We decided to take a short trip to LA to enjoy some movie magic and Korean food for Spring Break. Melody was on call Saturday and I had a conference in San Diego. So I flew out first to give my gene therapy talk at Sonoma Eye, stuffed myself with Yangzhou cuisine at Hometown Taste, then slept through the afternoon and stayed late for the evening gala at the hotel. On Sunday morning, I joined Melody and Westley at LAX Hertz to drive to Sun Nong Dan for their breakfast seolleongtang special. We then explored the California Science Center to learn about fire safety, body functions, ecosystems, and space travel, which ended with an inspiring IMAX show about the James Webb Space Telescope. After lunch at Jinsol Gukbap, we explored gundam and K-pop paraphernalia at Koreatown Plaza, and indulged in a kream spanner and kream bomb (i.e. cube croissant) at Le Kream. Our Airbnb apartment was in the same building as our prior K-town visit, just a short distance to MDK noodles’ kalguksu and dumplings for dinner. On Monday, our early access and lightning passes at Universal Studios Hollywood helped us skip the lines to enjoy the Mario Kart ride at Super Nintendo World, a wet ride at Jurassic World, and an immersive Harry Potter ride at Hogwarts. The fish & chips and butter beer at the Three Broomsticks were surprisingly delicious, and the $20 mushroom soup at Toadstool Cafe at least got us a Mario mushroom bowl to go. We spent the rest of our visit at the studio tour, Minion Land, and Springfield before retreating home to watch Moana 2, snack on Every Favor Beans, and feast at Soowon Galbi for amazing a la carte BBQ.  We awoke Tuesday to Han Bat’s Shul Lung Tang and Surawon’s soondubu for breakfast and lunch on the way to WB’s Studio Tour. Despite a lackluster trolly tour guide, we enjoyed photographing ourselves on the sets of Friends and Big Bang Theory, and learned about sound stages, green screens, ADR, and sound editing. We wrapped up our trip with kim bap from the oldest K-town grocery store while waiting to board our upgraded flight home. For a 3-day trip, we were glad to have both our hearts and bellies fulfilled.

With my parents still in town, my wife and I were able to take respective work trips to Philly and Miami. Melody’s visit to Independence Hall led her to the National Constitution Center’s podcast, where discussions of DOGE and presidential power helped shed light on the evolving challenges to my own research, including the rejection of my foreign post-doc’s visa and cancellation of the NIH council to fund my new grant. At work, I welcomed a new technician, consoled my overwhelmed grad student, and cheered on a resident at her concert along with our own pianist-in-training. We were glad that Westley adapted quickly to his first set of braces, which allowed us to try out new restaurants like Pho Yummy, Tasty Pot, and Seapot. At home, we continued planning for our spring and summer vacations and competed online for summer camp openings. We were distracted, however, by episodes of The Day of the Jackal and season 3 of the White Lotus, where Lisa’s first acting role contrasted with her rapper persona, and the likes of other Kpop girl groups like NewJeans, Le Sserafim, IVE, XG, and ILLIT. Our other new after-hours obsession has been Baldur’s Gate 3. Larian Studios‘ role-playing adventure faithfully adapted the D&D tabletop mechanics down to the 20-sided die-roll on screen, which helped immerse us in the Forgotten Realm. Along with Astarion, Gale, and Karlach, we set out to rid ourselves of our mindflayer tadpoles, and hope that escapism could help us deal with the growing existential threat to science and higher education.

Having spent my birthday in clinic all day, I postponed my celebration to enjoy wagyu shabu shabu with family the next evening. We feasted again the following week for a belated Chinese New Year celebration and to welcome my parents back to town. With childcare covered, I was off to Vail Vitrectomy next morning, where I carpooled from Denver again with my friend Eric before settling into the same overpriced hotel. I somehow managed to miss the fact that my talk conflicted with Westley’s 9th birthday, but I at least dropped in to record our birthday song despite a slight lag. Otherwise, my inability to ski left me plenty of time to review NIH grants, even as our new administration left me wondering if study section was even going to happen. For food, I visited Sweet Basil twice for their truffled French onion lasagna and porchetta panino for lunch, and caviar and lump crab taglioloni for dinner. I tried dining solo at Alpenrose, but ran into company including the ophthalmic surgeon to Pope Francis, which made for interesting conversation given his recent health concerns. I returned home to embark on Black Myth Wukong, where the boss fights, skill trees, and epic cinematography reminded us of Elden Ring, Assassin’s Creed, and Ghost of Tsushima, all at the same time. Even Westley joined in the fun and defeated one of the bosses. At home, we finally got all the components to successfully reframe our abalone shell art, and hired an electrician to add a garage outlet. I caught up on second seasons of Pachinko and Squid Games, as well as the final season of Umbrella Academy. I also finally finished applying water decals to my MG gundam, and got some matte top coat to seal them in. For Valentine’s Day, we checked out Frog & Slim’s overpriced prix fixe menu before enjoying the world premier of Young Soon Hue’s Romeo & Juliet with Melody at the Sacramento Ballet. Having missed taking advantage of my parents’ last visit, we were glad to take some time for ourselves.

We kicked off the new year by installing a Toto washlet to keep our bottoms warm against the winter chill. We hired an electrician to install the GFCI outlet, but I bumped into the toilet paper holder while installing the bidet, requiring us to call in another contractor to patch the hole. I was at least successful cutting a hole into Melody’s closet wall to install another outlet to power her paper shredder. Meanwhile, we satisfied my jjampong craving at Doma and Melody’s bagel-curiosity comparing Forgotten Bakery’s version with Noah’s, which Westley pointed out tasted more like bread with a hole in the middle. The two of us also had back-to-back meetings in Hawaii this month. Melody took the first trip to Honolulu, which gave me time to hang out with Westley over gundam, MTG, Astro Bot, and Disney+ shows like Skeleton Crew and I am Groot. I then took the next trip to Hawaiian Eye in Kauai. Unlike my last visit there in 2020, this was a rush job. I landed in Lihue on MLK Monday afternoon, and managed to squeeze in a poke bowl, snorkel, and hotel check-in before ad boarding at a private residence with a personal chef. I awoke Tuesday to give my talk, then filled on Tip Top oxtail soup and loco moco on the way to the airport for my flight home. Perhaps it was the sea turtle encounter, speaker-of-the-day win, or industry-sponsored first-class flights, but my 24-hours on the island felt productive and invigorating. Hopefully, this will help fill the hole in my soul left by the incoming administration that promises tough times ahead for science and healthcare.

After a year of big trips, it was nice to be home for the holidays. Both Christmas and New Years Day were on Wednesdays, which made the rest of the two holiday weeks rather unproductive. We hunkered down with beef noodles, spaghetti, onion soup, and hot pot to keep ourselves warm while enjoying board games, video games, and gunpla. For board games, Westley was less enthusiastic about Ticket to Ride than the cooperative albeit more challenging Pandemic Legacy Season 1 campaign that we got him for Christmas. For video games, we gave him GOTY Astro Bot, which was no surprise after his months of anticipation and dressing up as the title character for Halloween. I reached the final boss of Shadow of the Erdtree, although young Radahn put up such a tough fight that we turned to Carbot Animations to make us feel better. Our last gift for Westley was a RG GaoGaiGar, which we are holding off while tackling a large MG Ver.Ka UC0093 unit together. The tiny stickers did require me to break out my new progressive Ray Bans, as I learned the joy of eyewear ownership. Melody spent her holidays tracing ant trails, and got Remy and Nico some food puzzles to engage their little brains and stave off obesity. We pigged out with the in-laws on Christmas Day over prime rib, velvetized hot chocolate, and an Overcooked marathon. Otherwise, we stayed home to complete the Star Wars ennealogy and embark on the Harry Potter heptalogy to prepare for a possible LA trip for spring break. I also completed the first season of Pachinko and second season of House of the Dragon. With grants and papers waiting for me in my inbox, I wished I had a bit more holiday family time before returning to the grind.

Arriving late in Kanchanaburi, we slept in and enjoyed the hotel breakfast before taking a tuk-tuk to learn about war atrocities at the JEATH War Museum, Death Railway Museum, and Kanchanaburi War Cemetery. We revisited Lanai food for lunch, then negotiated with a cabbie to tour the Tiger Cave and Dragon Cave Temples, which included a steep climb up a dragon’s mouth, past hidden caverns, to a golden chedi and gong to signal our victory. We stopped by Meena Café for cute treats and scenic views, souvenir shopped by tourist-packed River Kwai bridge, then watched the sunset from our riverside bungalow before exploring JJ Night Market to discover new dishes like grilled eggs and boat noodles. After more hotel breakfast with chocotea and Ghibli tunes, we went to Erawan National Park, where I used my tripod and ND filter to photograph five of the seven cascading waterfalls before donning life vests to swim and serve as fish food. We returned by bus and haggled with a Grab driver to take us to Bangkok. Sadly, Jay Fai was sold out, so we pivoted to pink noodle soup, steam bread, and sweet-savory shaved ice for dinner. Sunday at Chatuchak weekend market was hot, necessitating coconut shakes and Thai boba tea while we shopped for pants, trinkets, and statues. We spent an extra hour failing to find an elephant locket that Westley wanted, which left only enough time to check out Jim Thompson’s artifacts and silk collection, but not Wat Traimit’s Golden Buddha. Our hotel comped us dinner at their jazzy restaurant due to possible noise from a wedding they were hosting, but the nearby Yaowarat night market tempted us to supplement our meal with coconut pancakes, mangosteen popsicle, fish maw soup, and Michelin-level rolled noodles and pa thong ko. On Monday, we battled crowds and heat at the Grand Palace and Temple of the Emerald Buddha, and found reprieve at the Sixth with curry, omelette rice, and air conditioning. We snapped selfies with the reclining buddha at Wat Pho, then ferried to Sathorn for an unexciting long-tail canal tour through the klongs of Thonburi, before photobombing colorfully-costumed women at Wat Arun. Our second night at Yaowarat was less exciting with many vendors closed, so we settled at T&K for grilled lobster and bird’s nest soup. On Tuesday, we took an early train to Ayutthaya and rented bikes to visit the buddha head at Wat Mahathat, bat-filled prang at Wat Ratchaburana, and white chedis at Wat Phra Si Sanphet. The giant river prawns from Baan Mai Rim Num put us into food coma on the train back. So we skipped Bang Pa-In to rest up for our third visit to Yaowarat for dinner including amazing mantis shrimp and seafood stirfry at Fikeaw, duck spring rolls, coconut pancakes, and custard-stuffed buns. I bought another big statue that required us to check in our luggage, but at least squeezed in Thai massages at the airport to relieve our backs, and crab omelette and massaman curry to take aboard our flight to Manila. We checked into the Conrad just in time for dinner in the adjacent mall at Manam for eye-opening filipino dishes like patis wings, crispy pancit palabok, pancit sisig, gising gising, and kare-kare, along with ube and mango shakes and a halo-halo that melted by the time we returned to the hotel. After giving my two talks at PAO and sharing more filipino fare with the Ocular Genetics group, I joined my wife and son to explore the old walled city of Intramuros. Ilustrado was out of their signature sampaguita ice-cream, but we got water to hydrate our way through Casa Manila, Fort Santiago, and the Rizal Shrine, where the matyr’s bronzed final footsteps we searched for was already gone. We weaved between jeepneys to return to our hotel to pack and dine with my friend Yvette at upscale China Blue prior to our flight home. Our whirlwind tour of Thailand and Philipine’s capital showed us new sights, sounds, and flavors, but we were glad to be back home for the holidays.

I was invited to both APVRS in Singapore and PAO in Manila this year. With two weeks between the two meetings, we decided to squeeze in a family trip to Thailand. After a parent-teacher conference and piano lesson, we drove to SFO for noodles and chowder before our flight to Changi. Our hotel let us settle in early and chow down at Food Republic with chicken rice, yong tau fu, and fish noodle soup en route to the ArtScience Museum, where the World of Studio Ghibli exhibit of dioramas and activities immersed us in Miyazaki’s masterpieces and more Totoro merch. After a short nap to overcome jet lag, we returned to Night Safari with enough energy this time to watch scootching pangolins, pacing bitturongs, and lunging gharials. I gave my talk on Saturday while Melody and Westley sweated it out at Bird Paradise before meeting up for yummy chicken rice, laksa, and fishball soup at the airport. The flight delayed our prearranged transport to Railay, resulting in a late dinner of pad thai, pineapple fried rice, and steamed seafood at the Local Thai Restaurant. On Sunday, we chartered a speed boat to Phi Phi Island, which included stops to snap selfies at Maya Bay, swim in Pileh Lagoon, peek at Viking Cave, and watch macaques at Monkey Bay, followed by lunch at Phi Phi Don including yummy McThai’s pineapple and corn pies, Pirates House’s curries, and Mango Garden’s sticky rice. Although the corals were too deep for Melody, Westley and I snorkeled in the afternoon before helping to tow a stranded long-tail boat on our ride back for dinner at Mom’s. We spent next morning at Phra Nang Cave Beach, passing climbers and lingams to explore the clear but mostly fish-free waters. After savoring BBQ chicken in West Railay, we relaxed at our resort lobby watching Muay Thay videos before traversing sea, land, and air to Chiang Mai, where our Airbnb host Charles met us at the airport to show us Old City and his massive info binder. We awoke to porridge to fuel our tour with Tom – an ex-Buddhist monk who showed us the dark tunnels of Wat Umong, quiet meditation at Wat Pha Lat, many steps at Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, and Lanna-styled Wat Chedi Luang, followed by tasty khao soi at Lamduan. Our evening cooking class taught us to create Northern Thai dishes, and even included a local market stop for dried mangos, mangosteens, and durian. On Wednesday, we learned to make elephant digestives and give them a mud bath at the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary. Westley relaxed at the house in the afternoon while Melody and I braved the heat for more khao soi, khanom chin nam ngiaw, papaya salad, and sai oua at Huen Phen and a visit to Wat Phra Singh. We explored Chang Phuak Gate Night Market for dinner, where we sampled khao kha moo from the Cowboy Hat Lady, along with meat skewers, dry suki stir fry, kanom krok, pa tong ko with soy milk, steamed pandan cakes, and a warm coconut-tapioca-salted egg dessert thing. Next morning, our hired driver / Charles’ ex Tukta drove us to Chiang Rai, stopping briefly for cappuccino and soaking our feet at Thaweesin hot spring on the way to the Wat Rong Khun (white temple), Wat Rong Suea Ten (blue temple), Baan Dam Museum (black house), and Wat Huay Pla Kang (guan yin temple). We followed our late lunch with an early dinner at CEI before flying to DMK. With our delicious and eye-opening tour of North Thailand, we did not miss celebrating Thanksgiving back home.

This year, Westley’s Halloween costume came together at the last minute as we assembled the white posterboard, black mesh, blue fabric, white sweatsuit, and color-changing LED puck lights into an Astrobot suit that drew much attention and compliments from other trick-or-treaters. Melody and I also enjoyed our own fright-fest at Sacramento Ballet’s performance of Michael Pink’s Dracula. The stage set, fog machines, and focal lighting helped create an aura of mystique surrounding the title character to complement the choreography that was both creepy and beautiful. Back home, I finally set up a Synology NAS server for Plex that allowed me to recycle a pair of 10-year-old WD Red HDDs. The unfamiliar Linux interface was a learning curve for me, but definitely worth the QoL improvement of not having to send WoL packages every time we wanted to watch something. Last week, I traveled to Ann Arbor to give a research seminar at Kellogg. After filling on a chorizo burger and coconut milkshake from Frita Batidos and relaxing among vintage collegiate decor at the Graduate hotel, I powered through two days of back-to-back meetings, breaking briefly for Zingerman’s pastrami sandwich, Knight’s ribeye, and a visit to my friend Raj’s home, before returning to my family for the long weekend. We set up our holiday decor early, and caught up on Miyazaki films including Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirited Away, and Castle in the Sky to prepare for our upcoming visit to the World of Studio Ghibli exhibit. This weekend, I returned to Seattle to give the keynote at the ACVP primate workshop, which also gave me a chance to go all out at DTF, savor a cold brew malt from Starbucks Reserve, and catch up with my college friend Keith at his house with his son and dog. The trip left me little time to prep for our lab holiday gathering at home this evening, where we shared soups and stews followed by a game of Azul. With days left before our SE Asia trip, we felt our mounting excitement for our fourth and final trip aboard this year.

We returned to Chicago for this year’s AAO, where I once again secured a room at the Hyatt adjacent to McCormick Place for maximal convenience. Upon landing, I opted for an Uber over the sketchy walk to Chinatown for late night HK eats at Chi Cafe. Having left my hat on the plane, I picked up a replacement at TJ Maxx on the way to a Genentech ad board next morning. Without a friend to join me for dinner afterwards, I requested a stuffed companion for solo hot pot at Haidilao. On Friday, I bounced between the Retina and Uveitis subspecialty days, and gave my talk on gene therapy-associated inflammation to the more intimate uveitis crowd. Dinner at S.K.Y. was sublime, with an unforgettable foie gras bibimbap that had me savoring the umami bomb the rest of the evening. I presented my second talk and OCT course on Saturday, with a lunch break in between over more hot pot with my ex-fellows. The Arts in the Dark parade that evening kept downtown traffic in gridlock, foiling my hopes of attending all three alumni receptions. I did a few interviews and a consulting gig before returning to O’Hare for dinner and flight home. Melody and I returned from our respective meetings to find our house in chaos, with no internet and no microwave. I hurriedly purchased a replacement cable modem and microwave from Best Buy on Monday, which helped me troubleshoot, identify, and replace the culprits – a failed power adapter for the modem and a burnt thermal fuse in the microwave. We celebrated my DIY repair successes over AYCE wagyu hot pot with my parents, followed by more hot pot, froyo, and father-son time before they returned home. With Chinese school in full swing, we had little time to enjoy Pioneer’s Fall Festival, as we acknowledge our waning free time together against mounting Westley activities.

With my parents back in town to help watch Westley, I was able to flex both my research and clinical arms at back-to-back conferences. I first drove to Pacific Grove for the inaugural Keystone Symposium for dry AMD. The cafeteria and dorm-style rooms at Asilomar gave off summer camp vibes, but at least let me take in the Pacific breeze and partake in some interactive scientific discussions. A brief eclair stop gave me time to charge my car for my drive home. I was off next to Alcon’s Podos Colloquium in Dallas, where I asked the driver to detour to Madea’s for pork neck bone before my talk on gene therapy, followed afterwards by dinner at Hotel Drover in the bustling Stockyards district.  After getting back, we took Westley and his friend Liam to watch their first movie in a theater. With a throwback hand-painted aesthetic and a heartwarming story, the Wild Robot made for good family entertainment, if not for the next few nights of fever and vomiting that kept Melody and Westley feeling miserable through the week. Stuck at home, we at least replayed enough of our Elden Ring base game to embark on Shadow of the Erdtree. Without a guidebook, we fumbled with NPC questlines and struggled with our new greatsword Milady before reverting to our trusty Moonveil. Westley was more interested in wielding his own swords, and took up fencing lessons at DFA. We learned the difference between epee, foil, and sabre, as we watched him engarde with older kids. This weekend, we drove to Martinez to check out the regional tournament to give him a taste of competitive sports. The road trip also gave us a chance to visit and take our niece out to a yummy but pricey dinner. With Halloween approaching, we decided to make our own costume, inspired by the upcmoming Astro Bot game that he’s been eyeing. The crafting project kept us plenty busy ahead of more work travel this month.