Back to the Farms

When we first arrived in the States, my parents picked berries to put food on the table, figuratively and literally. I would follow along and sleep in the car until the rumbles in my belly wake me to tell me that I must feed it. Now, almost 30 years later, my belly grumbles again.














Poor berries, they never had a chance...

Washington D.C. trip

Last week, I went to D.C. for a CME (continuing medical education) about osteoporosis, and Quoc tagged along. It was a really good conference and I learned tons (!) while Quoc explored most of the museums by himself. I joined him after the conference ends on Friday afternoon. At the conference, I met my friend Rani from medical school! What a small world. (Hi Rani!) Also, we hung out with Julie and Billy and stayed at their place (thanks, guys!). D.C. was very... efficient, diverse and much more interesting than I remembered. We ate lots of good food, and walked a lot. I think we both lost a few pounds each. My favorite museum was the Holocaust museum- it was really nicely presented and organized. The highlights of the trip are in the pictures below.

The lowlights of the trip are the troubles we ran into trying to get back home. There was a huge storm in NYC, where we had a connecting flight to Portland. So we delayed getting into JFK by 6 hours- got there around 2 am. The only other flight available was 8:30 pm the next day. So we frantically called everyone we know in NYC, and found Kevin, who's an ER resident and long time friend from San Diego who graciously picked us up, let us stay at his place and dropped us off the next day before his shift. (Thanks Kev!) The story isn't over yet. We lucked out and got put onto an earlier flight @ noon to Seattle, but the storm hit again and we were delayed for 3 hours. And... apparently, there was a volcano in Alaska that erupted which causes interference in our direct flight to Seattle- causing a detour to Utah (needed to fuel up). After waiting there, we finally arrive in Seattle around 7 pm. At this time, the Amtrak's last train out of Seattle to Portland was long gone. We had to cancel that reservation and decided to rent a very expensive car home. Fortunately, there was 2 other Portlanders in the same boat and we decided to drive together and share the rental fees. We got home around midnight and crashed.
Did I mention the last day of travel was my birthday? :) It was the most terrible travel experience I've ever had. But I think we made the most of it. We met lots of interesting and fun people along the way. For example, the whole plane was watching the Olympics' men's swimming relay, on the tar mat, waiting for permission to fly. At the moment that USA beat the French, everyone stood up, clapped and there was a roar of "yeah!!!!" throughout the plane. It was a really cool moment. Also, we're thankful for our friends who are so generous, as always!

Billy, Julie, Quoc, me and Rani @ Malaysian
Sunny and Rani @ Mai Thai
Kevin driving us to the airport before his ER shift.

More pictures to come when I'm a bit more motivated to upload more. It was overall, a great trip.

Beach Weekend

Last weekend, Quoc's boss/friend was generous enough to let us borrow his beach house in Pacific City, OR for the weekend. So we load up the car with 3 other friends, a trunk full of food and "off we go!" Unfortunately, it was pretty misty and cloudy, so I did not get many good pictures (fear of ruining the lens on my new toy/early birthday present from Quoc. The clouds did not damper our fun though. We climbed the sand dune, walked on the shores and hung out at the house. It was such a relaxing weekend; I forgot about work for a little while. I think we all needed that break. Thanks K_!

Quoc being silly
John & Rachel
Rachel
John
Anita

I'm still getting used to the camera, learning more about shooting in different lighting conditions. Hopefully the pictures will improve with time. It's an impressive piece of equipment; I'm grateful for it. Thanks, husband!

Clam diggin' #2

Today, Quoc woke me up way early to drive to Netarts Bay once again for clam digging. This time, we have the expertise of his boss, an experienced clammer to show us the way and the right holes to dig. And oh my goodness!! These were huge! See the pictures below. What a workout it was too! At one point, my entire head was in the hole, hanging' on to the clam and digging around it with my fingers as the muddy water fills up and collapsing around my arm. The clam squirts out water too, as an desperate attempt to escape. We caught 23 gapers, a few cockles, soft shells and mussels. We thought we had 24 gapers but one of those were dead shells, filled with mud. Fooled us! By the time we had to go, carrying two buckets-full was quite a task for Quoc. I attempted, but it was way too heavy. We'll share the goods with friends and family, and for sure, we'll go again next low tide!

Buckets of clams! You can compare the size to my garden hose faucet head.

See how proud we are of ourselves? :)
Duy and Diane. I love her face! She's trying to smile, but totally grossed out at the site of the gaper's long neck.

31st

Happy Birthday Hubby!

Clam Diggin'

We went to Netarts Bay today to dig clams. I didn't know it was so much work, and so much fun! The weather was very accommodating and the bay water was not cold at all! Quoc and I dug 40 clams (the daily limit) all together. The day ended with a very exciting adventure. I was helping Quoc dig for a potential gigantic clam that was 3 feet under the surface and lost the time. We looked up and everyone was gone. The tide was coming in fast! So we ran, racing the tide, lugging the day's work, wading in chest high waters at times to cross to safe land. I prayed the entire time that we won't get stranded and die out in the bay. I forgot that I can swim! It was scary and we had a good laugh afterwards. Sticky, wet and stinky, we got lunch and got ice cream at the Tillamook Cheese Factory and drove home. We gave some of the clams to our neighbor and i think I'll attempt to make clam chowder tomorrow. Will post pictures of the finished product. We'll go again, I'm sure, next month at the next low tide.

Posing for the picture. But I did dig all those holes in the back!

A butter clam!

Commuting

This month, I have a lot of clinic. And since it's closer to home (~15 mins of driving), I figured I'd bike instead. And I did! Approx 6 miles each way- took me 1 hour to get there and 45 mins to get back on my little mountain bike. Not bad, I thought. The worse part is going over the interstate bridge over the Columbia River. It was so windy that I couldn't go down hill fast. Took the fun out of it.
The weather is getting nicer now; by biking, I'll save gas, and get some exercise. Only days I can't bike are when I have to go to the hospital in the afternoon. Hopefully, this will last through the summer, periodically at least. Now, I know I can beat my time if I only have breakfast!