Argentina and Some Miscellaneous - November 2012

I just got back from a week long business trip to Argentina. We also have a few random shots to share from this month so far.  So here we go.  First up, some street Tango from Calle Florida, not far from my Sheraton Libertador Hotel on the corner of Cordoba Av. and Maipu.

Lots of people, and consequently lots of activities on Florida street.  Shops open until late, restaurants, street musicians, and tango.  Above is a clip of some of the tango dancing.

 I left Logan on a Saturday morning for a mid-day flight to Atlanta.  Then I flew all night to Buenos Aires, landing around 8:00 a.m.  I was able to get to my hotel, shower and change, and walk about 1.5 miles to the nearest chapel in time to catch the last part of Sunday School and the Sacrament meeting.  I stayed after for a baptismal service (see above).  The elder baptizing is from Chile, his companion on the right is from Honduras.

 View in one direction from my hotel room.  The water to the left in the back is Rio de La Plata.

 Looking another direction from my room.

 The obelisco on 9 de Julio Avenue, downtown Buenos Aires.

 The Galerias Pacifico shopping center is very upscale and always impresses me with its museum like artwork and quality.  They already had their Christmas tree up.  Note the ceilings.

 This is the outside of the Pacifico shopping center.  It's right on Cordoba and Florida, a block from the hotel.

 This is Salomé, who works for Innova Biotech, our distributor in Argentina.  She's holding up a sample product for Laboratorios Roemmer's, one of our customers in the area.  If you look carefully, you can see my reflection in the mirror as I'm taking the photo.  We're obviously about to enter a "clean room" area.

 This clock tower is about 3 or 4 blocks from my hotel.  I shot this and the following photos from a meeting room atop another Sheraton Hotel (convention center) nearby.

 Looking down at some of the port and railway system nearby.  A bank building is off to the right.  If you following the road just above the railways, you soon come to a very upscale marina area (sailboats, restaurants, etc.).

 El Puente de La Mujer (The Bridge of the Woman) at the marina area I mention above.

 More towers near the marina.  That's a Hilton Hotel just past the yacht.

 My hotel (The Sheraton Libertador) is within a 10 minute walk of the Casa Rosada (Pink House), which is the equivalent of the White House - except that Cristina Kirchner (current leftist president of Argentina, and wife of now dead former president) does not actually live there.  My hotel is probably so named because San Martin, the liberator of much of South America, has a statue (also in the photo, left of center) here. The building to the left with bluish lighting is the Federal Bank.

 And that's me at the San Martin statue.

 One of the customers we visited was actually 500 kilometers away, in Santa Fe, Argentina.  It was a good 5 1/2 hour drive.  We drove up, ate lunch, made the visit, and drove back.  Long day!  Here is a pedestrian street downtown in Santa Fe.

 The customer, Zelltech, is affiliated with a university, so we had our meeting in an office in a university building.  Here's the view out the back window of the office.  I don't know the river name.

 As named in the lower left, this is a wall poster hanging in PharmADN.  It proudly states that they are the first production plant for monoclonal antibodies in South America.  What's significant is that they chose to show our (Thermo Fisher) product in use in the photo.

 One of the older, nicer sections of Buenos Aires is Palermo.  So a couple of times I jogged that way and carried my iPhone along.  I got a vacationing Brazilian couple to take this shot of me.  This is a famous sculpture that originally used solar power to open up during the day and close at night.  Apparently it stays open all the time now.

 A silhouette of one of countless statues in the city.

 

I had the very good fortune to be in Buenos Aires in the springtime right when the jacaranda trees (and boy are there a lot of them) were blossoming.  When the blossoms fall it makes amazing purple ground coverage.

 Gayle and I recently had on nearly matching outfits, so we had someone photograph us after church.

 We wanted to show the nice design on the bottom of Gayle's dress too.

 We raked up umteen piles of leaves, and Jared also had to get them off his yard.  Here he's playing with his nieces in a pile that's awaiting Logan City for pickup.

 One day Arleen gelled the girls' hair for fun.  Avril strikes a funny-face pose with some dolls for the camera in this shot.

And we close this post with a profile view of McKel and her gelled hair.

Non-Spain October (and early November)

Here are some shots from October (and a couple from early November) that don't relate to our Spain trip.

 Avril and McKel play together more and more.  Here Avril helps McKel get buckled into her swing seat on their backyard swing set.

 Nothing like sweet Cache Valley grown corn.  And nothing beats getting help from the grand-daughters husking the corn.

 Jared's close buddy, Dallin Large from Saugus, CA, with whom he grew up, and with whom we went to Guatemala a year ago, surprised us with a visit in October.  Here he and Jared are enjoying his rental car.

 A close-up of the bachelors.

 I drove our Camry down to Provo with Alicia to pick up the girls one Sunday afternoon.  Just past Lagoon on the I-15 and RV pulling a vehicle dragged something under the vehicle then it flew out and hit our rear passenger door.  It was metal and flying very fast, whatever it was, and put a hole right in the door.  The door has now been repaired.

 McKel likes to feed herself now, and gets upset if anyone tries to help her.

 Avril's a big girl and is so sweet.

 Here the sisters are on top of our Halloween spider decoration.

 We got to have Sierra, the girls' neighbor friend, over to our house one day too.  Here the three of them have a snack together on our driveway.

 Auntie Arleen has fun tending the girls and reading to them.

 Avril had fun trying on a Halloween mask.  She looks pretty scary as an alien.

 McKel had to  try it too!

 Our neighbor, Boyd Fullmer, saved the day a week ago by driving his mower over our yard and sucking up the leaves, which would have taken me hours to rake because they were so deep.

 Our friend, Mark Anderson, dropped by to see our yard and chat, and here we are looking at my mower blade.

Gayle loved the Relief Society bread baking activity over at Leisa Firth's house.  Here are some braided loaves.

 And here are some other scrumptious breads made by Relief Society sisters.

 The girls wore several costumes this year, depending on the venue.  Above and below are the costumes they changed into after an earlier event at the Lee's Market Place Halloween activity.  Avril is a pink pig.

 McKel hammed it up being a duck.

 The pig and duck together.

 In a different outfit for the school party. 

 The sisters had a blast in their costumes.

 Another cute photo.

 And yet another.

 Here we're with Cruella (one of the co-owners of the pre-school where the girls go).

 Gayle's helping Avril play Concentration.

 The girls got things painted on their faces, like this green spider.

 McKel got an orange pumpkin painted on her face.

 Our 8th ward also had a Harvest Dinner in October.  Adrian, Arleen, and Brittney joined us.

 One of the games entailed creating something out of a potato and other odds n' ends.  Cheri Murdock and Gayle were two of our team's creative contestants.

 Brit, holding up the final product.
 And here is 'Squito, the potato bug.

 Who can pass up pumpkin pie?  Well anyway, I can't.

 We also visited Dad at the Legacy House for a Halloween event.

 Alicia holds Avril while she paints a pumpkin.

 This time the girls were a ladybug and a dog (the dog head is a hood that isn't on Avril's head for this shot).

 Always fun to fish for candy.

 Swinging outside the Legacy House, sticky hands (from candy) and all.

 Gayle always gets into the spirit of things, regardless of the season.

 And Arleen is always such a good help for the girls.

 Gayle, modeling her outfit.

 Different pose.

 Jared (aka JJ) giving Avril a ride one recent evening.

Nothing like a warm bath right there in the sink!  Note the horsies (above the sink) who have just had their baths too.