Bachelor's Weekend

This past weekend, Marla took a trip with her girlfriends from college.
This left the boys at home alone:



Jason had a great time hanging out with Ethan..and Marla had her first time away from Ethan.
This was a good way for her to prepare for going back to work and being away from him...work starts on Wednesday! (Ugh!!!)

Marla enjoyed touring Washington DC with 3 of her college friends. Washington DC is such a historical city, and it always reminds me of how lucky we are to have a free, democratic country.

At the Lincoln Memorial Looking Towards the Capital


From Atop the Washington Monument

While there, we also visited the national zoo, and saw the panda bears...


Also, I dont have a picture of it, but we saw a baby gorilla there that was six months old--almost the same age as Ethan.
Overall, a great girlfriend's getaway!

Rhode Island

Neither Jason nor Marla had ever been to the state of Rhode Island...until yesterday!
We headed to the town of Newport, about 1 and a half hours south of us.
Newport was founded back in 1639, and is nicknamed "America's first resort". It is famous for huge mansions located on cliffs above the ocean, belonging to folks like the Vanderbilt's and the Astor's in the gilded age. Humorously, they are called "cottages"...



The town of Newport itself was very picturesque with tons of old buildings and cobblestone streets. Also, a large harbor, where the rich park their yachts!
If you are planning to visit Newport, we recommend trying Priceline to get a hotel--Jason got us into the Newport Marriott for $60/night...that and talking to some locals on where to park for free overnight kept this a budget get-away at America's first resort.


Ethan's favorite part of the trip was his first swing ride! He loved it, and we are now seeking out a park here in Cambridge with swings.

Of Sandcastles and Weddings

This weekend, our friends the Rickmeier's were in town from Chicago for Jason's friend Pete Philips Wedding.
On Saturday, we headed to Revere beach for the New England Sandsculpting festival. the creations were pretty impressive:


Sunday night was the weddding, a beautiful event right on the boston Harbor. It was Ethan's first time with the nanny...mom was a bit nervous but everything seemed to go alright, and Ethan was sleeping soundly when we got home!

To the Cape We Go

Yesterday, we decided to check out "the Cape". Our plan was to head out early to a place called Old Silver Beach in Falmouth.

Ethan woke us up at 6:30, we were out the door a bit before 8. (gone are the days when we can get up and get out of the house in 30 minutes!)
The drive took about an hour and 20 minutes, and was pretty straightforward, as we only got lost once, trying to get on the highway from our neighborhood.
We found the beach, set up our umbrellas and settled into feeling like true Bostonians.
The water was warmer here than on Cape Ann, and it was a very relazing and fun day. By the time we left mid-afternoon, the beach was really really crowded! Glad we got there early. Also as we drove home, traffic was really starting to back up heading into the Cape. It is nice we have weekdays off to do this kind of exploring!
Heres a pic of Ethan in front of the crowded beach before we left:
We didn't get a chance to explore the town of Falmouth or anywhere else actually--we'll save that for next time!

Starting solids

As if we haven't exposed Ethan to enough change recently, we have introduced him to solid foods. So now in addition to his new room with his new regular sized crib (he was in a mini crib before), and the new time zone, he is coping with rice cereal. So far, I don't think he really likes it. Judge for yourself:

Poor guy! his world has been turned upside-down. Luckily he has a few more days to hang just with us before the nanny starts!

Today was a beautiful day, and we headed to the Boston Common. The gardens are really pretty. Most interestingly, there is a statue there commemorating the invention of anesthesia! Although Ether was "discovered" a few years earlier, Ether's first public use was here in Boston, at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1846. In 1866, this monument was built "as an expression of gratitude for the relief of human suffering". Sure reminded us that what we do is pretty amazing--surgery was really different in the pre-anesthetic era!

Here's a picture of the statue:

A few days after the big move......

Our family has just moved to Boston for the year, and so we have started this Blog to keep in touch with family and friends far away!
I am not sure how frequently we'll be able to update, but I thought We'd give it a try...


We arrived here July 9, 2009, for fellowship--Jason will be doing a cardiac anesthesia fellowship at the Brigham and Marla a pediatric anesthesia fellowship at Boston Childrens...
We are toting our 5-month old son, Ethan Daniel with us....This has turned out to be interesting, very fun, but also a big change.

We have a great place that we are subletting from a family who is on sabbatical this year in Argentina. The place came fully furnished, complete with baby toys, as they also have a young son. It has 3 bedrooms, and is so (comparatively) spacious that we don't know what to do with ourselves (for those of you who didn't know, Jason and I were sleeping in the dining room the last few months in San Francisco...). It is in a neighborhood called Cambridgeport, which theoretically is right across the river from where we are working. We haven't really figured out how to get there yet. We actually tried once and got horribly lost and it ended up taking almost 30 minutes to get home as we got caught in horrible traffic at Fenway park (which is also across the river).

Here some pics:

The exterior of the building

Our living room

Ethan's new toys

We spent the first few days just getting used to the neighborhood. As alluded to above, Boston is an extremely difficult city to drive in, especially since neither of us have really spent much time here before.
The first day, even with the help of a GPS we got completely lost trying to get to the post office, which is approximately 8 blocks away.
The following day, while attempting to find Target we accidentally crossed the Charles River the wrong way twice. I still don't understand how it happened. And today...lets just say that the 45 min drive to the beach took quite a bit longer--since we managed to miss several highway exits, and also a side effect of the "big dig" is that GPS units don't seem to work downtown.

It was a beautiful day, however...we headed north to a place called Cape Ann, a beach called Wingaersheek Beach, which was absolutely beautiful. Ethan enjoyed the day too! It is located outside of Gloucester, which is famous for being the setting for the movie The Perfect Storm.
Here are some pics:

Needless to say, we got totally lost coming home.
Oh well, tomorrow is another day!