Vacation Day 5

Day 5: Bryce Canyon, UT to Driggs, ID

Estimated Mileage: 553 miles
Estimated Driving Time: 9.2 hours

This was our longest driving time in one day. It took us almost 12 hours again, including mutiple stops for potty, food, etc. Our route was mostly on Interstate 15, which is sort of like the American Autobahn. It had a speed limit mostly of 75 mph, but there were large portions with 80 mph! I took advantage of this...

... and it was a good thing, too. We rolled into our Best Western Motel in Driggs, Idaho at 9:30pm and found out their front desk closed at 10pm. We would have lost our reservation if we came more than 30 minutes later!

The scenery in Idaho as we came up to the Tetons was amazing. Unfortunately, I don't have any good pictures since we were arriving when it was almost dark. Here's a picture I took off the web:



It looked even more impressive than this, though, because at this time of year, there was quite a lot more snow on the peaks, perhaps more like this picture:



Well, here's a couple of pictures we ourselves took:



Rebekah got a little tired of driving all day




Rachel appears happy... in this picture at least!




Here is our van loaded down with all our junk, plus two adorable children




In Idaho Falls we stopped to get dinner and I bought a really nice "Easy-Up" Canopy that would provide us some protection from too much sun or rain the next time we camped. It barely fit in the back of our van.




Here's our motel the next morning.




And here is the view of the Tetons from our motel.

Vacation Day 3 and 4

Day 3: Cottonwood, AZ to Bryce Canyon, UT

Estimated Mileage: 350 miles
Estimated Driving time: 6.7 hours

This day was QUITE the adventure. It took us more like 12 hours to get there because:

1) My older daughter, Rachel, got car-sick and barfed yogurt-chunks all over her carseat. We tried to clean it off, but in the end we decided to drive to the next town and get her a new one. We also changed her position in the car so she could see outside better and thus prevent future episodes. The car still kinda smells like strawberry yogurt in some places...

2) My brother-in-law, Tommy, had been having sharp pains above his left eye for a few days. They didn't last very long and he ignored them until this day, as they were getting more frequent. As we drove, I had a chance to put my doctor skills in action. I asked him lots of questions, took a focused history, and did a VERY focused physical exam. Driving with my left hand, I tapped him above the eyes with my right hand - he was quite tender above the left eye, but not above the right. That physical finding was so classic, I was pretty sure it was a left frontal sinus infection. We stopped in Flagstaff to take him to an urgent care. Yup - it was a sinus infection. He took Zithromax for 5 days and Mucinex for a couple days and everything was fine after that. Hopefully this is a sign that I will do OK as an internal medicine intern in a few weeks...

Around 8:30 pm, we finally rolled into our campsite and madly dashed around, set up our tents, unpacked our car, made dinner (chili dogs... yummmmmmmm), cleaned up, and went to bed by midnight. Luckily, it stayed light until around 9:30 or 10, and our lantern helped out after that.

The 2nd day, we drove around to a few spots to look out at Bryce Canyon. All the spots were amazing, but Bryce Point was the most spectacular. Incredible view and amazing rock formations!

Picture highlights:


Our campsite



Rachel playing in the campground



Rebekah playing in her portable crib





Rachel, Tommy, and I



The family of four



Bryce Point



Rachel and Tommy at Bryce Point



It was a beautiful day!



Katie and Rebekah



"Natural Bridge"



Storm clouds are brewing...

In fact, during our drive around the Bryce Canyon lookout points, it rained back at our campground. It was a good thing we covered everything up in anticipation. It also rained briefly that evening after everyone went to bed. The following morning we had to deal with wet tents, tarps, etc.



It was also very cold the next morning, thus Rebekah had her bear suit on.



...and Rachel had her "footy pajamas"

Vacation Day 1 and 2

Day 1: Loma Linda, CA to Cottonwood, AZ

Estimated Mileage: 411 miles
Estimated driving time: 6.2 hours

Of course it took a little longer because we needed to stop for lunch, potty breaks, screaming baby breaks, etc.

We stayed 2 nights in Cottonwood, visiting with my wife's grandparents and aunt during the days. We had a wonderful time with them, and my girls had some good bonding time with relatives they rarely get to see.

We also got to briefly visit Sedona, AZ, a very interesting and beautiful desert-like area with lots of red rocks. Cool place!

Some picture highlights:

Post-Graduation Move/Vacation

We didn't waste any time setting out for Minnesota...

Graduation was on Sunday morning, May 24.

We left the very next morning on a 9-day drive through some of the most beautiful national parks and campgrounds in the country.

The next few blog posts will be highlights of the trip. It was quite an experience. Those present: myself, my wife, my two daughters (nearly 3 years-old and 10 months-old), and my wife's 19 year-old brother to help us out.

Back in March, a few days after I found out I matched to Minnesota, I booked all our reservations and planned where we would travel. We would camp some nights and stay in motels other nights.

A couple of days before graduation, we had most of our belongings packed into a U-Pack trailer (you pack it, they drive it), and the rest we stuffed into our van along with our camping gear, etc. Our organization left something to be desired, but hey, it's pretty crazy to both have a vacation and move across the country at the same time.

The Perpetual Student Finally Graduated!

...after 4 years of undergraduate followed by 1 year of work experience followed by 8 years of an MD and a PhD in Biochemistry, I'm finally done.

Yes, that's right folks. Eight days ago I graduated from medical school (I finished the PhD last year), so now I'm officially a mud-phud (MD, PhD). I consider myself very fortunate and blessed to have finished in a reasonable amount of time. Sometimes it can take 8 years to do just a PhD alone.

So now I'm officially done with school forever! ...um sort of. I'm afraid I can't give up schooling without a fight. In 2 weeks, I'm starting a residency program in Internal Medicine. Residency is still sort of like school, although they do pay you, which is nice.

I actually ended up matching into a combined residency-research-fellowship track at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. It may take me another 8 years to finish it! Internal Medicine (2 to 3 years), Research (2 years), and Hematology/Oncology fellowship (3 years if I double board, 2 if I single-board in either Hematology or Oncology).

I'm looking forward to this next stage of life. Life will definitely be different in Minnesota for a native California boy and his native Californian wife! Our almost 3 and 1 year-old daughters will probably be just fine - snow is fun when you're a kid.

Here are a few pictures from graduation:

This blog has been hijacked

Hello all, this is Dan's wife Katie. Today, I'd like to tell you about MY favorite composer, on his birthday. You may not know that my husband, in addition to being a fabulous pianist and classical music buff (as evidenced by this blog), is also a composer in his own right. Below is his greatest work, in my opinion.

First, a little background. Dan wrote this song for our wedding, almost 6 years ago. He performed it at our reception--I was completely surprised. The words tell the story of our courtship, but they also are a very beautiful depiction of marriage, "a picture of the oneness between Christ and His Church". In the last verse of the song, Dan took many biblical descriptions of marriage and put them together. As for the music, I prefer to think of it as part of the romantic genre ;-).

About a year after we were married, a friend professionally recorded Dan's song--Dan both sings and plays the piano. Today, I have a surprise of my own. I put that recording together with a collection of photos and videos from our engagement and wedding. I hope you enjoy it!

Happy Birthday, my love!!

Reflections on my year music blogging

On this New Year's Eve, I'd like to analyze and reflect on my year of blogging about composers on their birthdays. I spent some time analyzing all of my blog posts on composers, including mundane details like number of words I wrote, number of links I included, etc. I tallied all my results up in an excel spreadsheet tried to make sense of it all. Hope it's interesting to you!

First post:
November 12, 2007 (Borodin)

Last post:
October 26, 2008 (Scarlatti)

Total Posts:
53 (on 57 composers)

Composers by broad music era:
Baroque 6
Classical 5
Romantic 23
Modern 23

Words written:
24,538 (total)
463 (average per blog post)

Links to music:
396 (total)
7.5 (average per blog post)

Comments:
75 (total)
1.4 (average per blog post)

Most posts in a month: 13 (March)
Least posts in a month: 1 (July)

Top Ten longest blog posts (# of words):
1. Bach (2,010)
2. Mahler (1,300)
3. Mozart (1,208)
4. Brahms (1,156)
5. Handel (1,059)
6. Ravel (1,017)
7. Beethoven (984)
8. Rachmaninov (936)
9. Liszt (791)
10. Shostakovich (757)

Top Ten most links to music:
1. Bach (38)
2. Brahms (25)
3. Rachmaninov (25)
4. Ravel (16)
5. Beethoven (14)
6. Liszt (14)
7. Mahler (14)
8. Grieg (13)
9. Prokofiev (13)
10. Tchaikovsky (13)

Shortest blog post:
Boccherini (91 words)

Fewest links to music:
Borodin (no links!)

Well, I've really spent way too long on this ridiculous post. It took me several hours to make the spreadsheet tabulating everything. I guess it's the scientist in me coming out or something.

Yes, I spent a whole lot of time blogging this last year. I have no idea how many countless hours were spent, not only writing, but listening to / watching hundreds of youtube videos, searching for great musical performances. I find it interesting that I did only about 20% of my blogging on Baroque and Classical period composers combined, with the other 80% on the Romantic and Contemporary composers. This definitely agrees with my bias for music of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Note, however, that Bach completely blew away all the competition for longest post and number of links to music. Although I favor 19th and 20th century music in general, Bach is probably my favorite composer, and that is reflected in my posts. Below is my attempt at a top ten list of who my actual favorite composers are.

My Top Ten favorite composers:
1. Bach
2. Mozart
3. Beethoven
4. Chopin
5. Brahms
6. Ravel
7. Rachmaninov
8. Liszt
9. Mahler
10. Schubert

I think it would be more accurate to make three groups: 1-5, 6-7, and 8-10. The top 5 have all been my favorite at some point, and are equals in my mind, though Bach is usually the favorite. Ravel and Rachmaninov are further down, but wonderful. The last 3 are wonderful, too, but I could just as easily have put three other composers that didn't make the list here.

Before I wrap up this post, I'd like to extend my apologies to the following composers, who I would have liked to blog on, but didn't end up having enough time. Maybe I will come back to them another time...

Alban Berg
Fernando Sor
Leopold Godowsky
Henri Vieuxtemps
Bedrich Smetana
Johann Strauss
Louis Gottschalk
Jules Massenet
Erik Satie
Isaac Albeniz
Mikhail Glinka
Feruccio Busoni
Edward Elgar
Tomaso Albinoni
Richard Strauss
Eugene Ysaye
Ottorino Respighi
Henryk Wieniawski
Enrique Granados
Alexander Glazunov
Moritz Moszkowski
Leonard Bernstein
Georges Enesco
Johann Pachelbel
Anton Bruckner
Darius Milhaud
Antonin Dvorak
Charles Griffes
Gustav Holst
Paul Dukas
Giuseppe Verdi
Camille Saint-Saens
Charles Ives
Georges Bizet
Niccolo Paganini
John Philip Sousa
Paul Hindemith
Carl Maria von Weber
Benjamin Britten
Olivier Messian
Zoltan Kodaly
Edward MacDowell
Giacomo Puccini
John Williams