The Mooses in the Dells

We have just returned from a wonderful weekend in the Wisconsin Dells, an area in southern Wisconsin that is known for both its beauty (our main interest) and for being "the waterpark capital of the world" (duly ignored). Our friends Lucy and Steve drove from Chicago to meet us at a small cabin, rented specifically for its pets-allowed policy so that Jasper could join us. Everyone arrived on Friday evening, and we had a very jolly dinner at the Moose Jaw Brew Pub.

On Saturday morning, much sleeping in was had by all, followed by a leisurely breakfast feast. Eventually we headed out to Mirror Lake State Park, just up the road, where Jasper had a lovely romp.



We spent part of the afternoon browsing at an orchard, tasting apples. Ended up with Braeburns and Russets to bring back to Rochester, and a caramel apple for Lucy and me to split in the car on the way home. The rest of the afternoon was spent lolling about, enjoying the company and some good books! (I finished a re-read of a favorite book by Lauren Willig, who writes delightful stories about English and French spies during the French Revolution and Napoleonic era, a la the Scarlet Pimpernel, and then jumped back in time to start a novel about Eleanor of Aquitaine.) Here's a photo of Lucy and me on the couch, in a position that must be incredibly familiar to all of you who knew us as children. (That's Jasper in the middle, trying to look inconspicuous. And succeeding.) Lucy and Hilary with their noses in books? Ah, some things never change.



Then things got slightly more active. Lucy and Steve brought their Wii, which comes with some really fun sports games. The boys took a turn first (that's tennis they are playing):



And then the ladies (baseball this time...Lucy won, we decided that this would foreshadow a Red Sox victory later in the evening, since she has red hair...or something...whatever it was, it worked!)



After further sleeping in this morning, we celebrated Lucy and Steve's 1-year anniversary with mimosas! Then we decided on another hike, this time at Devil's Lake State Park. It was very crowded, which unfortunately meant that Jasper had to stay on his leash, but the views were stunning! Here are Lucy and Steve on the trail:



The lovely fall vista from the top of the bluff:


At another overlook:


Lucy and Steve coming back along the lakeshore:


We ended our mini-break with a fabulous vegetarian meal at The Cheese Factory before going our separate ways. We'll hope to see Steve and Lucy again in a few months, maybe in a new condo in Chicago!

Chicago Weekend

We had a fantastic weekend in Chicago with Lucy and Steve!

After getting up at 5 AM Saturday and driving, driving, driving our way to the Windy City, we arrived around noon at Lucy and Steve's beautiful new condo. After buying it, they spent the last month doing a lot of work around the place, and it looks wonderful!

After a mellow afternoon (including a nap), we ventured out to an Italian restaurant that came highly recommended by one of L&S's friends. The meal was indeed delicious, and we all saved enough room to split chocolate cake, lemon ice, and homemade tiramisu for dessert. We also stopped by a great bookstore called Women and Children First, where I found the crumpet her first book in Spanish.



It was the moose that first caught my eye, but the entire book turns out to be full of gorgeous colors, with felt-figure illustrations.

On Sunday, we started off the day with breakfast at Tweet, which is an incredible breakfast place that we try to go to every time we visit. They have tons of veggie and vegan options, and also emphasize local food and free-range animals. Then, Lucy took me to Bloom for a prenatal yoga class. It was a great experience, since I have been practicing yoga daily at home with a couple of DVDs but haven't been to a live class since I stopped being able to do the normal abdominal work! There were about 35 women there, ranging from 6 to 38 weeks of pregnancy (I had lots of company at 27 weeks as well). I will definitely be checking to see if there is a prenatal yoga class in Scottsdale that I can attend.

Then we strolled around some neighborhoods, stopped for crepes, and eventually ended up back at home where the guys were working their way through the newly acquired Star Wars Lego Wii game. Once they conquered Episode I, they handed over the Wii-motes to us ladies. This is the only time over the weekend that we remembered to take photos, so here are a couple. As you can see, Lucy is doing some fancy lightsaber work and I am looking clueless. Pretty much par for the course. You should have seen how many attempts it took me to figure out how to get my character to jump over things on screen! It was very appropriate that Lucy was playing Qui-Gon Jinn (the Jedi Master) and I was Obi-Wan Kenobi, the padawan.




Lucy took Monday off to hang out with us in the morning, and we took a beautiful walk along Lake Michigan. The weather was perfect, and we had a chance to admire the goings-on at the dog beach, which Jasper would love. After lunch (Lucy and I spent much of the weekend eating stinky cheese that the guys hate, and this meal was no different), Alex and I hit the road again.

I like this train!

Or, Brynna travels to Chicago...

We made the trek to Chicago a few weeks back to see our good friends Lucy and Steve, and also to travel up to Milwaukee to meet our close friend from med school Beth, who is now in residency in Appleton, WI.

Unlike the last time Brynna traveled by air, there would be two adults for this little one. Plus, there was a decent chance that neither would be feverishly sick. Lastly, we managed to hit a direct flight from MHT to MDW via southwest - one three hour hop and we're there.

That is not to say that traveling with Brynna is care-free. She's a great sport, and a good traveler generally, but she is still a two-year old who doesn't always follow directions, and whose patience is sometimes shorter than our own.

First hurdle: our 6:30 am departure from Manchester necessitated a 4 am wake up call for the B. In an extreme case like this, we thought nothing of keeping her in her jammies with her Nuk. She tottered along behind Mama through security while I wrestled the luggage and car seat. She charmed we way past through the TSA:

Brynna did well through the takeoff - all she needed was a little hand-holding and closing of the window shade. We expected Brynna to sleep on the flight over there, but she gabbed the whole way over. Probably the highlight was the handing out of the in-flight snacks!

At Midway airport, while Hil went in search of chai, Brynna and I flopped down for a late breakfast of cheerios and raisins.

The next hurdle was the 1-hour trip on the EL from Midway (to the SW of downtown) up to the northern lake shore where our friends live. But, as it turns out, Brynna really liked the subway. Here and there along the way she would say "I like dis twain!"

This was particularly true once we got north of the Loop, and popped back above ground: we could see most of downtown here and there, and passed just outside the right field fence of Wrigley Field.

We arrived at our friends' home right around Brynna's usual nap time. They had made wonderful accommodations for us and the B, and she went right down. We spent the rest of the day catching up and hanging out.

On Saturday we piled ourselves into a Zipcar minivan and started driving north through some snowy slop to Milwaukee. It was a convenient midway point for us and Beth, but also has a lot of charm in its own right. How wonderful to see old and distant friends! We hadn't seen Beth since leaving Minnesota. She is also a family medicine resident, whose schedule is at least as insane as Hilary's. She was kind enough to shlep down even after working the night before. We met for lunch at the (indoor) public market, admiring the impressive gingerbread houses on display - our favorite was the one done up like The Burrow. We lingered at the market for a few hours while Brynna napped out in the car (supervised and heated, of course). After Brynna awoke, we all went to the local children's museum right down by the lakeshore: five adults playing with one toddler seems about the right ratio. We hardly even saw 1/3 of the place, but B had a great time.

We capped it off with dinner at a local hipster restaurant. Brynna started becoming less than polite towards the end, but thankfully there's a small market attached to the restaurant, through whose aisles she could run up and down.

B was definitely finished when the adults were done with dinner, so we said our goodbyes to Beth and piled back into the van for a quiet drive back to Chicago.

Sunday morning we had a late breakfast at our favorite Chicago place: Tweets. They were very accommodating of Brynna: bringing out crayons and a fruit cup before we'd even gotten our coats off. Brynna heartily enjoyed Hilary's chai and pumpkin pancakes.

When we returned to Lucy and Steve's place, we decided to fire up the Wii and see what Brynna could make of it. I'm not sure she quite got it, but she was very enthusiastic about waving things around. (If we had one, I'm sure she'd already be a natural).

Then naptime while the grown-ups got to play.

Alas, it was not long after Brynna awoke that we needed to pack up and make the trek back to Midway for our flight home. After standing and waiting in the cold Chicago wind some minutes waiting for our first train, we had good vantage of the city at sunset all the way to the airport. Brynna still liked trains, which made the trip easy for us. Upon arrival, alas, we found our flight was delayed at least two hours. Damn! Two hours more we could have spent with Lucy and Steve! Plus, we now had the prospect of keeping B civilized and entertained for an additional two hours in the terminal. At least on the airplane you can reasonably strap her down! She was approaching peak active time, and ready to run up and down the whole length of the concourse (the moving walkways are particularly fun).

But there were two able-bodied parents to corral her. Unfortunately, however, just as we were exiting security, I started feeling queasy. During the subsequent wait for our plane, I visited the bathroom to vomit a few times. The last time was with Brynna in tow, because Hilary had gone off to forage some dinner. All the bathroom stalls were occupied when the moment arrived, so I had the unenviable experience of blowing chunks into a bathroom trashcan with a few dozen travelers looking on, trying to keep Brynna from freaking out at arms length. Did I mention that Brynna is a good sport while traveling?

But then we boarded the plane, and everything was good. By this point it was near Brynna's bedtime, so we expected (hoped) that she'd sleep the flight back. Somehow or other that kid managed to stay awake and bubbly the whole way. Whatever was happening in my gut had thankfully abated, but I was left both terribly exhausted and restless. Brynna, of course, konked out about five seconds after we started our car back home. Jasper greeted us enthusiastically at the door, and curled up at the foot of our bed when we finally crawled in to sleep well after midnight.

All in all, an excellent tour of the upper midwest to catch up with our good friends!

Midwestern Swing

A month ago (yeah, lots of call and not much blogging recently...) Alex and I had a fantastic Memorial Day weekend trip. Brynna had a lovely long weekend with M and Deen, and we grown-ups headed for the upper midwest to meet Steve and Lucy's new baby and to attend Todd and Ellen's wedding.

We started in Chicago with lots of baby-snuggling. Check out the beautiful Miss M!


Yeah, I really miss this part:




Look! Alex and I are in the same place! At the same time! Awake! Having breakfast at the fabulous Tweet.


Then Lucy and Steve were kind enough to let us take their car to Michigan for the wedding. It was our first expedition in a hybrid, and our first time with a GPS.

So, we had to get used to hitting a power button rather than turning a key, which was a little odd:


The GPS came in really handy, especially in the city.


We didn't take any pictures at the wedding party, because we were too busy having fun! Yummy food, lots of games, a joyous occasion all round.

Now, if we could only persuade our midwestern friends to move to New Hampshire...

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N!

My neurology rotation ended today! I have definitely learned a lot and feel far more comfortable performing and interpreting the neurologic physical exam, which is something that I will use a lot in the future.

I think I'm swinging back toward family practice career-wise, though. When I close my eyes and think about being a physician five years from now, I really see myself as a family doc.

Now I have three weeks of "research." All of us are required to do 12 weeks of research in our third year (mine is all split up) and end up with something of publishable quality. I am working with a classmate and one of my favorite professors on a psychiatry project. In a nutshell, we're going to be looking at the relationship between anxiety disorders and implanted cardioverter-defibrillators. Once the project gets approved by the IRB (ensuring that we are properly protecting our research subjects), I will be doing interviews with patients who have just received ICDs. This will be both interesting and much more mellow than having clinical duties all day every day! So it's like a mini-vacation, which I definitely need after working hard (and not sleeping a whole lot) through the first three rotations of the year.

We're taking advantage of this brief window of scheduling freedom to take a couple of trips...we'll be in Maine for a family reunion next week, and then the weekend following will meet Lucy and Steve (my very best friend since we were six, and her terrific husband) in the Wisconsin Dells for some outdoorsy fun.

Jasper is learning a new command: "down" to lie down. We figured this would take advantage of his natural inertia! Once he gets it a little more solidly, we'll post another video clip. I'm hoping to have more time to work with him in the next few weeks...Alex has been responsible for teaching him this new trick.

It's gotten very chilly and gray here the last few days. I actually broke down and turned on the furnace yesterday (don't tell Alex). There's a thin rug on the living room floor where Jasper always sleeps, but I was concerned that he would be cold, so two nights ago I dragged out his dog bed and put it in his favorite spot. He's never shown much interest in it before, but he seemed to be content enough when I set him down on it. Yesterday when I got home from work, however, the bed was all bunched up under the table, stripped of its zipper and with the batting falling out. We've been finding little pieces of zipper around the house ever since. Now I'm trying to decide if a much classier LL Bean bed would be suitable or if that would just end up getting shredded as well...

More About Maine

Alex definitely hit the highlights of the Maine extravaganza, which was a fabulous time! 4 books down, all British historical fiction. Two Elizabeth I mysteries by Karen Harper, Brotherhood of the Blade by Diana Gabaldon (who is one of my very favorite authors), and The Perfect Royal Mistress (that'd be Charles II's). More reading will be had this weekend, as we are off to meet Lucy and Steve in the Wisconsin Dells.

Here are a few more photos by Dad. Two are on the Marginal Way, a beach walk in Ogunquit.




The other features my fantastic Christmas present! Uncle Tom, who was my giftor in the big family gift exchange (names are drawn each year) came up with the amazing idea of a Vermont Teddy Bear. This one has a stethoscope and is wearing a white coat with Dr. Hilary written on it! It is destined to be shown off in my eventual office. Isn't it adorable? I could barely put it down.

Random spring photos

The daffodil wins! The tulips were looking like they were ahead for awhile, but this daffodil was the first of our flowers to actually bloom (post-crocuses, that is).


Here's a cute photo of Jasper that Alex took at obedience class last week.


Jasper is doing quite well with the loose-leash walking, did a good job of ignoring a bunny tonight and responding to "come" instead, and has not eaten or rolled on any dead things since last weekend.

We're looking forward to spending this weekend in Chicago with Lucy and Steve. Jasper will get to spend the weekend at his wonderful dogsitter's house, where he is able to loll happily all over the furniture and has another dog to play with.

He came with me to the humane society down the street this evening, where I gave the new volunteer orientation talk. It's nice to have a "demo dog" there, and Jasper is definitely coming out of his shell...he stuck pretty close to me, but also let other people approach and pat him.

Today I actually started my packing list for the upcoming Arizona rotation. I finally got my basic schedule for the rotation. I'll spend the first two weeks on consultant services (one does a lot of laparoscopic procedures, the other does mainly breast cancer surgeries), then two weeks on chief resident services (even busier), then a week in the ICU and a couple of days with the anesthesia team before coming back home. As I think I've written about before, we gave this away rotation a lot of thought when the crumpet came along, and considered whether I should just stay here instead. However, the general consensus in the med school is that the schedule will be lighter in Scottsdale than here (no in-hospital call, for example), and I will probably be needing my sleep as I move into my third trimester! Pushing surgery to fourth year wasn't a very appealing option, either, since I will want to be on call even less with a newborn. So, off I go to Arizona. Alex will visit twice, Mom is coming for a week, and Dad will probably be coming once, too. I'll also be in Hanover for my reunion one weekend. So I'll have plenty of company, and will be back in Minnesota at 33 1/2 weeks of pregnancy, well ahead of the 36 week travel deadline. The crumpet has been strictly instructed that she is not to be born in Arizona!