R&R

Last week was spring break for the students, so I spent a few days visiting beautiful Sonoma County to see my old mentor and visit my old non-profit.

My favorite doctors and dentists were busy at work last Tuesday, so I had the chance to drop in, observe a few cases, and deliver the good news. When I was still at this non-profit, I felt like I was always walking among giants - people who were brilliant, well-established in their current careers, and seem to have everything in order in life. The doctors and dentists I worked with came from big-name universities in undergrad and grad - Brown, MIT, Columbia, Yale, etc (one of them might have been a Harvard grad...but I can't remember). I felt so small and insignificant. That feeling probably won't go away, ever. There's always someone better and smarter.

 I stayed with my mentor and her husband, who live in a fairly nice part of town and own a gorgeous house. Their house makes a U shape and the courtyard overlooks a public grassy area with a little creek. It's currently frog-breeding season (apparently), so there are a bunch of little tadpoles swimming around the creek. I woke up every morning (armed with claritin) to see this:

My only regret is that I did not take pictures of the vineyards in the autumn. A lot of the vineyards in Sonoma County are grown in fields of rolling hills or in pockets of nearby mini-mountains that turn different shades of red, orange and yellow in the autumn. 

I visited two local wineries and picked up a bottle of 2011 Magnolia Lane Sauvignon Blanc by Kunde (fruity and refreshing) and received a bottle of 2010 Durrell Vineyard Pinot Noir by Chateau St. Jean as a gift. The bottle was $55 and boy, do I feel guilty. It was really delicious though. My mentor told me to share it with my med school friends, but it's so delicious I don't want to share. Well, we'll see what my friends are like when I get there. I'll share it with a good friend. The server at the Kunde Estate was awesome. He talked a little bit about his own experiences brewing beer, ciders and wine. I learned about the difference between using oak and steel barrels to age wine and about the acidity and alcohol content in white wines.

People always rave about Napa County wines, but I'm pretty happy with Sonoma County vineyards. The customer service and friendliness is much better, in my opinion.

My mentor and her husband are Italian, so they also had me try Fernet-Branca. The taste wasn't as fearsome as they made it out to be - surprisingly smooth with a hint of peppermint - but you could definitely feel the liquor going down.

Part of me wishes I stayed longer, but that's alright. I'm planning to go back in June. 

Exploration

As mentioned previously, I've been visiting friends in the southern part of New Mexico in a town called Las Cruces.  I pretty much wasted the first week hanging around the house, playing with the cats, and playing countless hours of Xbox because lethargy is an important part of relaxing, hehe.  I have a mixed impression of the town.  Depending on where you are, it's part college-town, part suburbia, part retirement destination and part agricultural center.  I set out to explore during the second week of my stay, focusing on the natural and historical aspects, which included museums.  I liked taking pictures of the Organ Mountains from different angles and at different times of day.  The landscapes were unexpectedly breathtaking at times.  Rather than say 'I went here and saw this,' I decided to post a few pictures below to show things that I liked about the area in and around Las Cruces.  Most pictures were either taken on my friend's digital cam (not sure what) or by my itouch using the generic camera app or the Hipstamatic app.

Bill, the blacksmith demo volunteer from the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum.  He showed us how blacksmiths back in the olden days, before America began building their own steel mills, recycled metal items such as horse shoes into practical items like knives.  It was a pretty cool demonstration overall.

I was playing around with the black and white filter for the itouch Hipstamatic app and I really liked how this one turned out.  The Farm and Ranch Heritage museum had a lot of animals as well as a docent-led tour of the farm portion.  Mainly the tour talks about a lot of all the different breeds of cattle that are used in agriculture.  Unfortunately, you can't pet any of the animals :/  

White Sands National Monument:  This part of the desert is composed entirely of gypsum, a soft mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate.  Part of it is a national park, while the remainder is military land.  The sand is suuuuper soft...softer than the sand on beaches.  Because the sand is also pure white, it reflects heat so you could actually walk barefoot comfortably during peak hours in the afternoon.  We also used copious amounts of sunblock...similar to how snow can reflect the sun's UV rays, gypsum sand can too.  I think this was the highlight of my trip.  The place is gorgeous.  The little pink thing in the middle is a little plush tofu toy...I usually bring it around on trips and take pictures with it, in lieu of taking a picture of myself.

The Basilica of San Albino in Mesilla, New Mexico.  I liked the architecture, although the original structure was made of adobe instead of brick.  This church is located in the historic part of Mesilla, which is composed of buildings that were preserved (or rebuilt with preservation in mind) of the village as it grew from a colony to part of U.S. territory in 1854.  Overlooking the bloody history of how the U.S. became the U.S., the buildings are nonetheless cool and it was a quaint plaza for an afternoon stroll and souvenir shopping.