic dance to the right. 

Huh?

These tufted capuchins have eerily human-like old-person faces. 

Don't fall into the hippo pond. 

He's watching for you to fall into the hippo pond. 

The baby orangutan. 

The papa orangutan. 

We were watching the male below through the plexiglass, when suddenly this young female came charging out of nowhere and ran right up to the plexiglass window. I thought she was going to plow right through it, but she stopped just short. 

The big papa silverback. 

These firns have what looks like pine cones growing in their center. 

This is a capybara, the world's largest rodent at about 100 pounds.

This lioness is thinking about...what? 

A view of the zoo from the gondola that transports people from one end of the park to the the other. 

We were lucky to see this koala awake and eating eucalyptus. They typically sleep 20 to 22 hours per day, partly to conserve energy and partly because eucalyptus is a drug. 

The bigger, older rhino is chasing the younger rhino away from his ficus snack. 

And he's begging for more ficus. Or he wants a kiss. 

This husky-mix was raised together with the cheetah and together they are ambassadors for the park. Somewhere in the zoo there's also a lab paired with another cheetah. 

This is the most smile you'll get from a giraffe. 

Here's the shop where I bought my Bianchi a couple years ago. I was hoping to find a shirt as a souvenir, but the shop is closed on Mondays. 

This is Coronado Island and San Diego as seen from Point Loma. 

The Point Loma lighthouse. 

Chieko at the Point Loma lighthouse. 

The Hotel Del Coronado.

We saw a lot of helicopters heading out from the Naval base and other locations nearby. 

This is Mexico. As close as I'll probably ever get. If you click this picture you may be able to see all the houses on the side of the hill.

These funny little birds were running back and forth on the beach as the water came in and out.

I'm not sure exactly what these red-billed birds are. I found a reference to a type of red-billed gull in New Zealand, but not in California. 

On Sara and Jared's recommendation, we ate at the Blue Water Market and Grill (twice). These tacos were fabulous, one salmon and the other wahoo. The fries came with blue cheese dipping sauce. I will dream about this meal until I come back to San Diego. 

And my dinner Monday back in Las Vegas. A great way to end a trip.