home sweet home

On June 25, 2014, I moved back into my house in Tahoe. I got much-appreciated help that afternoon emptying the storage in my garage loft from 5 members of Third Place, the college and twenty-somethings group from Sierra Community Church. I wish I had gotten a photo of Matti, Josh, Josh, Kyle, and Noah that day, but I didn't (I know, it's surprising that I missed a photo!).

what a beautiful view as i'm coming home

I took a break and watched the South Tahoe Standup Paddle Wednesday Night Paddle Races and caught the sunset there.

sunset with SUPcross races in the foreground

I spent the next couple of days unpacking, settling in, and starting to study for my PT board exam, and then on June 28, I drove up to Echo Lakes and picked up Jeff, one of my friends from the Emory climbing wall - he'd just finished through-hiking the Tahoe Rim Trail, approximately 210 miles including detours over 16-17 days. The next day, we went shopping at Sports Ltd, where Jeff invested in a climbing rope and quickdraws. He had pre-arranged for his mother to ship his climbing shoes and harness to my house. In the morning we headed out to Luther Spires, using my brand new South Lake Tahoe Climbing book and breaking in Jeff's new gear.

me rappelling down at luther spires

We alternated days hiking and climbing, walking up Taylor Creek to Fallen Leaf Lake, hiking to Lake Winnemucca and summiting Round Top, hiking Twin Peaks and bouldering there as well. 90 Foot Wall, two trips to Bottle Creek Crag, and another foray to Luther Spires rounded out the climbing. We went paddleboarding, walked to Secret Beach for sunset, watched 4th of July fireworks from my friend Lisa's condo on the lake (I stayed there a couple of times when I visited Tahoe on breaks from PT school), and cheered for the US as they played Belgium in World Cup Soccer using my laptop connected to my TV.

fallen leaf lake

somehow found live streaming video of the world cup

waiting for sunset at secret beach

out for a morning paddle

my feet at the top of the hardest outdoor climb i've ever finished (at 90 foot wall)

wildflowers were out on the hike to lake winnemucca, round top in the background

windy at the top of round top

fireworks from lisa's lakefront condo

bouldering at pie shop after hiking twin peaks

jeff lead climbing at luther spires

It was a fun visit, and a good long vacation for Jeff before starting his first full time job after college, moving to St. Louis. And I made sure this Midwest kid (from Wisconsin) experienced In-n-Out burgers before dropping him off at the airport to head for the "real world."

nothing like in-n-out

london!

I arrived in London at St. Pancras Station on Friday, 13 June (2014) and was met by Alex.  We hopped on the Tube and got off at the Canary Wharf Station where we had lunch outdoors before Alex went back to work, taking my luggage into the office with him.  I took the tube to Greenwich, where I wandered around the Old Royal Naval College, the Royal Museums, and Greenwich Park.  I walked into the Royal Observatory and decided not to pay to go in, instead just wandering around the park, which strongly reminded me of the park in the Mary Poppins books.  I ended up by Cutty Sark, just a few minutes too late to go in, but was able to enjoy the view of it from outside.

canary wharf tube station

view in greenwich park from near the observatory

cutty sark

I went back to Canary Wharf and walked around a bit before meeting Alex as he got off work.  We took a Thames ferry then a taxi to get to his and Jen's place.  Alex and I went to dinner at their local Olive Garden - NOT the same as Olive Garden in the U.S. - before Jen got home.

Saturday, Jen had booked a marvelous day including touring the Houses of Parliament, Mexican lunch on the Thames, and climbing to the top of the dome at St. Paul's Cathedral.  We ended our day watching England vs Italy World Cup Soccer (football, since I wasn't in the U.S.).

big ben - view as we waited to enter for our tour

a bit windy on a bridge over the thames

alex at the top of the dome of st paul's cathedral

from the waterloo bridge (jen's favorite)

Sunday, Alex and I joined Felicia and family for dim-sum lunch and then wandered through a department store candy section.

cousins!  felicia, me, alex

My final full day in England, I got on the tube and went wherever my fancy took me - I strolled through the Victoria and Albert Museum, visited Harrod's department store, viewed the Museum of London, walked by Temple Bar, inspected St. Bride's Church, explored the Temple (notable in Dickens' works), perused Somerset House including a display from their Saturday Club and an exhibit called the Museum of Water, descended below All Hallow's Church, crossed the Tower Bridge, and concluded my ramble with a lovely cup of tea on the ground floor of The Shard before having drinks with Alex and Jen on the 52nd floor.

victoria and albert museum

lord mayor's carriage in the museum of london

fountain place (in the temple)

museum of water (somerset house)

the tower bridge

quite possibly the most expensive cup of tea i've ever had with a wee eton mess
(at lang on the ground floor of the shard)

view from gong - 52nd floor of the shard

I stayed up late that night to watch the USA vs Ghana in the World Cup, getting up in time to be on the tube by 8 to head to the airport and fly home.

cross-country road trip version 2014

The day after graduation, we completed cleaning out my little house and fully packing the car.  Although my parents didn't believe it was possible, I packed all my things except my bike (we had shipped that a few days earlier) into the car and rooftop box, leaving not only the two fronts seats open, but a comfortable back seat as well.

i even left space to see out the rearview mirror

my fully packed car outside the little house - last look

We took off right on schedule around noon, returned my parents' rental car, and began the westward drive.  On the Saturday night before graduation, I had begun to suspect my dad's affliction was more than mere allergies - I took his temperature and found he had a fever.  He felt okay on graduation day, but still wasn't feeling well.  On the drive, he went back and forth between feeling a little bit better and a little bit worse.  We went through Alabama and Mississippi and made it to Memphis, Tennessee by dinner time.  We met up with my friend Josh for dinner - I'd met him the previous semester at Emory in Graduate Christian Fellowship, but he didn't return to Emory after Christmas break, so it was nice to have a chance to see him again.  We went to Corky's Ribs & BBQ which is well-known, especially for their ribs and Memphis pulled pork.  Apparently they ship ribs worldwide!

dinner with josh at corky's

After dinner, we continued on into Arkansas.  The rain that had started before dinner turned into a torrential downpour, and I drove through a couple hours of it passing many large semi-trucks in order to get out of the spray kicked up behind them.  Finally, we made it to Little Rock and ended up getting a hotel in North Little Rock for the night.

The next morning we headed to Sand Springs, Oklahoma to see Aunt Kathy, David, Jeff, Rocky, and Charlie.  We arrived in time for a late lunch.  As I was driving, I began to get a slight headache, so I took a nap after lunch.  Jeff and the boys arrived after school and work, and we had a good time with them, watching and joining the boys riding their bikes up and down the street.  We had a delicious ham dinner and spent a nice time catching up - although my dad and I had both seen them, my mom hadn't seen Aunt Kathy since the 80s, and Jeff since 1995.

bike races

jeff, rocky, my mother, david, me, aunt kathy, charlie, and my father

We spent the night at Aunt Kathy's, and headed off the next morning to Marilyn's.  A good friend of my mother's from college, my brother and I had always called her Aunt Marilyn.  We had a very nice brunch there, although my dad was still under the weather, and I not only had a headache but had started to get a cough and congestion.

in front of aunt marilyn's house

We spent the rest of that day driving, arriving in Amarillo well before sunset.  We used my phone to find an AAA office, which was closed.  There were still a couple of employees there, despite being half an hour past closing, so one of them opened the door for us and was kind enough to give us a couple of maps and a guidebook.  Using the guidebook, I found us a hotel on the west edge of Amarillo.  By this time, we were all sick.  We walked next door to the hotel to "Famous Dave's Bar-B-Que" where the three of us again shared ribs, this time with "Burnt Ends" - little bits of beef.  It was our fourth barbecue meal and third time eating ribs in the space of a week!  The next morning, our first brief stop was Cadillac Ranch, just a few minutes down the road from the hotel, so my parents could see the oddity.

my parents at cadillac ranch

We continued on to Los Lunas, New Mexico to visit another one of my mom's college friends, Debbie, and her husband Michel.  We had lunch there, and although we had originally planned to spend a night there, a phone conversation the night before revised the visit to include lunch and a brief afternoon visit.  We drove till we reached Gallup, New Mexico where I felt sick and tired enough to make the executive decision to stop there for the night.  We all felt ill enough to order chicken noodle soup at Denny's for dinner.

michel, my father, debbie, my mother, paco (the dog), and me

The next morning we made our first stop in Flagstaff, Arizona where we found a drugstore and refilled our over-the-counter cold and fever remedies - between the three of us we had exhausted the supply I had in Atlanta!  We crossed the rest of the state of Arizona and into California, initially aiming for perhaps Bakersfield as our last overnight stop.  Sometime before crossing the border into California, I noted that if we continued with the same types of stops we had done so far, we could make it home before midnight.  My thinking was that it might be helpful to have my father (and the other two of us for that matter) sleep in our own beds instead of more nights on the road.  Thanks to fairly dense cloud cover, even driving directly into the sunset wasn't a problem, so we pushed on and arrived at my parents' place before midnight.  I had driven all 2600+ miles myself!

southeastern california landscape

random stop along a highway to get photos with a joshua tree

wind farms visible from the freeway

sunset in the central valley

Unfortunately, arriving in Cupertino did not result in a miracle cure for any of us.  We spent another week and a half before even beginning to feel better, including doctor's visits, prescription medications, and lots of rest.  I gave up on my plans of seeing local friends, taking a trip to Tahoe to drop off a carload of stuff at my house, and taking a day trip to San Francisco to visit with a friend from Atlanta who happened to be there visiting with his family.  Eventually, my only goal was to be well enough to fly to England on May 27 to visit family.  Monday, May 26 I felt nearly well enough to travel, and fortunately I was even a bit better on Tuesday, so I'm currently in England!  More on that trip to come...

9 days till graduation

Despite not feeling 100%, I still managed to get out and hang out with as many friends as I could fit into my schedule before leaving Atlanta.  I started out May 2, the morning after I finished school, by picking up my friend Lois from the Emory climbing wall.  I hadn't seen her since December for various reasons, but we managed to get together and take a walk up Stone Mountain.  It was clearer than I've ever seen it up there, with just enough breeze to make the temperature pretty perfect.

clear view from the top of stone mountain, and me with lois

After dropping Lois off I visited Ashley, an Emory PT second year who also attends Passion City Church, at her new place.  Her current clinical runs Sunday through Thursday, so I hadn't seen her at church in weeks (she did make it to Good Friday Atlanta).  That evening was Graduate Christian Fellowship's First Friday Dinner.  Due to CSM in Las Vegas in February, the Dominican Republic trip in March, and the Vestibular course in April, I hadn't made it to one since last semester.  It was fun to hang out and catch up with people, and make a couple of new friends.

steffi, amara, lydi, lily, me, jonathan, then the whole group shot from first friday dinner

Saturday morning I got up early and headed out to Dunwoody to meet up with James and Jonathan for another hike.  We headed north to a piece of the Appalachian trail, hiking up Blood Mountain, the highest peak on the Georgia portion of the trail with an elevation of 4458 feet.  Following directions I found online, we made it a "lollipop loop" where only the beginning and end of the trail were the same.  It was nice, with the route we took up the mountain being longer, less steep, and much less traveled.  We saw only a couple of people before we rejoined the Appalachian trail but found a crowd of probably 30 people having lunch at the summit.  As promised in what I read online, there were sweeping views from the top and also on the way down.

james, me, and jonathan atop blood mountain

Sunday was my second-to-last time at Passion City Church, then in the afternoon I headed over to my classmate Dan's place.  He had a 5 month old baby boy I had yet to meet, and I hadn't seen his wife since before she gave birth.  I had a pleasant time hanging out with them before meeting up with Debbie and Laura from Veritas Church for dinner at La Parrilla.

Monday started off with Caleb from Graduate Christian Fellowship coming over to hang out at my place and sing songs together - we'd done it once before during Snowpocalypse round 1 and agreed we wanted to sing together again.  Then, I met Gina, my climbing wall co-worker, for a leisurely celebratory lunch after her last undergrad final followed by Frappuccinos at Starbucks since there was a half-off special for a few days.

A bonus I garnered from Saturday's hike is that both James and Jonathan are pilots, and they offered to take me up with them sometime in the coming week.  I managed to rearrange my schedule to meet James, who is also a flight instructor, at PDK (Peachtree-DeKalb Airport) on Monday afternoon.  I had the incredible experience of sitting in the pilot's seat of a single-prop Cessna and actually flying it for some of the time we were in the air.  We headed southwest over Passion City Church and near downtown, then headed east toward Stone Mountain, passing south of the Emory campus.  We looped around Stone Mountain and then I got to fly us north out past Lake Lanier.  James flew us lower down over the lake before having me take us back near the airport.

1980 cessna 172p, inside the cockpit, and a statue near the passenger terminal

view of cdc and emory from the air

Later that evening, I got together with Kelly, one of my good friends from Passion City Church, and walked a bit of the BeltLine that is near her place.  On Tuesday, I went around 10:30 am to get an oil change since my car was about to be driven across the country.  I had been assured on the phone that it would take 45 minutes, so I figured I could still meet Karen at Stone Summit to climb by noon.  Over 2 hours later, my car was finally done, and I still had to get back home.  We ended up meeting at Starbucks for half-off Frappuccinos instead.  My friend Brian from Intown Community Church came over for dinner - I hadn't seen him since fall since neither he nor I were attending Intown any more - I wanted to congratulate him on his engagement as well as catch up and then say goodbye.  I headed out again after dinner to hang out with another Passion City Church friend, Nick.  We were planning to take a walk, but I ended up bringing leftover dinner for him and we just sat and chatted while he ate.

hanging out with (clockwise from top left) karen, kelly, gina, and nick

Wednesday morning I did some more last-minute errand running before meeting up with Elizabeth from Graduate Christian Fellowship for lunch on campus.  Steffi also stopped by briefly to say hi, so we got a photo of the three of us:

elizabeth, steffi, and me

My parents arrived that afternoon, so I picked them up from the airport.  We went back to my place, then walked around campus before getting half-off Frappuccinos from Starbucks (yes, I was doing my best to make the most of the deal while it lasted!).  I took them to pick up their rental car, then we went to my father's grad school friend's (David and Lucy's) house where they would stay for a couple of nights.  We went out to dinner with David and Lucy at Downwind Restaurant, coincidentally at the Peachtree-DeKalb Airport.  The next day my parents and I had a lazy morning before heading up to Acworth to visit cousin Linda for a night.  I hadn't seen her for a year and a half, since Thanksgiving 2012.  My parents hadn't seen her since my cousin Annie's wedding in 2009.  Before she got off work, we had half-off Frappuccinos again, then met her for dinner at Chili's - my parents and I shared a full rack of ribs.

with my parents and cousin linda (and apollo)

The next morning I got up super early and drove to Woodstock to meet my clinical instructor from my short-term outpatient clinical in July 2012.  We had a good 45 minute chat before his first patient, then I headed back for breakfast with my family at Linda's house.  We got back into Atlanta in time for me to meet the professors and other preceptors from the General Medical Conditions course for a late lunch.  My parents met up with David and Lucy again, and had dinner with them at Saba, around the corner from my place.  I joined them briefly before going to pick up a couple of friends to climb at Wall Crawlers.

with david and lucy

last time climbing at wall crawlers:
marius, tiffany, david, me, katherine, and brent

Saturday morning was a "Legacy Breakfast" at Glenn Memorial Church.  Since my mother got her Master's degree at Emory, I am therefore a legacy.  After a continental breakfast, my mother placed a Legacy Medallion around my neck during a ceremony in the church building.  In the afternoon, we met up with Laura, a family friend from our days in Seaside, CA, her husband Ernesto and mother America for a late lunch at Atlanta Fish Market.  The food was delicious and company delightful.

legacy medallion

ernesto, laura, my mother, me, america, my father

Sunday my parents joined me for my last Sunday at Passion City Church, we had lunch at a Vietnamese/ Thai place, and then we just lounged around my house as I attempted to sell all my furniture on Craigslist.  My bed was the first to go on Saturday night, so I had to sleep on my air mattress for the next three nights.  Lounging around was not unwelcome, as my father had started feeling poorly on the day after my parents arrived - we put it down to allergies as he had bad hay fever with Atlanta pollen in the past.

Monday morning I got up super early and headed over to campus for the Emory Commencement ceremony.  It was scheduled to begin at 8, we were supposed to line up at 7, and I was trying to meet friends in other departments for photos by 6:50.  I only managed to meet Caleb for a photo because the others were late, but it was good to say goodbye before he heads off to do his PhD at Indiana University and I return to the west coast.

pre-commencement photos with friends

After the commencement ceremony in the quad, we proceeded to WHSCAB (Woodruff Health Sciences Center Administration Building) - the site of our interviews, orientation, many lectures, and now graduation ceremony.  Along with my parents, Anika, David, and Lucy attended graduation, and Marius showed up to say hi before we left.  We had lunch at Mary Mac's Tea Room, a historic Atlanta restaurant offering a Southern experience.  Anika joined us and my cousin Rachel met us there.  My father, Anika, and I shared a full rack of ribs with fried green tomatoes and collard greens as sides - DELICIOUS!

with my parents at graduation

my parents and me with rachel at mary mac's

My parents and I went back to my place where I started packing up my car and waiting for more Craigslist customers to buy furniture.  I ended up selling most of it and making a deal with the new tenant in my place for a bunch of the rest of it.  The next day was our scheduled departure date - beginning of Cross-Country Road Trip Version 2014!