Las Vegas & San Francisco — September 12-19, 2014

When Barb and I had finished our tour of Hoover Dam, we continued on to Las Vegas to visit Barb’s dad Cliff.  While in Vegas we did some window-shopping for campers, but ended up more confused than ever as to what we might eventually purchase.

On a previous visit one of Barb’s sisters had left a recommendation for us to visit the Las Vegas Wetlands Park, and so on an especially hot day we impulsively ventured out into the noon heat to investigate the park on the Las Vegas Wash.   We found a surprisingly green park whose water source is a combination of runoff from all of Vegas and from reclaimed water from a treatment plant.  We saw little wildlife — maybe because it was so damn hot.  Duh.

I left Vegas before Barb, since I wanted to go see my son Wil, who lives in the famous Castro district of San Francisco, right behind the Castro Theater.  On the day before I left, Barb’s brother Dan and his partner Candy arrived in Vegas from Washington State, so I got to see them before departing.  Barb remained in Vegas in order to visit with her father and Dan and to help Cliff and Candy celebrate their birthdays.

Wil picked me up at the Frisco airport, of course.   I wish someone had taken a picture.  Wil’s car is a Lotus Elise.   If you aren’t familiar with that vehicle, it is a British-made two-seat sports car that has been favorably compared to an Alpha Romeo 4C or a Porsche Cayman.  (Click here.)  My bulging backpack just barely fit into the small trunk.  What to do with my soccer bag with the rigid spine?  There was no choice but to put me into the passenger seat and then put one end in my lap, with the rest of the long bag in a vertical position that rose above the level of the windshield.  Good thing the top was removed.

We had a good visit.   Dinner at his favorite restaurant one night with friends, three of whom were Apple employees that had in their possession the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+, even though this was before the official release date.   And the next night, a smaller group at Wil’s home where we created and consumed an awesome paella.