Latte Art

I got a milk steaming pitcher, and after some practice, I made my first piece of latte art.

Puerto Rico for the AAHS

Mark, Shane, Chad, and I went to Puerto Rico for the American Association for Hand Surgery meeting, which took place at the Westin Rio Mar Beach Resort. We left Tuesday morning, and after all the traveling, we arrived at the hotel after midnight. On Wednesday and Thursday, we spent some…

Winter Masquerade

This evening, we had the Winter Masquerade, on the top floor of the west wing. We had a good time, and it was a nice house-warming occasion as well.

Black Canyon Upstream

The kayaking trip to the Black Canyon was spectacular. The weather was perfect, and the hot springs were very nice. We arrived Friday night, stayed at Lake Mead, and then kayaked all the way from Willow Beach to Arizona Hot Springs. After dropping off our stuff, we proceeded to go…

Joshua Tree for Sabbath Afternoon

After church, we took an afternoon trip to Joshua Tree National Park and hiked in Hidden Valley. After the sun went down, we watched the stars emerge and talked about God’s promise to Abraham.

First Time Hiking San Gorgonio

The hike today was spectacular—above the clouds! It was harder than I thought. I’m exhausted. Even though I’ve done so much hiking in California, this was my first time up this local landmark.

Coyote Skinning

Two days ago, I started skinning the coyote, with the help of Ryan and Jeremy. One of the secretaries picked it up near Lake Arrowhead and handed it to me in Home Depot’s parking lot. It was road kill. After skinning and scraping, I salted it. Then, I brain-tanned and…

June Lake and Yosemite

This evening, I returned from a long trip away from home. It’s nice to be back. On Tuesday, I hiked up the trail above June Lake and Gull Lake. Yost Meadow was beautiful. That afternoon, the rest of the group joined me. There was Uncle Ben, Andrew, Lynette, Wing, and…

Lake Tahoe and Desolation Wilderness

The trip up to Tahoe was really long. Joe Bowen drove very slowly and carefully. Sometimes, it was painful. Anyhow, we got to the Resort at Squaw Creek and made it to the first dinner for the Musculoskeletal Infection Society. I served as President this year. On Sabbath morning, we…

Rabbit Hunt

The rabbit pests are out, and they seem to be multiplying more and more. My fiberglass recurve bow from college days still works well.

Mammoth to Thousand Island and Garnet Lakes

On Friday last week, we headed up to Mammoth Lakes. We stayed the first night at the Pine Glen group campsite number 7. The next morning, we set out from Agnew Meadow. Our group consisted of me, Sean, Sean’s mom and aunt—Nancy and Deborah, Kevin, Ryan, Brad, and Armando. The…

Black Canyon Downstream

We just got back from kayaking the Black Canyon. It was with Alice, Wing, Alvina, Rosebud, and Ryan. Laisum and Jayce canceled because they were sick. This time, we started from Hoover Dam and visited some of the points of interest further upstream. The sauna cave was nice, but I…

Tucson

The American Association for Hand Surgery took place in Tucson. Dan Kemper did a nice presentation about plating for comminuted distal radius fractures. Between and after the meetings, I spent time touring Saguaro National Park.

Epic Christmas Trip

We had an epic Christmas vacation! On Sunday, Christmas morning, we drove up to Monterey. The drive was nice, and the scenery was beautiful, especially around the Pebble Beach area. We had Chinese food for dinner. The next morning, I went out for a run—just after a night of rain.…

Zion in Autumn

This last weekend in October was spent visiting beautiful Zion National Park during the peak of fall color. The highlight was Kanarra Creek and the slot canyon carved by this stream.

Horseshoe Meadow to Whitney Portal

The trip began on September 15. After spying Whitney summit from the Lone Pine Ranger Station, Ryan and I got car shuttled to Horseshoe Meadow. From there, our trip took us to Chicken Spring Lake, Guyot Creek and Pass, Crabtree Meadow, and Guitar Lake. We had the most spectacular sunset…

Sawtooth Ridge Loop

A week ago Thursday, we head up to Bridgeport. Although the invitation had gone out to so many people, only Lynette and Jessica managed to RSVP. At the beginning of the trip, just a few steps into it, Jessica’s backpack strap fell apart. We patched it up with a needle…

Four Passes Loop

Last week on Thursday, Sid and I left for Snowmass—for the Musculoskeletal Infection Society (MSIS) meeting. We had lunch on a rainy day at the Quiznos in downtown Denver. It was funny that Sid remembered that the last time we ate together was also at a Quiznos, the one in…

Thousand Island Lake

This weekend trip started in Agnew Meadow. The Mammoth shuttle bus system just opened for the season. After camping midway up the River Trail, we made it to a partially frozen Thousand Island Lake. Banner Peak was also snow-covered. A few of us decided to do a polar swim—or do…

First Time up the Black Canyon

I was nervous about this trip. Wendy from the OR had told me about it, and we decided to rent kayaks from Willow Beach. I’ve never kayaked upstream before, and leading up to the trip, I was rehearsing how to navigate and use eddies to hop upstream. It ended up…

Dominican Republic

On Sunday a week ago, Scott and I arrived in the Dominican Republic. After a long travel night and day, we went for a run, which felt really good. That evening, we had dinner at Café Bellini. Their arugula portabello salad and spinach ravioli were really good. The next day,…

Puerto Rico Tour

We arrived safely, after nearly missing our flight while trying to drive through the rain to Ontario. We had arrived 3 minutes before the check-in counter closed. Stephen and Patty Schnall happened to be on the same flight. In San Juan, we got our rental car and headed to Fajardo—not…

Kayak Building

After looking at a number of designs, I got lumber and other supplies from Chesapeake Light Craft. Building the kayak took about a month. The most difficult part was in trying to get the epoxy resin and fiberglass to go on without bubbles or wrinkles. Taking it out on the…