With growing feelings of burnout at work, we made a last-minute decision to take a family trip to Santa Cruz for Memorial Day weekend. I pulled a late night on Thursday to work on a paper, and felt more caught up by Friday as we packed for our mini-getaway. Due to a dearth of AirBnb options, we spent our Chase points for a family-friendly hotel that included free breakfast. We set out after Westley’s Saturday dance class, fueled on black garlic ramen and XLB from San Jose’s DTF, and arrived at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk by late afternoon to soak up the carnival atmosphere before taking a turn on the carousel. The 1911 Looff Carousel is a national historic landmark, featuring hand-carved wooden horses, a ring-dispenser, and an original Ruth & Sohn organ that was a step above the pedal-powered merry-go-round at the Davis Farmer’s Market. Westley still fits in a Pack-n-Play, so we were able to indulge in season 1 of the Umbrella Academy in bed next to him with the lights out. On Sunday, we wandered among greenhouse seedlings at UC Santa Cruz’s Life Lab, piloted a submarine at the Monterey Bay Marine Exploration Center, barked at sea lions over chowder at the Santa Cruz Wharf, then enjoyed chicken salad and roasted beet sandwiches at the Picnic Basket. After nap time, we visited the touch pond at the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History and strolled along Seabright Beach on the way to a mediocre dinner and fantastic ice cream. We awoke early on Monday for another go on the carousel before grabbing sandwiches to take on the Dixiana Redwood Forest Steam Train at Roaring Camp. The Memorial Day train also featured a Civil War skirmish reenactment, complete with dramatic deaths and musket salutes. Westley napped until our afternoon stop at Pacific East Mall, where we stocked up at 99 Ranch Market and stuffed ourselves with pancake balls and Sichuan cuisine before driving home. Our spontaneous family trip at least cleared away our mental doldrums – hopefully the effects will last until our trip to Croatia next month.

After weeks of training, Westley busted out his moves at the Dance Daze performance at the California Honey Festival. Despite the constantly evolving choreography and dizzying turns that led to his head dive on stage, he remained a good sport and made us incredibly proud. Before the show, we tried the ramen and boba at I-tea near UCD campus, but was disappointed by the slow service. Melody volunteered at Paul Hom the next day, so I took Westley to Home Depot, Ross, and Ikea to check out toys and office furniture, followed by lunch over chicken tenders and Swedish meatballs a la mode. I also showed Westley off at our all-staff Rivercats game event last week, where he nabbed a baseball during practice while gobbling hot dogs and potato salad. After hours, we’ve been watching Denaerys go postal on the less-than-satisfying last season of Game of Thrones, and an even-less-satisfying Twilight Zone reboot from Jordan Peele. Melody left town for a conference this week, so I spent another father-son weekend assembling the elaborate Nintendo Labo piano kit, cruising around the neighborhood in his tricycle, and hanging out at the Roseville mall for Lego and Daiso shopping. However, things also took a turn for the worse this weekend when our internet service was abruptly disconnected, requiring hours of Comcast calls and troubleshooting before I deduced the cable modem AC adapter as the culprit. Davis’ Aquahawk also alerted us to a 30 gallons-per-hour leak which appeared to be coming from our landscape irrigation. By the time Westley found a mysterious new crack in his bathtub, I was beginning to suspect supernatural foul play. As if we had stepped into our own twisted dimension, we felt our household stress level reach a critical high.

This year’s ARVO meeting took us back to Vancouver, where it has been less than a year since I last visited with my family for ASRS. I arrived Sunday afternoon, and made my way directly to Xi’an Cuisine in Richmond, only to find that my favorite purveyor of spicy wontons and cold noodles were gone for the week. Feeling defeated, I dragged my luggage next door to Xin Jiang Delicious Food for solid beef noodle soup, then to Silkway Halal Cuisine for flavorful goat soup and spicy Xinjiang-style braised chicken with broad noodles. After checking into my hotel, I networked at a reception at the Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden and hung out with friends at the Harvard reception before calling the night. I kept busy between scientific sessions on Monday, briefly sneaking away for Marutama Ramen, and ending the evening with a clinician-scientist dinner sponsored by Alcon at L’abbatoir, followed by drinks at the SERI reception. I spent Tuesday by my poster, pleasantly surprised by the mounting interest in our work, attended my post-doc Sook’s talk, and became acquainted with the AMPC as a new member. The soup dumplings at Dinesty were worth the trip, but the Cantonese seafood at Kirin was not as good as I remembered. Wednesday was more relaxed, which gave me a chance to do some video interviews and podcast recordings, revisit Long’s for more soup dumplings, and return to Richmond with my friend Yao for pineapple buns, tofu fa, and Taiwanese beef noodle soup. I spent Thursday morning strolling along the harbor to Stanley Park, but cabbed back to catch my technician Iris’ talk, followed by a lab celebration over aburi sushi at Miku and Akbar Mashti (saffron, rosewater, pistachio) gelato at Bella Gelateria. My return flight was delayed by a mechanical issue that made me miss my connection, but I was thankful for the Priority Pass credit at Yankee Pier for some chowder and crab roll during my SFO layover. While I was underwhelmed by many of the restaurants I revisited on this second trip to Vancouver, the scientific exchange at the meeting was satisfying, and I returned home excited to continue our research.