TAHOE, FAMILY

Can’t believe it’s been two months since I last posted an entry.  It’s not that we’ve been just sitting around, but sheer laziness on my part.  Guess I’ll combine a couple of things in this post.

At the end of April, we trekked on up highway 395 on the eastern slope of the Sierras to Incline Village at Lake Tahoe, where we would stay for five nights at the Hyatt Regency for Loni’s CBBS (California Blood Bank Society) convention.  This always is a favorite venue and the weather cooperated beautifully.  We hit a week-long seam between snow and wind on one end and much colder temps on the other.  The trip up 395 was long (454 miles) but we made it in a fairly easy 8.5 hour drive, including stops for lunch, gas, and bathroom breaks.  We listened to some books on CD, which made it a lot easier.  Plenty of snow still on the peaks, so it was a gorgeous drive, but we were bushed when we finally got in.  Our room was excellent, with this pretty view out the window.  We were staying here, of course, because the room was paid for by the CBBS in return for our working to set up the conference and to man the registration desk for four days.  In this setting, that’s a great deal.  That first night, we just went down to the sports bar for an easy burger meal, which turned out to be excellent.  Big, juicy burgers with quality toppings.  Paired with a beer, we were primed to crash early.  I’ll spare you the meeting details, but all went smoothly, with good attendance and surprisingly delicious catering by the hotel for the lunches and cocktail hours.  No complaints at all, especially since it was all essentially free! 

The weather, as I said, was perfect.  60’s to 70’s, no wind.  The resort has a dock which we took advantage of in the evening as the sun set.  This is looking about due south.

For our dinners on the remaining nights, we went across the street to the much more reasonably priced local diners.  The highly recommended French place that I wanted to try -- Le Bistro -- was closed for another month.  The Frogs must have thought it was August.  The posted menu made the pain all the worse.  We will have to try it if we’re ever up there again.  We settled for much less glamorous fare, although quite good in its own right, at each of Tomaatos and Austin's.  We ate at Tomaatos twice, and I must confess I had the shrimp scampi both times.  I’m a sucker for properly cooked shrimp and lots of garlic.  Austin’s also was excellent, and I have no reservations about recommending both of these places.

We did, of course, work hard.

I about passed out blowing up that happy blood drop.  Stupid tiny inflation valves!

On Saturday, the conference ended at noon, and we finished the packing up shortly thereafter, said our good-byes, and were on our way to the Bay Area to see the family.  These good-byes were a bit poignant, as this will be our last conference as worker bees.  Judy, the organization’s secretary and organizer of the conferences, retired after the meeting and future events will be run by some corporate entity.  So, no more freebies for us.  We’ve had good times doing this here, Vegas, Huntington Beach, San Francisco, and more.

Our trip down the hill on I-80 to the Bay was unremarkable save for the relatively light traffic and the 48 mpg we got.  Nice to go downhill most of the time.  We barely got 40 on the trip up, which was indeed a lot of climbing.  In S.F., we stayed with John & Meghan & Isla at their place in Noe Valley, where Poppy (OK, now you know) got to play with the cutest 5 month old on the planet.

Ah, nothing like a grandchild that you can leave behind when it’s diaper time.  Sunday, we all trekked over the Bay Bridge to Jack London Square to join Mike and Alia for brunch at Lungomare.  I don’t know about their other meals, but the brunch menu was very inventive and absolutely delicious.  I had the organic duck eggs over a pork shoulder-onions-peppers polenta.  Sounds weird, but ooooh my.  Loni had the poached eggs over sausage arancini with a citrus hollandaise. The kids boozed it up but I had one of their very good non-A concoctions.

We all were happy campers.

 

Hey, I could take this Bay Area living!  Except for the housing prices, of course.  And the rain.  After brunch, Mike, Alia and we strolled around the area, then drove over to where the USS Hornet was set up as a museum.  We had a fun tour of the crew quarters, hangar bay, and the flight deck.  Mike and I are in front of an A-4 Skyhawk.  I don’t have a clue as to what the prop job is.  We had A-4’s on the Kittyhawk and the Connie during my deployments back in the day (1969).  2,960 of these workhorses were built over a 25 year production run from 1954 to 1979!  That’s a pretty robust design.  And the first 500 were all built for about $700,000 each.  Compare that with the final program unit cost of the problem-plagued F-22A Raptor:  $412 million!  Apiece!

As always, a great visit.