The Retina Fellow’s Forum took place in the Windy City this year in the midst of January. The snow and chill assured that all 85 of us graduating fellows remained a captive audience as we sat through 2 days of back-to-back didactic sessions, industry-sponsored endorsements, free instrument/lens giveaways, career guidance, and an epic bowl-off at 10-Pin Lounge. The mix of sushi and nasty bowling balls was a strange combination, but I came away a lucky winner of Insight’s shameless “Great CA$H Giveaway.” This visit to Chicago also gave me a chance to finally try out Rick Bayliss’ Frontera Grill, although the tacos, taquitos, and enchiladas, while good, did not live up to the hype. With the cash winnings, as well as several other recent, more merit-based awards, I decided to expand my disk space real estate, with a pair of 3TB WD Red’s and a Samsung 840 EVO SSD, as part of my grand scheme for better data storage, sharing, and backup. I also got my hands on a lightly-used Traktor Kontrol S4 MIDI controller, which I bought for a fraction of the MSRP after months of bargain hunting on Ebay. With the help of a nifty online course from Udemy, my new toy has allowed me to take my first plunge into music mixing and the world of DJ’ing. Sadly, my financial luck streak has also been offset by a number of tech misfortunes, with my laptop LCD panel pooping out, the SATA port of my Red drive snapping off, and even my trusty 18-55mm Nikkor lens failing all within a few weeks. To ward off the bad mojo, I took my parents out to a nice dinner at Poole’s Diner to kick start their 2 week visit to spend my birthday and Chinese New Year with me.

Several extra days in Sacramento with my wife was the perfect way to unwind after our traumatically-delayed flight home from Costa Rica. This of course involved eating a lot of comfort food like ramen, bun rieu, and Cantonese seafood. Since Melody had to cover clinic on Friday, I stayed home with the rats while editing photos from the trip. After a forgettable dinner at Mulvaney’s, we brought home treats from Ginger Elizabeth and Ettore’s to snack on while curing the world of Pandemic. Having watched Will Wheaton and friends hilariously tackle this board game, we were enticed by the clever game mechanics and cooperative play, and were not disappointed. We spent Saturday morning taking holiday photos with Gus and Walter, but the mood turned when I received an email that my flight home was canceled. Incredulous, we called United again and was placed on hold for a record 5 hours, which lasted through our dinner with the in-laws at Lollibowl and Lollicup. We finally had to settle for a flight leaving from San Jose, which was 2 hours away by car. Fortunately, we felt a little better after some fresh dim sum and soy sauce noodles from 99 Ranch and pastries from Kee Wah Bakery. Flying on Delta also got me upgraded on both legs of the flight, which provided comfy chairs, delicious raviolis, and Belgian chocolate gelatos on my way home. Anyway, photos for Costa Rica are up on the Travel page. Enjoy!

With several attendings gone and co-fellows helping to cross-cover, I was able to arrange my first week-long vacation in fellowship to spend New Year’s with my wife. The options were slim given the little time we had to plan, the costly airfare flying from different cities, and most hotels being sold-out for the holidays. We ultimately decided to explore ecotourism in Costa Rica at the Los Angeles “cloud forest”, a private nature reserve that was more secluded than the better-known Monteverde cloud forest. Our trip began on Saturday with a morning flight to San Jose, where my wife, despite having overslept her connection, was able to rendevous with me. Our 2-hour bumpy drive to Villa Blanca did not help Melody’s migraine, but we recovered after settling into our casita, a quiet little sanctuary overlooking the misty, picturesque landscape. After dinner and a good night’s sleep, we awoke next morning for a day at La Paz Waterfall Gardens. We were thankful to have opted for a private transfer instead of the cheaper group tour so that we could take our time enjoying the kaleidoscope of animal species – delicate butterflies, hefty toucans, ferocious parrots, buzzing hummingbirds, agile monkeys, colorful dart frogs, slithering snakes, and restless jungle cats – along with our niece’s school project Flat Stephanie. The lunch buffet was simple but satisfying – a welcome break from the repetitive resort menu. Before dinner, we embarked on a guided night hike, where the 10 pairs of eyes in our group located a variety of frogs, toads, spiders, and walking-stick insects, but sadly no sloths or other larger animals. On Monday, we learned to zipline among the San Luis canopies, where our professional guides and well-equipped 12-cable trail kept us feeling safe as we glided and swung through the trees. The final “superman” cable sent us soaring 106m above ground along a 552m cable back to our launch site, where we dined on delicious typical cuisine at La Arboleda. We spent the afternoon exploring the self-guided trail before trying a new board game beside our wood-burning fireplace. Next day, after trying our hands at milking a cow, we returned to San Jose. From our hotel, we set out on foot to explore bustling Central Boulevard, where we got a taste of the culture and energy of the capital city. After very authentic fare at Nuestra Tierra, we scoured the nearby crafts market for souvenirs, then returned to the hotel exhausted from all the walking. We had our New Year’s Eve dinner at the hotel restaurant, considered the best in the city, where the beautiful courtyard view made for a perfect night of celebration. Sadly, we fell asleep soon after ABC’s 30 Greatest Women in Music countdown, and could barely hear the firecrackers sound off at midnight as we drifted into peaceful slumber with Dick Clark’s NY Rockin’ Eve playing in the background. With most businesses closed on New Year’s Day, we found reprieve with HK-style dim sum at Wong’s to celebrate our last day in Costa Rica. We didn’t make it back to Sacramento until almost 4am next morning, thanks to a 4-hour delay at our Houston layover, where United’s food voucher only got us hot chocolate since the airport restaurants were mostly closed. Luckily, our board game kept us occupied and we had all of Thursday to recover. While our trip to Costa Rica would have been more satisfying without the airport drama, or if we had seen more animals, we were nevertheless thankful to have the time together, and to experience a unique New Year experience abroad.