Summer stories

What an eventful summer!

I left Bergen for my summer adventure on Friday the 13th in the month of June. The destination was San Francisco, where I attended a conference on hormones arranged by the Endocrine Society. The conference was massive, probably among the largest annual international conferences in medicine, with more than 15,000 attendants, held in a different city each year. I presented a poster on one of my research projects for a few hours on one of the 5 days. I believe there were more than 500 posters on display at any one time!

Dolly, my parents, Gisle and Elisha and my grandfather came on the 16th and toured San Francisco. On the 19th we left San Francisco in a rental car for Sequoia national park, where we saw the General Sherman, the world's largest tree!

We then drove to the coast and enjoyed the Scenic route (Highway 1) going up through Big Sur to Carmel and Monterey. A very nice fireman we randomly met on a pit stop told us to drive up to Carmel on the coast and then take a route more inland to go back down (a loop day trip). Coming down Highway 1 when it's dark would be a very difficult drive, he said. Amazingly, as we observed intense lightening and got drenched on the beach in Carmel, the famous state park Big Sur had began catching fire, only a few hours after our passing through. Highway 1 had closed, while we drove back on the inland route knowing nothing about this until the next day. The fireman we had met had unintentionally steered us away from the fire, the most devastating seen in Man's recent memory in the Big Sur area affecting 240,000 acres.

Our trip continued through Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and ultimately to La Jolla by San Diego where we stayed with Alan and Nora (Nora is Lee's (Dolly's grandmother's) cousin). They have a beautiful home on a cliff by the ocean - we enjoyed every minute in amazing surroundings and with such wonderful company.

Our three days in La Jolla were followed by a trip to Alan and Nora's new cabin in Montana, The Thunder Lodge. What a cool place! The cabin is right on the lake and there is a rowboat and kayaks and fishing gear. Dolly and I bought two day fishing licenses for $25 each, and were determined to have a good return on our investment in the form of a good catch. After about a hundred attempts Dolly had one on the hook, reeled in and proudly lifted up a trout telling me to bring the camera out to preserve this moment for the benetit of posterity. My ability to act, meanwhile, was locked between a frantic concern that the fish would slip away ("bring the fish into the boat first!") and consideration on bringing out the camera from my pocket. This frozen moment full of anticipation and fear instantly thawed as the fish jerked itself off the hook still on the wrong side of the boat's side. A devastating moment, for Dolly especially who was clearly shocked. All of us in the boat – Dolly, myself, Gisle, Elisha and Laurent (friend of Alan and Nora’s) – of course agreed to tell the people on land (Nora, Alan and Johnanna, Laurent’s wife) that we caught one but released it back in the water because it wasn’t big enough for our standards. Fortunately, just as we were taking the rowboat in on the last licensed night, Dolly and I, in the midst of a swarm of barely visible bats, pulled up a nice “50 dollar” trout which we grilled and thoroughly enjoyed for dinner.

Another good memory is our building and playing of “Kubbespill” with Alan and Nora, a game created by my grandfather in the summer of 1926 when he was 14 years of age. Points are scored by throwing 12 mini logs into a target area of two circles of logs and a center log that are hammered into the ground. We had a few exciting pool tournaments too, and of course great excursions to the Glacier National Park and other nearby areas. We washed (one side of) the rental car in waterfalls falling onto the “Going to the Sun Highway” up in Glacier National Park! (Just as we were saying let's hope there are no loose rocks, there was an unmistakable (but fortunately harmless) *thump*...)

After a week in Montana off we went to Austin, Texas, for the highlight of the summer: Hilde and Jacob’s wedding which turned out really well and was great fun. It was great to have so many from our respective families gathered, and especially great that both Erling (grandfather) and Ingrid (grandmother) were there. The wedding found place at a Swedish Lutheran church and the reception was held at a Texan ranch owned by a Texan couple, Marsha and Clayton.

Following the week in Austin Dolly and I went to Massachusetts where Dolly still remains on a 3 month research experience. I spent the first month with her and helped her settle in, and had office space where I studied literature related to my obesity research. We had a great time there going to Woods Hole and other areas of Cape Cod, as well as to Boston, Newport in Rhode Island and Martha's Vineyard. On Martha's Vineyard we met up with Jono (George's (Dolly's grandfather's) nephew and Dianne (Jono's wife), who treated us to the most humongous (24 ounce) prime rib and a variety of delicious sides, at their really fun and authentic restaurant Smoke'n'Bones. I'll post a slide show here soon.

So now I’m in Bergen working away on my research projects. Since both Dolly and I are so busy with our research at the moment, we’re OK being apart for the time being. Neither of us can’t wait for her to return on October 3, though. Meanwhile, I’ll be going to a conference in Seefeld in Tirol, Austria, next week, where I’ll be presenting a poster and handing over my first manuscript for publication.

So long,

Simon