High SocietyJapan: ADA Conference in San Antonio, TX

In October we thankfully were able to take vacation for the annual ADA conference in San Antonio, TX. It was definitely a different experience with 35,000 of our closest friends, as compared to our last trip in 2007. Riverwalk was packed! I tied to take more picture but my camera apparently doesn't take very good pictures at night. Oh well.

We ate lots of awesome Mexican food but our only attempt at Italian food was a mess. The waiter was rude and definitely not a welcome back to the US. Apparently just trying to make a buck!

Beautiful Buildings around San Antonio though. Here is the city courthouse.

A Catholic Church...

We also saw the distinguished speaker series with Tom Brokaw. He really looks a lot older now than I remember but I was excited all the same. It was one of the highlights of the conference and he gave a really good talk. Outside the Alamodome on the way to the talk, they had horses and marache bands.

the last night we attended an awesome Oral Surgery party adn then an insurance party inside the Alamo with Chelsea and her parents. Good thing we ran into her because all the parties were such a secret! Definitely not like the mid-winter meeting in Chicago. The next day, we attempted to fly out with some buddy passes from Brandt's cousin but all the flights were booked. So after spending a whole day at the airport, we gave up and purchased airline tickets, a hotel for the night and a car rental online while sitting in the airport. Best decision we ever made. Otherwise I think we would have still been in the airport!

So we got into Portland and went down to Coos Bay for a few days then back up to Portland for happy hour at Portland City Grill - best view in town!

Brandt teaches Peter how to take a Japanese picture...

Mom came out late night with us and we took her out for Spanish coffees at Huber's - the oldest bar in Portland. Yummy!

The next night, we headed over to Nikki's and Peter's house for salmon, crab cakes, and spicy pepper martinis - mmmmmmm!

The we hit the town, much to my complaining. Wouldn't you know though, at 1 am I was just waking up and then it was time to go home. Definitely not the 4 am Japan nights I'm used to! For the better I guess since the next day we had to get up for a hike with mom and dad.