When we decided to visit Melody’s best friend and her family in D.C., we didn’t realize that perhaps Memorial Day weekend wouldn’t be the best time to visit the nation’s capital. However, Westley handled his third flight like a champ, with the help of fried rice and Mario in flight, followed by burgers, hot dogs and new 2- and 7-year-old friends to take baths with. We headed to the National Zoo on Saturday, where the animals were surprisingly active with highlights that included itchy elephants, a baby gorilla, and a high-swinging orangutan. With the sweltering heat, we snacked on boiled eggs and orzo salad, drenched ourselves in misters, then hydrated with over-sweet icees on the way home for nap time. The kids were occupied by a softball game on TV at Manna BBQ for dinner, but perked up with snack samples and shopping at H-Mart next door. With the kids in bed, we enjoyed some John Mulaney standup on Netflix before turning in. We spent Sunday morning at the Mosaic District’s Farmers Market and dim sum at Vinh Kee, but vegged out for the afternoon with Black Panther when it started to rain. Memorial Day was similarly lazy, with puddle-jumping at the local playground followed by Melody and Lisa running off for pedicures and shopping, which included groceries for Melody’s broccoli-beef stir fry and steamed egg custard for dinner. We spent our last morning at the National Museum of Natural History. Westley was tentative at the butterfly exhibit, but otherwise enjoyed the dinosaur bones, insects, and savanna taxidermy until his meltdown at lunch. After a short nap, we returned our rental car and picked up some Potbelly sandwiches for our flight home. We’ll see how Westley handles the jetlag back.

We celebrated our 11th anniversary last week like any other Saturday. While Melody was at her massage, I took Westley to the library and dance class, where he has become more engaged. Despite being the smallest in class, he follows directions well, though I wished that skill translated better to home and daycare where he continues to exert his independent (and occasionally bitey) nature. After lunch and nap time, we took Westley to apply for his passport in preparation for our upcoming trip to Vancouver. On Mother’s Day, we drove to Stockton for grandparent bonding and dim sum before returning to a busy work week with Melody gone for an investigator meeting. With all the recent and upcoming travels, I decided to commute rather than stay at our department’s Napa symposium. For my pre-meeting lunch, I found myself the only patron at Ca’Momi and managed to strike up interesting conversation with the bartender over crispy sweetbreads and grilled octopus. The evening concluded with dinner with the invited speaker from UW, with whom I shared memories of yonder days from SHP and high school research. I returned to find my wife prostrate in bed with strep throat and a temp of 104, so I bailed the meeting to spend Saturday with leftovers and Mario. With antibiotics on board, Melody brought Westley to Napa to watch my talk on Sunday, and hung out at a nearby playground before another visit to Ca’Momi on the way home. As she battled out her affliction and I recover from sleep deprivation, we agreed to keep our Memorial Day trip more relaxed.

This year’s ARVO meeting took place in Honolulu. And while there are worse places to spend 5 nights, it was not the same without my wife and son with me. My brother-in-law dropped me off at SMF at 5am last Saturday to make my early flight to SFO, where I shared breakfast with my colleague Jack before connecting to HNL. An old friend picked me up for ramen with his family, then dropped me off for an Allergan ad board meeting that lasted until dinner time. Exhausted, I opted for ramen again over a networking dinner before settling into my hotel. I kept busy on Sunday attending talks and meeting collaborators, but ducked out for lunch at Marukame Udon, where I enjoyed the cafeteria-style noodle shop experience and brought extras back to the hotel to supplement the offerings from our Chair’s reception and Genentech investigator meeting. I had little time to practice my talk and EyeTube filming on Monday morning, but was well-prepared for afternoon outings. For lunch, I took my med students to Maguro Bros, which served solid, unassuming sashimi donburi and poke bowls from a dingy stand inside a Chinese supermarket. Dinner by contrast was a chic kaiseki feast at Nanzan Giro Giro with my Duke friends that featured flamboyant waitors, designer stoneware, and a creative omakase menu of black cod, foie gras, and lots of dashi. I explored nearby Ala Moana Center on the way back with my friend Paula for souvenirs, including goodies for my kid and labmates. The next day was filled with more poster and paper sessions, training from Heidelberg, surgical instrument shopping, Chinese food with CAOS, chats with Google, and flavorful Manichi ramen. I finally took a breather Wednesday morning with an early snorkel tour at Hanauma Bay, where the rocky corals were replete with tropical fish but left me pretty banged up. I returned to the convention center for more meetings in the afternoon, and caught up with friends over acai bowls and oxtail pho. On Thursday, I awoke to toasty malasadas from Leonard’s Bakery and boring saimin from Zippy’s, but nabbed a nice Zip Pack to-go for my flight back. After fending off questions from my resident’s presentation, I raced to the airport in time to get another souvenir for Westley before my flight. I ran into my friend Mike during the SFO layover, and discoursed about family and career over airport udon before finally getting home around midnight. I had little chance to recover with an overbooked clinic on Friday and a COEH Symposium talk on Saturday. This gave me barely enough time to prepare for an “infectious night of fun” at my house, where I invited lab folks to a game of Pandemic followed by wings and burgers from Costco. We didn’t have time for a screening of the movie Outbreak, but I made sure the meats were cooked thoroughly to avoid an actual infectious outbreak, and everyone seemed to enjoy the festivities. With a new tank of propane and warmer weather approaching, I’ll be firing up the grill again soon.