We decided to combine this year’s ASRS meeting in Stockholm with a visit to Copenhagen for a week-long Scandinavian vacation. Melody and I split the work planning the two cities, but between the Copenhagen Card and Stockholm Pass, our itineraries felt very similar. Our flight via Toronto got cancelled after a long delay, necessitating a frantic Uber ride from SMF to SFO for another flight via Frankfurt, arriving in Copenhagen only 4 hours behind schedule. After checking into our artsy and audiophilic Airbnb, we climbed the Round Tower and ducked under bridges on a canal tour before queuing for ramen for dinner. We awoke Monday to visit the genetically-modified Little Mermaid on the way to the more touristy landmark, then passed through the Kastellet and City Hall to learn more about Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tales. Lunch at the Tivoli Food Hall included smørrebrød, hot dog, pizza, and a wasp sting (my first!) that fortunately did not distract from the festive Tivoli Gardens. Westley was not yet tall enough for the Demon, but hauled me up Temple Tower, drove a Vintage Car, piloted a Dragon Boat, and went trigger-happy at the Mine. We pigged out over Ma Poule’s duck confit sandwich, Sushi Lover’s sushi, and Il Mattarello’s pasta carbonara at Torvehallerne Market before returning to Tivoli to enjoy the park’s nighttime magic. On Tuesday we explored Rosenborg Castle and Amalienborg Palace to learn about the old and newly-crowned Danish kings, then strolled through their gardens and Nyhaven for street art and street food, including Poulette’s chicken sandwich, Haddock’s fish & chips, and Pasta la Pasta’s pasta. We browsed plaster sculptures at the colorful Thorvaldsen Museum and more opulent chambers at Christiansborg Palace before joining my co-fellow Francisco for a seafood feast at Kødbyens Fiskebar. In the morning we supplemented our daily breakfast pastries from Buka with congee and risotto from Grod before catching our early morning train to Stockholm. We arrived in time for a quick lunch on my way to Stockholmsmässan to give my talk on teleophthalmology. Our evening stroll took us past Norrmalm’s shopping district, Stromgatan’s harbor view, and Kungsträdgården’s giant fountains to Ostermalms Food Hall for Lisa Elmqvist’s toast skagen, mussels, and fish soup. Our hotel offered free breakfast but poor security, leaving Melody bagless for our day at Gamla Stan. We walked through Old Town snapping photos of the narrow Marten Trotzigs Grand and mysterious Stortorget cannonballs, enjoyed hot and cold chocolate drinks at Chokoladkoppen, and swung by Storkyrkan to see the sundog painting on the way to the Nobel Prize Museum. Here, we read the stories behind the artifacts of past laureates, and was surprised by a chance encounter with my med school classmate Jai. After traditional Swedish meatballs and dumplings, we caught the end of the changing of the guards, then explored the Royal Palace before our guided tour of City Hall and its impressive Golden Hall. With canal tours canceled and most restaurants requiring reservations, we settled for nearby Stockholm Fisk before turning in. On Friday, we visited the Vasa Museum to witness the impressive recovery and preservation of the 17th-century ship that sank 25 minutes into its maiden voyage, along with details from other shipwrecks at the Lego Brickwrecks exhibit. We filled on wallenbergare and more meatballs at the Viking Museum, then toured its exhibits and dark ride. The nearby Skansen open-air museum gave us a chance to see arctic foxes, pet reindeer, and practice walking on stilts until our timed entry to ABBA The Museum. After our Dancing Queen sing-alongs, we dined at Tak for rooftop Scandinavian-Japanese fare. We kept Saturday light with a ferry to explore Drottningholm Palace’s expansive gardens and Chinese Pavilion, followed by ramen, gelato, milk tea, and Westley’s first try of black licorice. After a hot pot dinner with my vegetarian collaborator, we picked up Vete-Katten pastries for dessert and airport snacks next morning. Fortunately, our flights were not impacted by the Microsoft outage, giving us time at our Toronto layover to complete Westley’s Global Entry interview and his first taste of poutine. With one trip down and two to go this year, we immediately got back to planning our upcoming trips abroad.

I settled into my new lab office with a new desk and couch, along with a snazzy canvas to show off the suprachoroidal space that my lab is researching.  I also built a new PC for my home office using a Ryzen 7900X3D on a ROG STRIX B650E-F mobo with Trident Z5 RAM, SN850x NVMe, and TUF Gaming TX4070 Ti graphics, all inside an H7 Flow case with Kraken Elite cooling that let me trick out the LCD display with an animated eyeball. I tested my new rig with the copy of MWII that I purchased more than a year ago. The exhilarating stealth missions and sting operations got my adrenaline going, and even gave Westley a go at PC gaming piloting a missile strike. For July 4th weekend, my friend Brenda cancelled on our plans for a Korean-themed BBQ due to the hot weather, so we stayed cool indoors teaching Westley Scrabble then headed out in the evening to the Davis Aquadart Pool Party. Unfortunately, Westley had his first bee sting by the pool, but a popsicle and pool time with friends helped him recover in time to enjoy the fireworks. With Melody out of town this past week, we enjoyed father-son time watching Din Djarrin and Bo Katan retake Mandalore in season 3 of the Mandalorian and trading camels in Jaipur. We also decided to geek out as a family by introducing Westley to Star Trek TNG. After rewatching Q judge humanity at Farpoint station, we hastily packed for our upcoming trip to Scandinavia.