Happy Holidays 2009!

It has been a busy week since I've written to my blog. I had my eyes examined about a week before Christmas and I was lucky enough to get them back from the lab on Christmas Eve. Here is a picture of me before heading to Mass:

We went to 5:15 Christmas Eve Mass at St. Aloysious Parish located on the campus of Gonzaga University. It was amazing. Mom, Dad and I arrived to Mass about 15 minutes early and it wasn't early enough. St. Al's is the largest Catholic Church in Spokane, holding 1,100; however, on Christmas Eve it was standing room only 15 minutes before Mass started. Luckily, we hit the right time and they were bringing up folding chairs so we got a seat, but people continued to enter the church until 5 minutes after the service started. There were people standing all around the church and at points, people were standing three and four rows deep! There were tons of children at the Mass and they were going crazy. Their parents tried to keep them under control, but they were extremely excited since Santa would be coming soon. They were all so cute! It was hard to hear the priest because of all of the children, but it was okay. The priest said that he was so happy to have all the kids at Mass that he didn't care. In fact, he said that he expected a lot of crying babies children and that they can just "let it rip" because this is a family Mass and kids cry. After Mass, we came home to make dinner. I had made home made scalped potatoes and we reheated up the ham. It was such a great Christmas Eve Meal! Then Farley and I got on webcams and opened each other's presents. That was nice because I surprised him with a couple things and it was fun to see the excitement on his face when he opened his presents. After that my family did some family things and then we opened our presents, which we always do late on Christmas Eve. Mom and I decided to watch midnight Mass from the Vatican, which was beautiful and they even showed much of the beautiful artwork in St. Peter's Basilica. At about 1:00am all of the sudden, the t.v. turned off the Mass and onto an infomercial--we couldn't believe it! After searching for 20 minutes, we decided that no other channel was airing the midnight Mass so we headed to bed.

Christmas Morning, Mom and I slept in because we were up so late! We opened our stockings and then made Belgian Waffles for breakfast. Mom prepared the prime rib for dinner and we all relaxed until late afternoon when the neighbors came over for a wonderful Christmas dinner, wonderful conversation and super deserts.

Below is a picture of doctor wine caddys that my my parents bought for Farley and me. I just think that they are so cute!!

The weekend after Christmas, we were very busy. On Sunday, we went to my half-sister's house and saw her, her husband, my other half-sister, and my niece. It was a nice to see everyone. Then we met up with Molly and Albert at P.F. Chang's for lunch. Then we window sale shopped downtown before heading over to Clinkerdagger's to meet our family friends, Tess and Lou. Tess's son, Alex, is the same age as I am and we have not seen each other since we were in Junior High, so it was fun to catch up. After having appetizers, we decided to go see Nine. It was a musical that was jam packed with star power. I am not a huge fan of musicals, but I did enjoy the music, dancing, and Italian scenery; however, I didn't think the story was all that great.

Below, is a picture of Mom and me at P.F. Chang's:
On Monday, Mom and I downtown again to look for snow boots for me. We managed to find a great warm pair that are not too big. I also found this cute 1920s styled hat and a cute scarf that I bought with Christmas money! Next, we headed to Coeur d'Alene Resort to meet up with Crystal and her mom, Pam, for a great lunch. We had a wonderful table with a beautiful view of the lake and it was so much fun to catch up with them.

On New Year's Eve, Mom, Dad and I met up with my friend Kelly, her husband Gabe and their 5-month old at the lobby of the Davenport Tower for a drink. We walked in at the right time and managed to get a great table. Later Molly and Albert met up with us for a drink too. Here is a picture of me in my Christmas hat and scarf at the Davenport Tower.
After drinks, we headed over to the original Davenport Hotel for our dinner reservations at the Palm Court. We ended up eating in the lobby which was a great place to people watch. There were lots of brides, tons of people in tuxes and other fancy dresses. It was Molly and Albert's 33rd wedding anniversary so it was fun to be able to share that with them. Below are pictures of Dad and me at the table and the second one is of Mom and me.

After dinner, we headed down to First Night Spokane to look at art and ice sculptures, watch dance and music, amongst other fun activities. We watched a juggler and comedy team, Brothers from Different Mothers, which was wonderful. We had such a great time! After their show, we headed down to the park to watch the fire works I didn't think to grab my camer

a soon enough, but here is a picture right at the end of the show. It was a cloudy and rainy night which combined with the smoke it looks as though the clock tower is on fire. I just love this photo!

After the fireworks, we headed back to the Davenport tower to have appetizers and champagne. We headed home about 1:00am, which was perfect. It was between the people leaving at midnight after the fireworks and at 2:00 when the bars closed. The only problem was that I was wide awake when I came home. I ended up reading my book, World Without End by Ken Follett, until almost 3:00am. The book is SO good that I didn't want to go to bed at all!

Christmas Flowers

Farley bought me a beautiful bouquet of Christmas Lilies. When the lilies arrived they were all buds and they have been opening over the last five days. They are even more beautiful in person:

Berkeley Day 4

I slept in on my final day in Berkeley, which allowed Mary to work on her newest paper. After we got ready, ate breakfast and I packed my bags, we headed out for a few more hours of fun before my flight. First, we went to the new Cathedral in Oakland: The Cathedral of Christ of Light. Apparently, there is a lot of controversy about the design of the church since it is unusual and the cost because it was extremely expensive. The inside is better looking than the outside, but I wasn't able to take any pictures. Mary and I went downstairs to the mausoleum. It was a beautiful mausoleum and much more traditional than the cathedral above. Below, the first picture is the outside of the Cathedral and the bottom two are of the mausoleum.

After finishing up at the Cathedral, Mary took me to the East Bay Vivarium. Mary has been wanting to go to here for several years, but no one would go with her. Despite, my fear of snakes I was ready to go (she took me shopping at places that neither of us could afford the last time I came to visit, so I owed her one). One of Mary's roommates met us there and we spent a long time looking at all of the critters. I was only able to take one picture of one of the animals, which I believe is a red snapper water turtle.

Next we went to lunch at a Mediterranean restaurant near UC Berkeley. Mary had to meet her PhD advisor to talk about her upcoming paper, so I headed to a coffee shop. I grabbed an Americano and kept reading Ken Follett's riveting 1989 novel The Pillars of the Earth. It was 973 pages of glory. It was an amazing book and I finished it in about two weeks. I can't believe that there wasn't a slow part in the entire book! Anyway, after Mary was finished with her appointment she picked me up and then we hung out at her house for a while before I headed to the airport. Mary dropped me off about three hours before my flight because she had to get back to the lab and I hung out in the airport reading until my flight.

Overall, it was a great trip and I had an amazing time.

Berkeley Day 3

On Sunday, we decided to head into San Francisco. Mary has a set of 5x7 cards that are walking tours of the city. We narrowed it down to three different walks and decided to go on two of them, because they were only six blocks apart and we could take the same BART stop (Bay Area Rapid Transit). We ended up in the Mission District of San Francisco, which has Latino roots, many murals, has many boutiques and tons of great restaurants. I wasn't able to get any good pictures of the murals, but I did get a beautiful picture of the The Mission Dolores Basilica, which is a historic Catholic church in the Mission District.

We also went down in to the Castro District, which is where much of the Gay Rights movements have started. The Castro is a historical theater and from the outside it was beautiful--I only wish Mary and I would have had time to go into the theater. The Castro District had amazing little shops and also tons of restaurants. It was so much fun to window shop, especially since many of the stores had handmade goods. There were also tons of mouthwatering restaurants. Below are the pictures of the Castro Theater.

After walking in the Castro district, we headed into a nearby neighborhood with tons of beautiful Victorian row houses. Here are a few pictures of the homes and view:

After looking at all of the beautiful homes, we headed back to the Castro District and had a wonderful lunch.

After lunch, we headed back toward the Mission District and decided to walk down Valencia Street. Valencia is full of trendy little shops and coffee shops. It was another fun area to walk around, but it was starting to get dark and we needed to get back to Mary's house so we didn't get to stay long.

After we arrived back in Berkeley, we started to watch a movie with Mary's roommates. Then we headed out to dinner at a local pizza place in Berkeley. After dinner, we went to Mass with one of Mary's roommates at the Catholic Church near UC Berkeley's campus. It was a beautiful candle light service, but it reminded me why I always think I like candle light services more than I actually like candlelight services: I get super sleepy. Overall, we had an action packed day and lots of fun!

Berkely Day 2

On Saturday, we decided to go to Livermore to go wine tasting. We discussed going to Napa Valley or Sonoma Valley but Mary said that those are more commercialized and she had always wanted to go to Livermore. Livermore reminded me a lot of going wine tasting in Walla Walla: all of the wine owners were in their tasting rooms. It was so much fun to go to the wineries and speak with the owners and the wine makers. Everyone was so nice and it is such a great way to learn about wine. For example, I never knew before that one could make port out of white wine. Mary brought a yummy picnic lunch and Jakob was kind enough to be our designated driver for the day!Here are some pictures from the wine tasting.





After wine tasting, we headed back to Mary's house and she made a great butter nut squash soup from scratch--yummy! Later that evening, we looked through my pictures from being abroad and Mary's pictures from her trip to Spain.

Berkeley Day 1

I arrived at the Oakland airport on Friday night at about 7:30. Mary and her boyfriend, Jakob, picked me up at the airport and then we headed to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Then we headed to Mary's house to have desert. It was so much fun to just sit and catch up after not seeing her for almost three years.

PASS!

I passed my first licensing board, USMLE Step 1. As usual, I'm not 100% pleased with my score, but I passed!!!! Goodbye USMLE Step 1, hello really becoming a doctor.

The Davenport Hotel Christmas Trees

On Sunday morning, I went to brunch with my parents, my aunt and uncle at the Davenport Tower. The food was great but the company was even better. After having a great breakfast, we headed over to the Davenport Hotel to look at the Christmas decorations and the charity Christmas trees that were up for auction on the second level.

Above: The giant, multi-story tree in the center of the hotel lobby

Below: Mom, Dad and me in front of the giant tree

Below are the pictures of the trees that are being auctioned for charity.

Above is a tree that has paper flowers on it and below there is a paper flower bouquet. The third picture is a close up of the paper flowers.

Here are the rest of the Christmas Trees:

The Lion King

On Saturday night, my friend Kelly and her husband Gabe invited me to join them to go to see Lion King at the Spokane Opera House. After leaving their beautiful little girl at home with her grandma, we headed to a Japanese restaurant for dinner. After dinner we headed downtown very early to ensure that we got parking. We had a few hours, so we headed to Zola for a glass of wine. Zola is a super cute and classy bar that has live music. Here is a picture:

Next, we headed to the Spokane Opera House for the show. Here is a picture of Kelly and I outside.

Here is the cool curtain that was hanging before the show.

This is a picture of us excited and waiting for the show.
Here is the program.

The show was amazing. I'm not a huge fan of musicals, but this was something else. I can't even describe who wonderful it was. The dancing, acting, singing, costumes, masks and puppets. I assume that the shows in Las Vegas and New York have even bigger ensemble cast, which would mean more beautiful animals. Even if the show is exactly the same, I'd love to see the show again. Click here for a link to pictures from The Lion King.

On Sunday, I went to breakfast with my parents, aunt and uncle at the Davenport Tower. They had some masks on display from the Lion King.

Above: Simba as an adult lion

Below: Zazu

Above: Scar (the evil uncle)

Below: Mufasa (Simba's Dad)