Windy City Weekend

The timing of the Canary Symposium coincided nicely with one of Jerel’s meetings in Chicago, so I arranged a layover in Chicago en route back to Brussels. The layover was part of a master plan to re-connect with old friends and to meet their new little ones. Thursday night, we had an epicurean evening with Casey, Katherine, and ‘grandma’ Brown, and met their 3-month old baby Corinne. TJ and Christy joined us for the weekend, and we treated ourselves to a stay at a cool hotel (the W) in the heart of Chicago, right on the lake. None of us knew Chicago very well when we arrived, but by the time we left, we were unanimously smitten.
Highlights included: jogging along the lively lakeshore, admiring masterpieces at the Art Institute, cruising the Chicago River on an entertaining and edifying architectural tour, admiring the view from the John Hancock tower, and dining at Zed 451, a restaurant that claimed to specialize in meat but whose ‘harvest table' had us all going back for more…and more…

After two days of fun in Chicago, we road-tripped to Columbus on Sunday afternoon where we celebrated mother’s day with Christy, TJ, Jake and Christy’s parents. Jerel and I spent the evening competing for Jake’s attention and I think it’s safe to say that we both won. Jake charmed both ‘Cha Cha’ and ‘Jerjel’ with his warmth, cheerfulness, playfulness, and boundless energy.

For more photos please click here.

Canary reunion in California

Prompted by an invitation to attend the Canary Foundation’s Annual Symposium at Stanford, I made a short but sweet trip back to the Bay Area.  I arrived in California a few days before the conference so that I could spend the weekend hanging out with the growing Dean clan (Jed, Sara, Esther, Beatrice, and girl #3, expected in August).  Friday night, I received a huge surprise when we were sitting down for dinner and the doorbell rang… there stood Jerel, with flowers and a big grin on his face.  He had realized at the last minute that it made just as much sense to fly to his Chicago meeting later that week from Shanghai via San Francisco rather than via Brussels. Lucky me!

It felt just like old times as we passed the weekend hiking, discussing/debating, and feasting with the Deans.  The girls were cuter than ever, and as always, full of energy that we love to watch them burn off running circles around the house or dancing freestyle to pop music (Rhianna's “All the Single Ladies” still tops the Dean girls’ charts).  Bea stopped so much traffic at the SF Ferry building with her cuteness that we debated giving her a collection bucket!  We also made a fun trip to the SF Exploratorium with Stephen and his two little ones, where I tried and failed to get over my ‘gyrophobia’ (long story).

I had a great time at the Canary Symposium, connecting with old friends and colleagues and nourishing my hungry brain.  A few themes emerged from the meeting - that we should devote resources to identifying ‘pathognomonic’ markers (not produced by any normal cells) and that while we believe that there is a real window of opportunity for early detection, the tumors are likely to be very small during that window.  Another theme of the meeting was enjoying good wine, thanks to one of Canary’s supporters who dug into his amazing wine cellar for the occasion.

Sampling Belgium with Katharina

Ezra's girlfriend, Katharina is a notorious chocoholic, so it wasn't hard to talk her into coming to Brussels from Berlin for a weekend visit. She arrived the day after passing her grueling medical school written exams, providing a good excuse to indulge in a celebratory weekend.  Friday, we showed Katharina our favourite Brussels sites, shops and neighborhoods stopping to fortify ourselves with chocolate as needed.  We capped off a delicious day by inaugurating our balcony as we enjoyed some of Belgium's finest raspberry beer.

Saturday, we ventured to two nearby flemish cities - Antwerp and Ghent.  It was our first time in Antwerp where we were struck by the extent to which shopping dominated the city's activities - the main streets were bustling with trendy, upscale shops, while the rest of the city was strangely deserted. We had visited Ghent for the first time the previous weekend and were eager to return to this lively city - Ghent has much of the old-fashioned charm of its famous neighbor, Brugge, yet seems to have more of a real life going on beneath the surface. 

Jerel left for Shanghai after brunch on Sunday, so Katharina and I seized the opportunity to cruise Brussels' various antique and craft markets at a leisurely pace, again stopping for chocolate (or waffles) for fortification as needed!  The pink room is again ready and waiting for more guests...

For more photos from our celebratory weekend please click here.