Finally, here we are at the end of August, and the Mayers have had a packed out month! At the beginning of the month I had just finished up a 10-week research rotation into the toxic mechanisms of prions in mammalian cell lines, while Whitney had begun studying for her GRE, which she takes this October before applying to nursing school. With a week to kill until school started, I went on a baking/cooking frenzy, making half a dozen new breads and dinners I had never tried before to stay entertained until August really kicked off with our trip back west to Seattle to see the Lentzs get hitched.
We arrived to a rainy Seattle midnight on Friday the 6th, and after a night's sleep woke to a Saturday with a more rain but our first of what was to be many social events. Most of our friends were in town by this point, and although it couldn't truly be a party without Paige, we tried our best and had everyone up to the Chouse in Mukilteo for some food and socializing. It was very nice to see all the people we hadn't spent time with, in some cases for as long as a year!
Though we had just gotten to Seattle, things were starting up in Boston, and the Monday after we arrived I was officially a 2nd year medical student, in class, with a test the Friday after we got back. This meant trying to squeeze 15 lectures a week around our schedule of frequent drives to Seattle and the East Side, and only added to the lack of rest we got on the "vacation".
Our first week in Seattle, Stephanie had her bridal shower, and then we spent lots of time with her and our (now two) friends from Britain, Victoria and Laura. Laura had never been to the Northwest, so we of course showed her all of our favorite places to eat and parks to go to. This of course meant $1 sushi at Sushi Land, nachos at the Matador, home-made ice cream at Molly Moon's, and other places besides. Since Whitney had booked a lot of time with her former roommates, we split up and I spent time with the British and Stephanie while Whitney went on what seemed like endless coffee dates and bridesmaid-dress shopping trips with the girls. This came to somewhat off an end on Friday, with the departure of the British on an Alaskan cruise, Taylor Huerta's outdoor birthday party, and my departure to Enumclaw to spend four days with the man of the hour, Steven Lentz.
Enumclaw is a town sitting in the shadow of Mt. Rainier, a decent drive south of the East Side and Bellevue, and where the newly minted Lentzs will be living for the beginning of their new life together. Steven and I quickly fell back into our old ways, which mainly consist of us playing non-stop, and I mean non-stop, board and card games. For four days. Minus one day where we went and swam in a river, and one night where we slept over at the fire station and went on some calls. Otherwise games. We played Scotland Yard, Catan, 7th Sea, Tide of Iron, Last Night on Earth, Pandemic, and watched Ocean's 11 and 12. Pretty good weekend, but cut into those lectures on pharmacokinetics that were piling up for me. We rounded off the weekend by staying the night at the station where Steven is a volunteer firefighter, and I got to meet his shift, who were a bunch of really fun guys. We thought we were going to get off at 6AM with no calls, but two came in with just two minutes left, and so I rode along while we helped a hypoglycemic diabetic and a Parkinson's patient. One last thing in which I wish luck to Stephanie is in teaching Steven decent dieting habits. When I arrived, lunch was mickey-mouse chicken nuggets, and I insisted on dragging our muscle-bound glutes to QFC to pick up something that had actually come out of the ground. I was almost worried Steven would be allergic to spinach due to underexposure.
Whitney here... the two weeks were definitely packed with social events and meeting up with friends. We did get to spend a lot of great time with family. We all went and saw 'The Other Guys' which was somewhat funny and mildly disappointing. We got to see a lot of my mom in the mornings (we often worked out together) which was really nice. It's fun to be home in the mornings, drinking coffee and watching Regis and Kelly with your mom again! She of course spoiled me with tons of new (to me) clothes, as she always does. We joke that I wouldn't have much of a wardrobe if it wasn't for her. I had a few fun dates with Calley: my favorite being getting very dolled up to go out to dessert at Arnies and finishing up with Valentines Day (the movie). My dad and I went on a nice walk through the Ebey Island area (where he goes duck hunting) on a very toasty Sunday afternoon. Gammy & Papa came over for a few family dinners and Gammy and I spent some time shopping together (of course). We saw Chad's parents for a breakfast or two over the last weekend, as they were in town for the wedding. Needless to say, it was really nice to see family because it had been 8 months since we've seen them. Chad and I are beginning to realize how somewhat complicated (albeit amazing) visits home are. There are just so many wonderful people we want to see and even in our two weeks home we felt really squished for time. Everyone works (which is very normal and understandable) so weekends and weeknights are the only good time to see friends and family. It was somewhat stressful to say the least. We undoubtedly had an amazing time seeing everyone we love, but it was still a little sad for me because I still felt I didn't have enough time with everyone. I guess this is what happens when you move so far away and it's something I'm going to have to adjust to.
Thursday afternoon was the beginning of the end of the trip, and we each started it off with a bang by attending the respective bachelor/bachelorette parties. The girls did dinner and gifts before getting drinks and having a night of dancing at Chopstix, which is a dueling piano bar in lower Queene Anne. The boys had a BBQ and a good time at the Piehler household, before heading into town to play pool, drink a little bit, and watch Steven complete several challenges ending with him up on stage at Chopstix trying to sing "Like a Virgin". Turns out he'd never heard it before, and actually none of us had a really good idea how it went, but it was funny anyways.
Rehearsal dinner was at the same place Whitney and I had had ours: Buca di Beppo's. Lots of really great Italian food and a fun night with friends. This rounded out the list of restaurants I wanted to hit in Seattle, and our gastronomic checklist was officially done. Now we just had to survive a wedding.
The wedding took place out in Monroe at Rosecrest Farm. It was a beautiful outdoor location, and we lucked out by getting the last partly cloudy day Seattle would give us before we left for home. The ceremony was fairly short, but the reception was a blast and went on for a while. Whitney was a dancing fool, and spent the next day very sore from all the head whipping and hip-busting she pulled for hours on end. We danced hard until the Navy showed up, and then wouldn't leave. The navy boys even showed up at dinner afterwards. They had been invited to the wedding during the bachelorette party at Chopstix, to give you an idea.
The wedding done, and the Lentzs married, all we had the next day was a goodbye brunch with friends and a family dinner before we pulled an all nighter flying the red-eye back to Boston, where we arrived home Monday at noon, much worse for wear.
I began attending classes Tuesday, and after much frantic studying managed to scrape an 85% on my first examination back in school, and Whitney and I are already spending time with people back here.
Last night we did a dinner cruise with my MD/PhD program on the Spirit of Boston, and we got WAAAAYYYY more than we bargained for in coming. Not only was dinner and juice/soda included, but the crew WAS the entertainment as they did choreographed dancing and lounge singing all throughout the night. We also managed to catch a free fireworks show in Boston Harbor, courtesy of some wedding with a what must have been limitless budget.
Next week we'll spend Labor Day down with our friends the Dziaduls and Webers in Connecticut before we settle in for a peaceful september before the holidays start rolling in, along with the autumn visitors. Jeremy and Ronnie will be joining us for a week, and we're already really excited, so the rest of you should come out as well!
As an aside, my sister Soliz has been WWOOFing in Italy, and if you want to read about one of the worst travel experiences ever, head over to her blog at solizatlarge.blogspot.com.
-Chad
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