Latest Family Photos

This year, with Chase growing up, I decided we should have family photos taken. We used the same photographer and our same local park like last time, but this time in the fall rather than the spring. It's crazy to see how much Chase has grown, also considering the pictures taken almost exactly 3 years earlier. Here is a subset of the pictures: 

Sorrento and Capri

In October, I went to a conference in Sorrento. This town in Italy by Mount Vesuvius is a town that Katie and I stumbled upon when we were traveling through Italy and Greece as 20-year-olds back in our college days. We love Sorrento so much and going back, I feel like it hasn't changed. Obviously, it is still quite touristy but since it was October, it wasn't too bad. It was sunny, beautiful, and warm. The conference was super duper busy but I did get a chance to take a morning run around the town. On the one free day that we had a the end of the week, I went to the island of Capri. Due to our disappointing visit to Lake Como earlier in the summer, I was ready to be disappointed by the island of Capri. Like Lake Como, it seems to be a very American destination. However, probably due to it being October once again, I enjoyed it so much. With Olia and her family, we went all around the tiny island and saw some incredibly beautiful natural sights. The weather was perfect and it was such an enjoyable visit. 

Mount Vesuvius in the bottom right picture seen from the area by the hotel. 

The north side of the island was where we arrived and departed. Such cute streets and passageways! 

We found a cute place in the south where there was a swimming hole. And these cactuses in the lower left put me right back in San Diego climate!

Trips Around Switzerland (Part IV)

[Previous trips around Switzerland: Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part3.5; and Activities Nearby]

We've had a few more trips and activities around Switzerland through the summer and fall. 

Church retreat in Leysin

Lab retreat in Zermatt
We had the most amazing weather and did a hike up around the Matterhorn area.

Day trip to Zurich & Zug
We walked around the Zurich and climbed up the Grossmunster, from where we got some nice city views. Then, we took the train to Zug and walked by the lake with some good friends who live in the area.

Scarecrow festival in the our and surrounding towns
This involved a parade that stopped in a town up the hill from us where there was a huge community dinner. Then, the floats continued down the hill and were handing out candy to kids and adult drinks to the parents. Finally, there was a grape harvest presenting ceremony to the town officials and a huge drum and fireworks show. It was an awesome afternoon/night, especially for the kids who obviously loved it (although fell asleep before the crazy fireworks show).

Trout Path Hike in the area a bit north of us

Chase actually walked the whole way and the kids loved finding the trout signs. 

Olympic Museum

I already posted about this before, but this summer with Chase a bit older and my mom in town, we went to the Olympic Museum for real. It's quite a good one for grown-ups and kids alike, and right next to the lake in Ouchy. 

UK work trip

In September, I went on a work trip to the UK to go to a conference in Brighton. Since there were a few of us going, we decided to go to London the weekend before. Our last trip to London was quite disappointing, but this time, I enjoyed London a lot more. The parks were greener and more welcoming, and we even saw real sun for a while! We obviously walked around a lot and ate a lot of good food, but also visited the Tate Modern Museum and a few fun markets and areas. 

Brighton, on the other hand, was more depressing. As it was September and it seems to be more of a summer destination, most places were bare-boned or just closed. It was nice to get views of the ocean right from the hotel and the idea of the boardwalk was cool, but the rain and wind made it overall a sad destination.  

The only picture of the Brighton I took as there wasn't much of anything else there picture-worthy. The sky was like this most of the time. 

Chase starts school

This August, Chase started school officially in Switzerland. All children are required to start school after their 4th birthday. He goes to a public, French-speaking school near our house (5-7 minute walk) and is in a class with about 8 kids his age (4-5 years old, called 1P) and 8 kids a year older (5-6 years old, called 2P). His schedule in 1P is quite light: he goes 4 morning a week (8:45 am - 12:05 pm) and 1 afternoon (2:05 pm - 3:45 pm). In 2P, he will go 5 mornings a week and 3 afternoons a week so it will increase a lot. During lunch, he goes to a kids' lunch program that they have in our town at another school close by his -- we're pretty lucky as most towns don't have this option. After lunch, he goes to a new daycare right next to the lunch program. He is there until 6 pm. On Wednesdays when there is no school for him and no lunch program for anyone, he goes to the daycare all day and they have an option for someone to feed him there. This way, we can cover his care for all days of the week. 

At the beginning, he wasn't so thrilled about school itself, but loved the new daycare and the lunch program. With some time, he is getting more used to school and is starting to really enjoy it. They seem to learn a lot through play related activities. 

4th Annual Summer Trip to Ukraine

As with the previous 3 years (2017, 2016, 2015), we took a trip to Ukraine during the summer. This time, as last year, we spent 2 weeks there (with Nate and I working one of the weeks remotely). We spent most of the time at the summer house, but did go to Kiev for a few days where we went on nice city walks, visited good restaurants and coffee shops, and Chase went back to the awesome kids play area at the mall near my grandparents' apartment. Once again, it was quite hot, but we were able to spend most of the time at the summer house avoiding the intense heat of the city. 

Chase with my dad (top) and grandfather (bottom). 

Some posing out in the garden. 

Some more posing with my grandmother, and Chase collecting fruit. 

Our usual collective but with my father, and BOTH Nate and Sonia. 

At the play area in Kiev; this picture doesn't do it justice but it is pretty awesome. 

Amsterdam

While my mom was watching Chase this summer, Nate and I took the opportunity to do our first weekend getaway since Chase was born. We went to Amsterdam and had a great time checking out all of the museums and sights. We walked around a lot, stumbled upon a Pride parade and all its associated parties, explored many museums (Anne Frank House, Rijksmuseum, and Van Gogh Museum), ate good food, drank a lot of Dutch beer (including the Heineken Experience and the Ice Bar), and even watched a movie. A very full and enjoyable weekend!

Posing by the main train station. 

One of the Pride associated concerts we stumbled upon. 

Outside the Rijksmusuem with the Pride signs. 

The library in the Rijksmuseum which I found just fascinating. 

One of the parks by the museum district. 

One of the many picturesque canals we walked by. 

Inside the Ice Bar (kind of a tourist trap but a fun one). 

Lake Como

This summer between the end of daycare and the start of school, Chase had a whole 5 weeks off. We were lucky that my mom could come for two and half of them to hang out and take care of Chase while we worked. One of the weekends (while Nate was in Munich) my mom, Chase and I rented a car and drove to Lake Como. 

The driving in Italy was crazy, especially near Lake Como where the roads were super narrow and two way. Overall, it was a beautiful place but we felt that there were WAY too many people and that distracted from the experience.

We stayed on the Griante side and visited Bellagio and Varenna by boat. The ferries were a bit confusing (to me) and we ended up traveling 6 times back and forth accidentally. In Bellagio, we walked around the downtown (top), saw some cute churches and then took the tourist train to the Villa Melzi botanical gardens (bottom).  

In Varenna, we went through the Villa Monastero botanical gardens which were beautiful but we were already exhausted and it was quite hot at that time of the day. Then, we took a cab up to the Castillo di Vezio (circled below), where Chase took a nap on my lap. Our way down was much more intense than anticipated and was not helped by the earlier rain on slippery rocks. But, we made it down in one piece! Overall, we liked Varenna more than Bellagio.

On our way home, we decided to stop by the top of Stresa. It is a small town on Lago Maggiore and had way fewer tourists compared to Lake Como. We really enjoyed briefly walking around there and it would have probably been a better destination with similar views as Lake Como. 

Vienna

In July, we visited Vienna with Paul, Glenna, and Dillon (friends from grad school). We stayed in a central Air B&B, and therefore had a nice home base to be able to easily go places but also hang out together (and allow Chase to nap in the afternoons because he was quite tired from all of the sightseeing). 

While generally walking around the city, we specifically visited the Maria Theresa Statue and Square (top) and the Hofburg Imperial Palace and Apartments (bottom). The Apartments had the Sissy Museum which was very interesting to all of us. We also visited the Albertina Museum where there was a Monet to Picasso exhibit. 

In order to get some nice views, we (including Chase) walked up the 343 steps of St. Stephen's Cathedral:

Finally, we went a bit outside the city to see the Schonbrunn Palace and Gardens. Some of the displays were similar to what we learned at the Hofburg Apartments but it was still nice to see the gardens and to climb up to the top end of the gardens and see a nice view of the palace and the city.

On the last day before leaving, Chase and I had a good time grabbing some boba: 

We overall had a wonderful time in Vienna: seeing the sights, hanging out with good friends, and drinking nice Austrian beer. 

Lisbon & Porto

Every few years, our lab does a team building trip/retreat to a nearby destination. Three years ago, we had gone to Sardinia (which I didn't document on this blog but did briefly mention here). This year, we went to Portugal, specifically Lisbon, but then a few of us decided to tack on a weekend trip to Porto afterwards. Portugal is a country I have had never been to and always wanted to go so it was particularly awesome to get the chance to go. 

Overall, I was very impressed, especially with Porto. There were many things to see and visit and the sights were so beautiful. I am also a sucker for anything near an ocean, so that also was a plus. If we get the chance, I will try to get Nate over to Porto before we leave Europe. 

In Lisbon, other than eating everything in sight, we visited Sintra, walked around the downtown area, and saw the Belem Tower. 

In Porto, we also walked around a lot, tried the Port (obviously), and watched a few football games from the World Cup including the Portugal game (they lost). Finally, we paid a visit to the Atlantic Ocean, which was unfortunately still quite cold even in early July.