ARVO’s decision to move its annual meeting away from Florida this year gave me the chance to visit Seattle for the very first time. Eric and I took off after work last Thursday to arrive just before midnight to check in to the W hotel. Our flight and 2 nights of hotel were generously paid for by Thrombogenics, who also sponsored the day-long Retina Summit meeting that featured among a number of engaging talks a lavishly catered lunch of steak frites and steamed mussels. For dinner I went to Tom Douglas’ Dahlia Lounge for delectable dungeoness crab cakes, although I was miffed to miss the free meal that Allergan was sponsoring in the same restaurant that night. On Saturday, I took a morning stroll with some Cleveland Clinic folks to Pike Place Market, where we snacked on Beecher’s mac n’ cheese and Daily Dozen doughnuts while watching tourists lined up at the original Starbuck’s and fish thrown at the Fish Market. Miri joined me in the afternoon at the EMP Museum. There, we perused Nirvana and Jimmy Hendrix exhibits, watched the Thriller music video in the Sky Church, mixed tracks of Sweet Dreams in the Sound Lab, and immersed ourselves in the worlds of Sci Fi, Fantasy, Horror, and Video Games. Too tired afterwards for Chihuly Garden & Glass, we took the monorail back in time for me to drag my luggage to the much cheaper hotel we booked for the unsponsored remainder of the trip. We joined one of our attendings for dinner at Taylor’s Shellfish, then stopped briefly at another Thrombogenics event before meeting my MEEI co-residents over late night drinks. I awoke Sunday to free fresh waffles at our hotel before taking in day one of the conference, stopping briefly to revisit Dahlia Lounge for donuts and eggs benedict with Keith from college, and ending with dinner and drinks at the Harvard reception at the Four Seasons. On Monday, I grabbed a quick lunch with my mentor from BIDMC, then rushed back to present my data for an AREDS2 trial sub-study. A potential collaboration gave me a free pass to the swanky SERI gala at the Hyatt that evening. On the way back to the hotel, I received another text message which led me to the W hotel bar again to mingle with more fellows. By Tuesday, our nightly outings had taken its toll on me. I left the meeting early, passed by Pike Place Market for a piroshky, then returned for a hotel nap to re-energize for a Genentech-sponsored steak dinner. I passed on breakfast the next morning to get my pho-fix en route to the conference center. There, I met my friend Sush for coffee, and got convinced to hike out to Fremont for the famed Caribbean Roast sandwich from Paseo. Fortunate to have found a friend to share a cab there, I returned happy and full, with just enough room to enjoy a second dinner with the DARSI lab at Palace Kitchen. My last day in Seattle was a mad dash from my morning poster session to Bellevue for hearty soup dumplings and noodles at Din Tai Fung with three other retina MD-PhDs, then straight to the airport afterwards to catch my flight home. Arriving at RDU after midnight, I shared a shuttle back to the Eye Center to review charts and pick up my car, which made the following OR day rather painful. But between the beautiful sunshine, the culinary adventures, and multitude of learning experiences, this trip has landed Seattle among my favorite cities in the U.S.
More than a year after our big trip to India, I finally began compiling our photo journal this past Memorial Day weekend. Lucky for me, Blurb no longer requires the dreadfully buggy Booksmart software, but instead offers a plugin for the more powerful Adobe InDesign. I was also pleasantly surprised by the company’s decision to finally offer digital PDF prints of all our travel albums, alleviating my fear of a potential house fire that will engulf my entire scapbook collection. The other program I taught myself to use, thanks to a free Udemy course, is Native Instrument’s Traktor Pro. The software gave even a novice like me the chance to mix music like a DJ, and imagine an alternate life as Funkmaster-G. At least that was what my mind was thinking of during the 8-hour training session for our new EMR system last weekend that nearly killed me with boredom. To recover, I treated myself to a few meals out, thanks to a Restaurant.com gift certificate and a trip to Duke Raleigh Hospital for my ID badge and parking pass. Sadly, the lamb biryani at Dales’ seemed flavored mostly with ketchup (what did I expect from an Indian restaurant named Dales’?). Fortunately, the seafood soondubu at Seoul Garden was full of fantastically fermented flavors, enticing me to future trips down to the state capital for future foodie ventures. My planning for Melody’s upcoming visit has begun!
