The Graham's Summer Adventures

Hi everyone, this is Eileen, for once, finally posting an update (Kate is NOT the only sister, wow!)

So, as many of you (how many of you are there out there reading this?) know by now, I finished my Ph.D in June (see post from earlier this summer). It has been a long and difficult, but rewarding five years, and it was totally worth it (at least I think so, get back to me on that!). I am starting a new job this fall at Mount Holyoke College as their latest and greatest Visiting Assistant Professor. The Professor part means that I will be teaching... a LOT... and I will have my own lab within which I get to discover the mysteries of old age. The Assistant part means that I am officially a junior faculty member, not an adjunct or lecturer. The Visiting part means that I am not on the tenure-track: i have a 1-2 year contract, after which I am free to pursue other jobs in other regions of the world. This could not be more perfect considering that Matt has another 2 years in his Ph.D program, so we will be done at the same time! The only down side to this dream of a job is that MHC is located near Springfield, MA which is a solid 1.5 hours away from our home in Waltham. Therefore, I will be living like a bachelorette three days a week- hopefully we'll both be too busy with work to really notice my absence!

Anyways, in partial celebration of my newly acquired status of "piled high and deeper," we took a cross country road trip to California. The first leg of the trip was a whirlwind- who drives 3,000 miles in 3 days? We do. We bombed out, partied like rockstars at our friends Kelly & Victor's wedding, then immediately got back in the car (at 6am the following morning) and drove to Portland OR to celebrate Matt's parents' 40th wedding anniversary! Needless to say, by the time we arrived we were exhausted. We spent a great week in the Portland area, visiting Mt. Hood, drinking Portland microbrews, and experiencing what the Pacific Northwest has to offer (hint: lots of rain!)

we spent the remainder of the summer teaching courses at the California Maritime Academy. (see Kate's posts about our wine tour and Mimi's funeral to fill in some of the gaps!)

During the rest of our stay in California we also visited Yosemite National Park ....



Pinnacles National Monument ....

and spent some amazing quality time with friends Nuno....














and the Lockett family (sadly, no pictures of our time with them...)

Our summer program ended in the first week of August, at which time we packed up the car and began the trek back across the country. This time however, we took our sweet sweet time....

Some highlights of the trip back:

Yellowstone ....























North Dakota (and Father Steve!!)










Chicago (Hey, it's cousin Maureen!) ...


















Michigan (with the Dunn's and my new Goddaughter Lorelai!)...













and finally, Annapolis (our last destination before heading home)...where of course we ate and drank with reckless abandon with Kate, and celebrating the wedding of our friends Cristina and Greg (which was a perfect way to ring in our one-year anniversary!)







All in all, it was an epic journey- This was the cliffs notes version :).