Family Visit, Chapter 5

My parents had to head back home at some point - sad but true. On our last day out and about, we did the Seattle Underground Tour and visited Alki Beach during the day. We even squeezed in some house hunting or what I like to call "keep dreaming".

In the evening we took everyone to our favorite Brazilian restaurant Tempero do Brasil where Bertrand's dad teased the owner about futbol. After all of that good eating, we tried to round things out with a nice leisurely walk around Greenlake. Greenlake is a wonderful place to get a bit of exercise while people watching, chatting with friends and family, and just enjoying the fact that it's not raining and won't get dark until 10pm.

Hasta luego mami y papi!

Break

Quick break from the travel log to talk about Saturday's soccer game between France and Brazil. Even though the U.S. got knocked out pretty early it's fun to cheer on France. I've been pretty addicted to the World Cup this year and now the Tour de France is starting up!!! We might join some Brazilians at a local English pub to watch Saturday's match. Here are links in case you need a diversion:
World Cup
Tour de France

Update: France beat BRAZIL in the quarter finals!!! Who knew they had it in them? They play Portugal July 5th!

Family Visit, Chapter 4

I went to work today and Bertrand took everybody down to Pike's Place Market. If this picture is any indication, it looks like they had a great time. Not only did they see all the fresh seafood and produce, but a very lively tic-tac soccer game erupted between France and Cuba.















We planned a fun event for the evening, a trip on the Spirit of Washington Dinner Train. We had a lovely dinner on the way to the Columbia Winery, got off the train for a wine tasting, and then enjoyed dessert and coffee on the way back. The whole trip took less than 4 hours and we ended up several pounds heavier and a bit more light-headed than we started out. It was still light out on the return trip and it was fun to get a different view of Lake Washington than you from a car. They have a mystery dinner train which sounds like fun. They kill someone off in each railway car and all the other guests have to guess "who-done-it". The train definitely has its own mystique -- because of old films I always think of it as a romantic and circuitous way to travel from point A to point B.

Family Visit, Chapter 3

On the way back from Corvallis to Seattle, we spent the afternoon visiting Mount St. Helens. Except for Bertrand, none of us had been there before. I have to say that I am not fond of long windy roads in the mountains. Bridges are also frightening for me. So when you combine the two, it's just fun beyond belief.


Getting to the Johnston Ridge Observatory was worth the ride there and back. I had no idea you would be able to see so much of the devastation. Twenty-five years have passed but that's the blink of an eye compared to such a tremendous upheaval of rock and ash by Mother Nature. You see the documentaries on the Discovery channel about the eruption and that still doesn't prepare you for the view from 6 miles away. It's impressive that only a 5.1 earthquake set off the eruption and just that morning they had a 3.3 earthquake. And these rumblings are very common now-a-days. In fact, Mount St. Helens is currently closed to climbers due to concerns over volcanic activity (see link).

The Johnston Ridge Observatory is named after a volcanologist who was at that spot and saw the eruption happen and gave the warning "Vancouver, Vancouver, this is it!" to the USGS. Apparently he helped keep the area closed to tourists and is why only 57 people died. He was an accomplished scientist with a bright future, approximately the age I am now, and managed to save thousands of lives and stand up to pressure (I imagine from the tourist/logging industry) to reopen Mount St. Helens. Truly impressive.

B took this beautiful picture and did a little bit of photoshop hanky-panky. It is stunning to see life coming back to the mountain.

Family Visit, Chapter 2

Sunday: The morning of graduation we had a bunch of Corvallis friends over for breakfast. We have some great pictures of everyone, but no great picture of the whole group together. The food and mimosas were delish (I continued to enjoy the mimosas after graduation) and it was fun to see everyone. It wasn't long before we had to get ready for the graduation ceremony. I'll intersperse a few pictures that we took after graduation in the blog.


Bertrand and I (and our advisors, Jim and Bob) lined up near the Library. We were each given an order for the procession, B was number 14 and I was number 49. One drawback of not having the same last name is that we couldn't walk next to each other. We followed a troop of bagpipe-players into the stadium. We marched past the waiting Masters and Bachelors students. I think we were supposed to inspire them... to me it felt a bit strange to have them waiting for us like that. I wonder what they thought of it.


The ceremony was in the football stadium and we had a mix of overcast and sunny weather. The lack of overbearing heat was much appreciated by all the students dressed in black robes. They called the Ph.D.'s up by name and made a big fuss about giving out each student their diploma at graduation. There was a snafu, however, and several Masters students got their names switched. Oops.


Warren Washington gave the speech at commencement. He's a well-known climate researcher -- he seemed nervous and a bit daunted by the crowd. I can't blame him. I wonder what it's like to give a speech in front of tens of thousands of people in a football stadium. The ceremony felt long at the time, mainly because I was desperate for a bathroom break, but now I think it was way too quick.


It was a really emotional day. We were all very tired by the end of the ceremony and glad to relax at the house we rented. Apparently, OSU gives a degree to anybody these days... I don't know how this riff-raff ended up getting degrees.

Family Visit, Chapter 1

As I mentioned in the last post, we've got both sets of parents in town. I've been working part of the time so they've been doing some stuff without me like going to Ikea and checking out the Pike's Place Market. All together we've managed to pack in alot.


Thursday night we introduced them to Paseo (I've already posted about this place and their amazing food). My dad loved the food, despite the lack of seating and the fact that the sandwiches are the messiest sandwiches EVER. Part of the fun was watching him mentally tally up how much money they must be making when he saw the line of people ordering food go out the door.


Afterwards, we went to check out the Ballard Locks and got to see some salmon attempting to figure out the fish ladder and made a quick visit to Stone Gardens next door and saw some great climbers.


Friday, I worked in the morning and then came home for the afternoon. We drove up to Snoqualmie Falls despite the horrible looking clouds. It turned out to be an allright day. There were plenty of sunbreaks and we got a good view of the falls. We ate a "quick" bite at the restaurant upstairs. It wasn't actually quick or inexpensive, but it was good. We rushed home and then got ready to go have dinner at my parents' friends (Elgie and Barbara) house north of Lake Washington. It took us a long while to find the place. We were supposed to turn at the Shell/AM-PM gas stations with a white horse. We unexpectedly found the place *but* kept making a wrong turn at the white horse. We finally found it. Their place is amazing and they were wonderful hosts. We had a lovely dinner and had a great evening.

Saturday morning we all got ready to head down to Corvallis for graduation. The drive went pretty well and we managed to make it to Corvallis before 5pm. We rented a townhouse with 4 bdr/3 bath, a nice area for entertaining, and a fairly well stocked kitchen. The company renting the house is AtHomeInOregon.com. Saturday evening we went to my dad's favorite grocery store in the world.... Winco and bought food for a brunch we were putting together Sunday morning. If you listen you can hear my dad's call of " Wiiiinnnn Coooo " still echoing in the hills.

More to follow in Chapter 2.

Family in town!

We have family in town for our graduation! The first set of parents arrived yesterday and the second set arrive today. My sister couldn't make it -- but I know she's here in spirit. We are going to give in to all the pomp and circumstance and just enjoy the fact that both of us finished our Ph.D.'s. Anyone who knows me and my procrastination tendencies knows what a major accomplishment this is. If only my Ph.D. was on the topic "The all-purpose solution to procrastination"... then I would be set.

I hope the weather is nice for everyone's stay. It's been a bit dreary and muggy lately and we've been selling the idea that Seattle is beautiful in the summer.... so Seattle had better deliver!

Hurricane season has begun

Before the southern US is ready for it, hurricane season has begun again and we already have a named storm, Alberto (link). Growing up in Miami pre-Andrew we were fairly blaise about hurricanes. It was a way to have school cancelled for a few days and hang out at home without power listening to battery-powered radio and playing with flashlights. Andrew changed all that for us. Just like Katrina and Rita changed all that for the Gulf coast states.
Nobody is blaise about hurricanes now. I sincerely hope that the Gulf coast is spared from any major storms for at least one season (not that I'm hoping any other place gets hit). I don't think they could take another hit. It would break the spirit of many of the residents trying to rebuild. One can argue about global warming being responsible for the increased storm activity... the point is there is increased storm activity and it could be the case for another decade. I hope our country can set-up infrastructure that helps people evacuate in an orderly fashion and helps areas hardest hit by hurricanes rebuild quickly.

Cleaning

I just spent the past few hours thoroughly cleaning the kitchen. I have to say that one of my least favorite things is cleaning. I know that's nothing earthshattering. Who likes cleaning, really? For me, it's the guilt. It's that horrible guilty feeling you get when you realize just how much dust you've allowed to accumulate in the back of cabinets. The dust on all those fancy pots, pans, casseroles, gadgets, appliances, and wine glasses is shocking and brings home the fact that we've hardly cooked since moving here. How often we've given in to the temptation of quick food from the deli or local restaurants is also a source of guilt.

The reason for cleaning is that we have family coming to stay with us for two glorious weeks. Two weeks where I think it's not too hard to cook from scratch (or nearly from scratch) every night, sit down at a dining room table for a lovely meal, and enjoy a glass (or two) of wine. We eat so well and make good use of our kitchen and dining room. We manage to keep up some of the cooking and wine savoring after visitors leave, but it isn't long before the temptation comes back and we find ourselves enjoying a quick store-bought meal without that nice glass of wine in front of our television set.

I guess we need to find more family and friends to visit us.

What is the world coming to?

Remember the good old days when people thought it was inappropriate to bludgeon someone with a dead toy dog? Apparently we have turned a social corner and now it is considered "the thing to do". I couldn't believe it when I read this story on CNN. I'm not the biggest fan of Chihuahuas anyway, but I think they deserve a bit more dignity in death than being used to hit someone and being waved outside someone's sunroof!

Joining the Jackson Street Crawl

B has been desperately missing "nemmes" (Vietnamese spring rolls fried and wrapped with mint leaves and lettuce dipped in nude cham sauce) from his favorite Vietnamese restaurant, Baguettes d'or, in Clermont-Ferrand. So we were overjoyed to join up with a group of adventurous gourmands on their somewhat weekly trek through the Jackson Street Vietnamese restaurants. Our first place, Pho Viet, was ... okay. We needed a good baseline from which to try other places and look forward to finding amazing restaurants on Jackson Street. You can check out our friend's review on her blog along with the somewhat cryptic directions to Pho Viet.

Miami Trip

Just returned from a quick trip to Miami for my grandmother's funeral. Despite the sad occasion, it was so nice to see family and friends that I hadn't seen in 5-10 years and catch up on what they've been doing. We (the cousins) are so used to being "the kids" that we were all a bit stunned to find that none of us is younger than 27. Some of the "kids" now have kids in elementary school.

My grandmother was already 60 when I was born, so I don't have any memories of her ever being "young". This picture of my grandmother when she married my grandfather was one of many shown at the wake (see previous post for another photo). I can't get those images out of my mind and now remember her that way.