Bonjour!

By now, Colin and I are three days into our new life in Paris. We are still struggling with jet lag but are otherwise settling in well. When it comes to the language barrier, I find myself grateful for two types of people: (1) those who immediately notice we're American and speak to us in flawless English without a trace of condescension, and (2) those who immediately notice we're American but humor us and let us carry out a conversation in French anyway.

But this isn't so much an update post as a referral—I've started a new blog to document our adventures! You can follow along at www.practicemakesparfait.com.

I won't be posting much, if at all, on Currently Claire this year. Currently Claire holds a special place in my heart, but after 10 years (!), it was time for a change, for a few reasons:

• I've had former coworkers and supervisors express interest in reading my travel blog, and I don't necessarily want them perusing the Currently Claire archives. Not that there's anything inappropriate or too embarrassing here! Just that I started this blog more than 10 years ago, and everything is different now than it was then.
• Currently Claire also began before social media permeated everything. Practice Makes Parfait is designed to be more public-facing and more easily integrated with social media.
• The Blogger platform isn't as flexible as I'd like. Yes, I could change the blog template to make Currently Claire look more modern, but Blogger just isn't as customizable as Wordpress. This is particularly true with respect to displaying photos—which is critical since one of my projects for the year is to teach myself photography.

So there you have it—this isn't necessarily au revoir, just à bientôt. Come find me at Practice Makes Parfait! Who knows what this year has in store for us, but it should be fun.

Traveling South to Santiago

A few weeks ago, my work took me to Santiago, Chile. The trip was for an EPA project – EPA partners with environmental agencies in developing countries around the world to build their institutional capacity to improve regional air quality (yes, even still under this current administration), since air pollution tends not to mind country boundaries. We’ve been working collaboratively with staff from the Ministry of the Environment in Santiago to assess the economic benefits of their air quality management efforts, including a bunch of different regulations and an “air quality emergency” forecasting system that triggers additional transportation and industrial restrictions on days with particularly poor air quality.

Anyway, four of us IEc-ers went down to meet with the Ministry of the Environment, present our preliminary results, and see about filling in some data gaps. The trip was stressful because: (1) I know very little about air quality since I was pulled on just to work on the economics component, but things stalled and I ended up as project manager when my colleague Stef went on maternity leave; (2) I speak only about three words of Spanish (hola! Muchas gracias!), and our Chilean collaborators aren’t fluent in English either; (3) I’d never traveled internationally for work before; and (4) I’d also never led a multi-day working group meeting before, so I had no idea what level of involvement to expect from our collaborators or what sorts of materials I should prepare ahead of time. So while I was excited to have the opportunity to travel to a new country (and continent!), I didn’t have particularly high expectations for the fun-ness of the trip.

Luckily, the trip went better than hoped! Our 3.5 days of meetings were productive, our 1.5 days of sightseeing were fun, our EPA client and Chilean collaborators were friendly and enthusiastic about the project, I used my three Spanish words with gusto, and I ate my body weight in ceviche. After dinner the first night, I immediately decided that my primary goal for the trip (after work stuff…) was to eat ceviche every single day. I’m happy to report that I succeeded.

Without further ado, here are some trip pictures:

Flying into Santiago early enough to catch sunrise over the Andes.

Our hotel was in an artsy, quirky area of town called Lastarria. Street art was everywhere.

Here's another piece of art that I loved. "Existe un arbol. Yo soy calidad de vida." There is a tree. I am quality of life.

On our first day, we walked up San Cristóbal hill, the second-highest hill in the city. This is the statue of the Immaculate Conception at the summit.

We took a gondola down from the summit and got to see exactly how sprawling the city is. (At 7 million people, it's pretty massive!) Air quality was only so-so this day--note the haze.

Later in the week, we also walked up Santa Lucia hill near our hotel for the views. The old castles on the hill were so ornate.

Here's the view from Santa Lucia hill.

Finally, on the last day, we went to the observation deck at the Sky Costanera, the tallest building in Latin America. The weather was absolutely perfect that day, so we had a crystal-clear, 360-degree view of the mountains!

Turks and Caicos

At the end of August, Colin headed to Turks and Caicos to collect baseline data on their lizard population ahead of an ambitious cat and rat eradication. Admittedly, his field work often takes him to pretty nice places, but this was one of the nicest--a luxury resort (the Meridian Club) on a small private island (Pine Cay), which is accessible only by boat and where transportation is by golf cart and bicycle only. (Fun fact: according to Wikipedia, Pine Cay was home to the first tourist destination in the Turks and Caicos!) Because the resort would be closed for the season, we would be able to stay in the guest rooms and eat with the staff. Determined not to be left behind on this adventure, I convinced Colin that Labor Day weekend would be a great time to go.

As it turned out, that was extremely prescient. While we were there, the weather was perfect--hot and sunny, with bright, fluffy clouds and gentle waves lapping at the shore. The day after we left, evacuations for Hurricane Irma began. And two days later, Irma slammed directly into Turks and Caicos and little Pine Cay, which rises only a few meters above sea level.

Luckily, Colin's team finished their work and left with us on Labor Day, and the eradication team evacuated to higher ground in Providenciales, the main city in Turks and Caicos. Although power and communications were down for days, they stayed safe. The eradication work may no longer be feasible given the short time before tourist season begins in November, but that's small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. The damage to the Meridian Club wasn't too bad, either, all things considered.

In any case, here are some photos of the idyllic Pine Cay pre-Irma. I loved every minute on the island and can't wait to go back!

The view from our hotel room. Look at that turquoise water! Paradise, I tell you.

During a walk on the beach one morning, it started to drizzle lightly. Even with the rain, it was still perfection--check out that double rainbow! (And the totally deserted beach--I had it to myself!)

While Colin was working solo one morning, I went exploring and stumbled across this sign post. The words are a bit faded, but look, there's St. Louis! Only 1,586 miles away.

Also on my walk, I hunted for sand dollars. The pre-Irma surf was a little rougher than normal so I never managed to find a whole one, but this one was pretty close.

Driving the golf cart across the island! Like many of the British Caribbean islands, Turks and Caicos drives on the left despite buying American cars with the steering wheel also on the left. I should note that this was the start of what turned into an epic adventure. Colin and I decided to walk from one end of Pine Cay to Water Cay to Little Water Cay, the three of which are connected by tiny spits of sand, to see the wild iguanas on Little Water Cay. We imagined a leisurely, if somewhat long, stroll down the beach. It would have been if we'd gone at low tide, but unfortunately we didn't time it right... 

Instead, we spent most of the walk bushwhacking through spiky shrubs on the uninhabited Water Cay, while wearing swim trunks (Colin) and flip flops (me). It was brutal and we debated turning back. At one spot along the way, previous passers-by had built dozens of rock cairns on the limestone ledge just above the sea. Colin and I added our own, complete with a heart-shaped rock on top. 

Here's Water Cay--very Jurassic Park-esque, totally uninhabited. Beautiful, if somewhat painful to trek across!

Eventually, more than an hour later, we made it to Little Water Cay! Exhausted, we almost started back immediately, but then we saw an iguana ambling across the sand. And then we walked a dozen feet farther to the tree line and saw about 20 iguanas resting in the shade. They were much larger than I expected! And so happy to pose for photographs. (There are iguanas on Pine Cay, too, but fewer. Although one did meander through Colin's study site one afternoon while we were catching lizards.)

Other than that adventure, our trip was pretty uneventful. We worked in the mornings, swam at least twice a day, and capped off every evening with a beer and sunset on the sand. Here, Colin's flying his drone to get video footage of the club.

The rest of July and August

Although our anniversary trip was our big adventure in July, we still managed to squeeze in a bunch of other travel. Somehow, we always start the summer thinking we'll have all these lazy days on the river, maybe hiking, maybe just playing lawn games with friends, and by the time it's over, we realize that we spent almost every weekend not in Boston. Part of me loves fall because it means more time at home--although this fall is not looking promising, between a wedding in Michigan, family visits, and a work trip to Chile. (First trip to South America, yay!) It's a good thing that everything we do is fun, or I'd be really tired! (Just kidding. I am tired.)

On the way back from our anniversary trip to Baxter State Park, we stopped at Colin's parents' house for a few days to shower and do laundry celebrate his dad's 60th. This photo is from a boat cruise through the Portland Harbor, where I saw a seal and a dolphin (I had no idea they lived so far north!).

A couple weeks later, we headed to the opposite end of the country to hang out Gwen and Will (and, okay, the rest of the family, too) in south Georgia. When not playing with the babies, we caught a bunch of fish. Here's Colin with the smallest one we got. 

And here I am with the largest. Delicious!

And then a week later, we were in St. Louis. First stop: Colin's favorite, Fitz's root beer.

We also spent one morning walking around the Missouri Botanical Garden. Other destinations not pictured: the zoo, Ted Drewes for ice cream, Newsies at the Muny, and Pappy's Smokehouse for the best BBQ in the world. 

When we finally returned to Boston from all our travels, I donated 11 inches of hair to Pantene Beautiful Lengths. Seven years ago, I set a goal of donating three times. This was number 3 (goal accomplished!), for a cumulative 2.5 feet of hair.

Towards the end of August, we took a short trip out to Western Massachusetts to see John Williams conduct the Boston Pops at Tanglewood's annual Film Night. They played all the classics - Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Schindler's List - and many others. The weather and our picnic were perfect.

And with that, I'm basically caught up! The only thing not pictured is our recent trip to Turks and Caicos, which was slammed by Hurricane Irma only days after we left. It's hard to imagine the destruction on those idyllic islands, but we're just so grateful that we, and the rest of the ecologists working there, are safe and sound. 

Year One!

Last July, Colin and I made the Santoro-Donihue family official:

July 10, 2016

To celebrate our first anniversary, we decided to do something decidedly unglamorous, not fancy, and inexpensive--pretty much the polar opposite of a wedding. We decided to go backpacking in Baxter State Park, a remote spot in northern Maine that Colin remembered from childhood. We've hiked a bunch together, and backpacked separately, but never backpacked together, so I guess this was also sort of a test of our marriage. Do we still get along when dirty, smelly, tired, bug-bitten, and sore? I'm pleased to report that we do.

The trek to our destination, Russell Pond, was about 7 miles from the campground where we spent the first night. The scenery helped keep our spirits up:

Not much beats a cool stream when you've been carrying all of your food, water, and belongings on your back for five hours.

We had a choice of which trail to take to Russell Pond. We took Wassataquoik on the way there, and Russell Pond on the way back a few days later. Both have stream crossings--Wassataquoik was described to us by the ranger as deeper but with a sandy bottom, and Russell Pond as shallower but with large rocks for rock hopping. What the ranger failed to mention was that Wassataquoik actually involves TWO stream crossings, about 100 yards apart. Cue to us high-fiving each other after making it through the first one, putting back on our dry socks and hiking boots, then rounding the bend and discovering that we have to do it all again.

The second Wassataquoik stream crossing was pretty deep, up to my hips, so my backpack would've gotten wet. Poor Colin had to do the stream crossing twice to ferry both of our bags across. He would like to make sure you know that the bottom was not in fact sandy, except for the very edge of the bank.

We made it to Russell Pond! One of my favorite parts of the state park is that they have canoes at most of the ponds for whomever wants to use them. We took advantage of that and paddled every day. Being on the water also helped with the mosquitos, which were terrible and seemingly immune to our bugspray. I looked like I had chicken pox by the time we came home. One day, our actual anniversary, we saw a triple rainbow from our canoe!! Triple! I didn't have my phone with me at the time, so I didn't capture it, but you'll have to believe me.

We stayed at Russell Pond for two nights, which meant that we could do a day hike in between. We hiked several miles to Wassataquoik Lake, which was absolutely gorgeous and deserted. We didn't see a single other person on the lake or the hiking trail. We took out another canoe and paddled from one end to the other and ate lunch in a lean-to in a picture-perfect setting.

After lunch at Wassataquoik Lake, we hiked a couple extra miles to Little Wassataquoik Lake and up a hill to get an aerial view of our little piece of the park. Although we were tired and footsore, the view was worth it! It was crazy to think that we were probably the only two people for as far as our eyes could see.

This is a terrible picture, but here's proof that we saw a moose! We actually saw four, which was four more than I'd ever seen in Maine before. I'd been hoping to see a Maine moose! Colin got the best photos on his phone. While we were out in a canoe on Russell Pond, this moose decided to swim directly across the pond because, I guess, the grass is always greener on the other side. We had long before beached ourselves on a rock in the middle of the pond so we could just sit and watch. As the moose started swimming, it came within a dozen feet or so of our canoe, just casually watching us. We sat silently as it gazed at us, snuffling and dripping water from its ears. After a few minutes, it continued on to the island in the middle of the pond, where it munched on grasses for a few minutes before laying down for the night. We paddled back to shore and fondly looked back at the moose ears that were just barely visible above the rocky shore of the island. Moose Island, we called it.

After two nights at Russell Pond, we made the 7-mile trek back to the car. It felt wonderful to stop at the babbling brook again and air out our stinky socks and cool our feet. It doesn't get much nicer than that.

As it was our "paper" anniversary, we also treated ourselves to tickets to see Wicked! at the Boston Opera House. And we ate anniversary cake and drank mojitos in the spirit of our wedding. It's been a wonderful year, and I feel so lucky to have found the perfect partner and adventure buddy in Colin. There's no one I'd rather be hot, sweaty, smelly, and tired with. Love you, Colin!

And just like that, there goes spring. And summer.

Well, I knew I was behind in blogging, but I didn't realize it had been almost six months! 😳 All of the standard excuses apply--work is too busy; despite our best efforts to relax, Colin and I continue to fill up every free minute with some adventure or other; and I'm not interested in turning on my computer at home after spending all day on the computer at work. At this point there's no way to catch up other than to just fling up a bunch of photos and assume that they're each worth 1,000 words. So here's what I've been up to lately this spring and summer, according to my phone.

April:

In April, Colin went to three islands in the Bahamas for field work. I did not accompany him, sadly. But I did not hesitate to point out, gleefully, that it was in fact hotter in Cambridge than the Caribbean! (He still had better beaches.)

Every year on Patriot's Day (Marathon Monday), I watch for Paul Revere to ride by my office window, hurrying to warn that the redcoats are coming.

This year, possibly my last in Boston, I also went to watch the Boston Marathon. I took the T to Kenmore, which is about mile 25 on the route. I cheered loudly as I walked alongside the course for the last mile so I could watch the runners cross the finish line. Run, random stranger, run!

While Colin was still in the Bahamas, I joined two of my best friends and their husbands in Orlando for a long weekend. Christina and Brian had taken over a family timeshare for a week, and Beth, Will, and I decided we should take advantage of the opportunity to figure out what all the hype is about Disney World.

Although Disney was fun, we all agreed that one day of theme park was enough. The next day we headed to Cocoa Beach instead. We swam, sunbathed, and ate our weight in seafood. It was the best.

Colin came home for only three days between his Bahamas trip and his annual fieldwork trip to Greece. Somehow, I managed to win IEc's Red Sox tickets for a game against the Yankees one of those nights, so we spent the night eating ballpark hot dogs and watching baseball. The Red Sox lost, but it was fun anyway.

May:

Perhaps inspired by watching the marathon, or perhaps out of intimidation of turning 30, I began thinking that this might be the year to check off my goal of running a half marathon. That meant lots of lunchtime runs from the office to Fresh Pond.

Although the boathouse opens in April, it's never quite warm enough to start sailing then. I prefer to wait until they remove the wetsuit requirement for windsurfers and other small boats. But it's always a happy day when I finally get back on the water!

 June:

One of my big adventures this year was joining a few of my coworkers in Boston's only Lady Stepper group, the Hoohahs. The Hoohahs dance in the Pride parade (and one or two other events throughout the year) in the New Orleans second-line style. The Pride theme this year was "Stronger Together" so we went with a Rose the Riveter-themed dance. Think lots of strong arms and marching! The parade was so much fun. The crowds were exuberant, and the cheering was incessant. They loved it every time we did synchronized strong arms. Colin joined a few of the other significant others in walking alongside and carrying water for us. It was a hot day and a 2-mile parade, so his job was critical! The group of women was a lot of fun as well. Unfortunately I will be out of town for the next parade in October and in Paris for Pride next year, so this was probably my only time dancing with them, but I loved it.

The Tall Ships came to Boston this summer, and tours were free and open to the public. Colin and I went one evening after work and were suitably impressed. The ships were indeed very tall, with everything sparkling clean and shipshape.

Shipshape indeed. Those are some nicely coiled lines!

More sailing and hanging out on the docks. It's my favorite place to pass the days in summer.

And more running. I'm not always great about sticking to an exercise schedule, but two things have been helping: (1) my decision to commit to running the Cambridge Half Marathon in November (although I hadn't yet decided in June, it was in the back of my mind, and the idea of running 13.1 miles is terrifying!), and (2) the fact that I haven't been able to find any other time to listen to French podcasts to improve my language skills. I can't listen and focus on work at the same time, and when I come home I'd rather be hanging out with Colin (in English, because if we had to speak French to each other, we'd just sit and stare silently, with the occasional "Bonjour, je t'aime"). But with our move to Paris coming up in January, I really need to get better at understanding French. I've discovered that pairing running and French podcasts makes me more likely to do both.

One of our favorite Cambridge events, the City Dance Party, where they shut down several blocks of Mass Ave in front of City Hall and have a DJ and party lights for outdoor dancing, is always the last Friday of June. This year it was a little rainy, but Colin and I decided we didn't care and went anyway. Turns out, we weren't the only crazy ones! Thousands of people still showed up to dance in the rain! The rain stopped soon enough and we had a great night, but the fact that so many people showed up in the rain made me love this city even more. Another reason I love this city: the rainbow Pride crosswalks in front of City Hall. Stronger together, indeed.

And that pretty much does it for April-June. Other things not pictured: a professional a cappella concert, a trip home to St. Louis to introduce Gwen and Will to the Midwest, hearing Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer talk at the Cambridge library, hearing Dr. Colin Donihue talk about lizards at the Fenway Victory Gardens, and at least one trip to visit Colin's family in Maine. Lots of work stuff, too--I wrapped up three years of work I've done for New York State in May, which was sad, and started several new projects, none of which are as interesting but they keep me busy nonetheless. I also said goodbye to several work friends, who have moved on to new adventures. The times, they are a-changin'.

Next up, July-September! 

Touring New England

Fall in New England is beautiful, and before it's over, Colin and I will have managed to visit every single state in the region. (Plus Pennsylvania--we couldn't miss a chance to hang out with our favorite niece and nephew over Columbus Day weekend!)

Our New England travels, though, started with our camping trip in New Hampshire, which I mentioned in my last blog post. It was so peaceful and relaxing in the White Mountains, and we had a wonderful couple days of kayaking, hiking, and sleeping under the stars. Plus we saw two moose!

Our travels took us next to Rhode Island. I went to Newport in early October for a work meeting on offshore wind. (The nation's first offshore wind farm just began operating off of Block Island!) Colin went a few weeks later for his own work trip, to meet with a retired lizard researcher. Colin also went to Connecticut for a few days for work.

At the end of October, we then took a whirlwind trip across New York State. Colin has several friends living in Ithaca - which we realized while addressing wedding invitations - and two are about to move to California. That inspired us to finally plan a trip to see them all. And while we were in western New York, well, I really wanted to see Niagara Falls, which meant that we drove seven hours across Massachusetts and New York, all the way to the border with Canada.

It was worth it:

Niagara Falls: hard to see because of the spray, but very impressive!

Rainbow at Niagara Falls

Ithaca was, as they say, gorges. We had perfect weather while we were there, so we hiked through a state park on Saturday to see more waterfalls and the last vestiges of the fall foliage.

One of many waterfalls we saw in Ithaca.

Another waterfall.

A beautiful lake and waterfall on Cornell's campus.

We also, of course, spent time enjoying fall in Massachusetts, from kayaking and walking through the Boston Public Garden to spending a weekend on Cape Cod for Colin's aunt's wedding.
 

The Boston Public Garden

This past weekend we headed north again, this time to Vermont. A new state for me! The trip actually started as an "errand," since the Burlington airport had interview slots available for TSA's Global Entry program, and we would have had to wait five months to do the interviews in Boston. We figured the 3.5-hour drive was worth the five-month wait time. So, early yesterday morning, we headed north and made it to Lake Champlain in time for lunch. After passing our interviews with flying colors, we spent the rest of the day exploring downtown Burlington.

Lake Champlain in Burlington, VT

All that's left to round out our New England travels is Maine, and we'll be headed there for Thanksgiving in just over a week. It's hard to believe how quickly the season has passed!