Our Trip to San Francisco in 2012
for the American Dental Association Meeting!
In October, 2012, our entire office went to a big annual Dental Association meeting for the first time! This was held in San Francisco, California and we were excited to be able to go as an office! We went so that we could take the classes we needed for our continuing education and so that we could make sure that we were up to speed on all the newest and lastest dental information. We decided to go four days early so that we could also take the time to explore and do some office bonding! :)
There were six of us who went...Dr. Bottoms, Lisa (his wife & dental hygienist), Amy (his assistant), Jennifer (our other dental hygienist), Jenna (our office manager), and Jenna's husband, Kerry. Amy had never been on an airplane before so she started out a little nervous. We stopped in Las Vegas and when we got back on the next plane to take us to San Francisco, she hopped into the window seat! She loved it!
We knew we only had four days to see San Francisco because we had three days of classes. So, we had to fit a lot in! We went to Fisherman's Wharf to see the famous sea lions on Pier 39 (loud and smelly but pretty cool) and stopped in at the Ghirardelli Chocolate Shop we'd been hearing about from everyone! YUM! We were very excited to ride the cable cars and they were as fun as we thought they would be! Lots of hills in San Fran so we had some crazy rides! Because of those hills we didn't really enjoy doing a lot of walking so we got very good at the cable car, street car, and bus system! And if you ever get a chance to tour a city on a Go-Car....do it! SO much fun! These cars are like a motorcycle the way that you drive them but have three wheels. There is a GPS system on the radio that tells you where to turn and what you are seeing! Dr. Bottoms loved this tour most of all.... and we went on a food tour so that is saying something! Yes and speaking of our food tour.... we took one through Chinatown and North Beach( their version of Little Italy). We had tea at a tea shop, dim sum at the oldest chinese bakery and authentic pizza! We also got to go to the Fortune Cookie Factory! WE LOVE FOOD! What a great way to learn about a city!
You can't go to San Francisco and not cross the Golden Gate Bridge! In fact, you can't go to San Francisco and not go to Napa Valley! We crossed over the bridge and headed right on to Sonoma and Napa Valley like good tourists! The wine tasting was fun and we loved picking the grapes right off the vine! So good! That day the weather was beautiful and the vineyards were gorgeous! Definitely a great thing to experience!
We also made sure to do a tour of Alcatraz! We did the night tour! CREEPY!
We all had a really good time! Of course the main reason we went to San Francisco was to learn more about our profession! We are proud of our office and try to keep up with the best dentistry we can offer! We came home excited about what we had learned and have been doing regular office meetings since to discuss how we can incorporate these new ideas into our office. The convention had a huge floor show full of all the best and newest dental products and we came home with a few of them. We feel an office that plays together and learns together is an office that is on the same page! We want the best for our patients!