California - First stop Stockton

We boarded our flight to Oakland at 6am January 4th. Not knowing what to expect since there is now "heightened security", we packed for our months stay using only roll-aboard suitcases and a small backpack each. We will see how traveling light for a long stay will work, as we will try to travel this way to India as well. We zipped right on through security at the Indy airport as if nothing had really changed. Just shows how hysterical news reports can cause unnecessary stress. Our first week was spent in Stockton with Jenni's parents. Jenni and her dad had great fun watching many college football games just like old times. We had a fabulous time eating great food (seems like this will be a theme during our travels!) and spending time with lots of Jenni's cousins (see photo). We are lucky to have a family that enjoys each other and loves to spend time together.

We didn't rent a car for this trip to see how life without one would be (we have no plans to have one in India either). We boarded the BART train back to El Cerrito on Jan. 8. I'll pick up from there in my next blog.

A Little Catching Up

Our sabbatical adventure started back in October 2009, so I will begin our blog with a little catching up.We spent 2 months in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where Rowan began working with an ophthalmologist friend, Graham Quinn (see photo), at the University of Pennsylvania Children's Hospital. She was very excited to have the chance to observe Graham performing eye surgeries in the O.R. as well as doing some in-depth statistics education with Maureen Maguire at the Scheie Institute. We were able to stay with Rowan's old UC Berkeley lab mate Ben and his partner Carl in their fabulous old Georgian house on Locust Street in downtown Philly (see photos).

I was overwhelmed by the opportunity to shop for food ingredients and prepare some of the most fabulous food I have ever cooked. Walking the city to collect fresh pasta and anti-pasta

from the Italian Market District (see photo) and finding the perfect scallops and fish and organic meats from the famous Reading Terminal Market was a nearly daily event for me. We

must have walked 5 miles a day throughout the city. We all had such a good time coming up with the next fabulous thing we wanted to cook. Our favorite thing to eat was spanish white anchovies with martinis. YUM! (see photo)

We also spent some time absorbing the history of the city and going to museums and seeing incredible art. We highly recommend a visit to Philly if you have never been there. It truly is the city of brotherly love. The night before we were getting ready to head back to Indiana on December 18, we were covered with 16 inches of snow. We went out to Rittenhouse Square with the boys that night and had a great time playing in the white stuff (see photos).

We are glad we had the opportunity to spend this much time in such a wonderful City. We are now setting our sites on the next leg of our journey to California for the month of January. Stay tuned to see how many miles we walk in our shoes during our stay out west.

Welcome

Welcome to 'A Mile In Our Shoes', Rowan & Jenni's blog spot for our 2009-10 sabbatical adventures. Look for the most current news and photos about our Philadelphia, California and India trips here. We look forward to some meaningful learning experiences, lots of fun, and to sharing these moments with you, our family and friends.