Warmer Journeys

After the cold hike up the Franconia Ridge, we were happy to spend the next weekend in warm Tampa! We stayed at Justin and Angela's place on Tampa Bay. It was great, very relaxing.

The view from the clubhouse in Justin and Angela's community.

Even the manatees came out to say 'hi'.

Our main purposes for the visit was to celebrate mom and dad's 40th anniversary. We had a very nice dinner as a family. And after dinner, we were all very excited to see when a cake was brought out.



Mom and Dad were surprised. As was everyone else, since none of us ordered it. Then we saw the writing on the top of the cake.




"Happy Birthday Jimmy Z". Poor Jimmy, I guess he missed his cake.







The following weekend we went to a conference for Katie at Cape Cod. She got a scholarship to present a poster there. Which means I got a free vacation while she worked.

Enjoying the conference center. Just a tad bit chilly. A tad.

The Conference center/resort.

The conference was an allergy one, and speaking of allergy, Katie has decided to apply for a fellowship in the field. Today she had her first interview for a start in July 2010, very exciting!

Been a good foliage fall this year. Brilliant colors!

Hiking Trip

This past weekend we headed to north towards the top of New Hampshire for some hiking and camping with friends. The foliage network has it between high color and peak up there right now, so we got to enjoy some great foliage.

When our friends suggested we go, we thought it would be a great idea. Unfortunately, we didn't look at the small print. Actually, it was the first sentence on this link. "This very rigorous, 8.7 mile loop is for experienced hikers only." They weren't joking. And of course our friends are these marathon-running, very fit group of hikers, so it was an intense hike. The hike is supposed to take 6.5-8hrs on average, we were about at the 6.5hr range, with a nice lunch (and us slowing down the group!). The hike was about 2.5 miles up, 2.5 miles along a ridge and 3.5 miles down. The ridge went over three peaks, the last was the tallest, called Mount Lafayette.

Here's the 5 of us getting ready to start the hike. The weather at the campground was supposed to be a high of 49 and a low of 35F.

Little chilly, but ready to go!

So far, so good! Enjoying the view of one of the waterfalls.

So, the low at base camp was supposed to be 35. And we heard a rumor that it could be 15degrees cooler at the top. We were doubtful. Then on the hill, we started hearing rumors of snow.

Here we are with the first glimpses of snow.

And, finally at the top of the first peak. Turns out the 15 degrees cooler was wrong. The temperature was close to 20F, with wind chills that were surely single digits. Also, the mount was under a cloud, so we could not see any view - actually, couldn't see beyond 5 feet away much!

Kind of looked like the moon on a snowy day or something. I understand now more what Frodo must have gone through.

Finally, on the way down the clouds broke and we caught glimpses of what was a beautiful view.

On our way down! Hope that there may be an end to the trail yet!

View farther down. This shows the ridge we went across.

From the campground.

At the campground.

The next morning, trying to stay warm, eating a delicious breakfast!

All in all, it was an intense weekend, but it was a lot of fun. Katie can't wait to get out and go camping again. Maybe. For now, we are looking forward to next week's trip to Tampa with the only hiking being to the beach and temperatures in the mid-80s!

More Summer Memories

Got to downloading some end of the summer pictures. Good reminder of why Boston and New England is so great - especially the North Shore.

Hanging out at a park in Gloucester.

Same park.

Over to Rockport. One of the best towns in New England.

Night out in Boston for dinner and a movie on the harbor. Every Friday night during the summer, the Harbor Hotel shows a movie on the water. Fun time. Way overpriced burger.

And unfortunately, lousy movie (we ended up leaving half way through). But still a great night!

And that's about it for summer. We'll see what autumn has in store...

Bi-Monthly Post

It's been two months since our last post, so I guess it is time for an update! Been a wonderful summer here in Boston - one of the best places to be this time of year. It's a great city to be outside and walking around in during the summer. The same goes for the early fall here, especially as the foliage begins to turn! The updates started last week here!

Year two has had its ups and downs for Katie. The ups have mostly been better than first year, but some of the downs have been worse! For the most part it is a lot better - better hours, better work tasks, more time to learn. But there is also a lot more responsibility as well as a some run ins with very difficult patients (and even more difficult family members!). But all in all she is doing well and enjoying the year better. She is also gearing up for applying to an allergy and immunology fellowship.

Work is going well with me, keeping busy traveling. I also managed to find time to take a class this summer at GCTS on Holistic Mission taught by Ken Gnanakan (and I only partially took the class because he used to be part of a band known as the "Indian Beatles").

Some highlights of the summer:

We went to a wedding outside of Philly this summer for one of Katie's good friends from high school. It was a great time, although a marathon of a trip - we left for Philly after work friday night, and headed back to Boston Saturday night so Katie could be at work on Sunday morning!

Katie's friend Kim from Pepperdine visited. We took the chance to finally get out to the Cape. It is really nice out there - much less crowded than the Jersey Shore!

Post-Cape chowin' down. Kim learned she likes lobster. I was reminded I should never buy "Maryland-style" crab cakes outside of Maryland!!!

Katie and Kim at Fenway.

Each year on the Common, there is a free performance of Shakespeare given. We had a nice picnic dinner before getting ourselves cultured.

June-July Goings

Katie has officially completed year one and is now a JAR (Junior Resident. not sure what the A stands for). While the hours are still long, she is definitely enjoying it much more than her intern year. Less of the dealing with very difficult people, less paperwork, more teaching and more learning.

Before the start of year two, Katie got a few days off which we used to take a long weekend in NJ. We got to see both of our families and have an all around relaxing time (except for Katie coming down with a bit of a cold towards the end of the trip). We also got to see the newest edition of the Cruz household. Very cute!

Earlier in the month, we got to do a little sailing. There is a sailing club that has a couple of open houses each year and takes people out sailing on the harbour. It was a beautiful day and got a nice view of the skyline.

We finally made our first trip to Fenway to take advantage of the $5 tickets Katie can get. It was a blazing hot day, but was fun going into the ballpark. We got standing room only tickets, so we hung out for a few innings and then headed across the street to the Boston Beer Works to finish watching the game sitting down and in a/c (nice part about paying only $5 for the tickets!). While there, they switched the tvs to the Belmont Stakes. Before the race began, a kid about 8 years old or so, with an incredible voice, sang "New York, New York". I've never heard an 8 year old kid get booed so loudly. Gotta love Boston!

July 4th had the annual festivities here in Boston. Unfortunately, Katie had to work on the 4th so didn't make it to the fireworks. I was able to make it and got a great view from the Mass Ave bridge. Definitely a good show. Sunday the festivities continued with Chowderfest 2008! We got to taste about 9 clam chowders. Some awesome. Some pretty nasty. I think we've enough chowder to last us a few months now.

And that's the recent goings from these parts...

May - Come and Gone! Another year draws to a close...

Last we had reported, spring had arrived in Boston! The lawn mowers and the cool shade are now signaling summer is right around the corner. Our first heatwave of the year is already popping into the weekend weather forecast! The NBA finals start tonight here in Boston, which means its already June!

So what were we up to while the trees were growing greener and the window screens were put to use? Well, a little bit of this and a little bit of that, a nice long vacation and a special out-of-town guest!

The first half of the month started out with work as usual for me and Jon found himself making a few more trips to Baltimore. The hospital treated all the interns to a night out at the Harvard Club for drinks, dinner, and a 34th floor view of downtown Boston signaling the coming of the end of intern year!

On the 16th, we head west to start on our much anticipated Pacific Northwest Tour to Seattle, Victoria, and Vancouver. We started off with a small Pepperdine reunion in Seattle to attend my good friend from undergrad and my year in Heidelberg, Dave Brown's wedding. The weather was unseasonably warm for Seattle at 90 degrees and our pale new england skin got a little crispy at the poolside before the wedding! No one told us to bring sunscreen with us to the rain pacific northwest!

After a wonderful weekend with old friends and time exploring the coffee capitol of the US, we traveled up the coast for some relaxation and an opportunity to check out the native wildlife! Jon liked the jumbo slugs; I thought the bald eagles were pretty neat. The mountains that surround you in all directions when the cloud cover clears are spectacular!

We ventured on by ferry to Victoria, BC. There we sat in on paralament, enjoyed the pubs, and visited the famous Butchart Gardens.

Another ferry took us back to the mainland and north to Vancouver and the opportunity to catch up with a friend from NJ, Shin, who is now back in his home town. He showed us the highlights of the area and tested our physical limit on our 600m elevation, 2.25km hike up the "Chief" in Squamish - half-way to Whistler. Vancouver was definitely the highlight of our trip.

On our drive back to the Seattle airport, we stopped off to see Ryan and Christine Wasserman and their two children in Bellingham, WA. They were the college and career ministry leaders at Christ Community in NJ when I first moved to Piscataway. Christine was the first person to suggest that Jon might be a good match for me....and the rest is history.

Before my two week vacation ended, we had the priviledge to welcome my best friend from undergrad and newly minted medical doctor, Jennifer Flannery, on her first visit to Boston! We hit the top of the Pru, the Elizabeth Stewart Gardner Museum, the Freedom trail, Cambridge, Harvard Yard (see prior posts for more details about the sights of Boston). I'm still awaiting the photo documentation from Jennifer - pictures to follow.

I'll be ending my last two weeks of intern year working night's at the VA medical center. Good news - I never thought the end would come and its here. Bad news - I didn't think there would be work to do after. Though the hours improve and the paperwork dramatically drops off, I quickly learning doctoring demands all you are willing to give it.

It's been a great year in our new city: new friends, two paying jobs, out-of-town guests, one world series championship, an impressive superbowel victory (for Giants fans), and the NBA finals!

Good night and BEAT LA!

Quin-zee

Yesterday, Katie and I made our way down to Quincy (pronounced Quin-zee here in MA) for opening day at the Adams National Historical Park. It was pretty crowded there (because of opening day combined with the HBO series most likely) but we had an enjoyable time visiting the Adams' church, John Adams and John Qunicy Adams' birthplace and their later home (The Old Home).

The church was beautiful. Adams donated the land and much of the granite that was used to build the church.

View from the outside.

View from the inside.

One thing I learned which I hadn't known was that both Adams were Unitarians, rejecting the deity of Christ. Both were very influenced by the Enlightenment and felt that God could be 'proven', but the deity of Christ could not. Adams did read the Bible first thing every morning, but apparently he was reading a Christ who was not the Son of God, but a great philosopher/prophet/teacher. While this country was greatly built on Christian foundation and by Christians, it is interesting to realize how some of the key men were certainly outside what would be called orthodoxy (Jefferson, Franklin).

Inside the church, there is a crypt which holds the remains of both presidents and both first ladies.
































After the church we went on the National Historical Society tour. It's a 2 hr tour taking you to the birthplaces and their later home (all for $5! can't beat that!).

















The birthplace of John Adams. Next door is the birthplace of John Quincy Adams.

The Old Home was a bit less modest than the birthplace home and was in the Adam's family for many generations, and thus contains additions in the house from many generations. One of my favorite parts was the library upstairs, which was where Adams spent much of his time and penned all those letters to Jefferson which are now so famous. It was a large room with a big fireplace. Must have been a great place to read and write. That room was only surpassed by the new library that was built a couple generations later, a dream of John Adams (to protect the books from fire). The building now contains 14,000 books. Those old books covers look so much cooler than the covers these days. It was two levels of books with a huge table in the middle and comfortable chairs around the room. Unfortunately pictures weren't allowed inside, but here's the outside:

















Library on the left, Old Home on the right.

An inside picture from the website: