drink

brave, originally uploaded by ellajohn.

We were down at Duke University putting my husband in a tube. Or at least that is now the kids describe it. They saw the tube and yet still didn't wonder too much about why daddy had to go into it for two and half hours. Like every checkup involved a long drive, a night at a nice Hilton (Priceline $50!), a dip in the pool, a little rest inside a giant magnet.

Apparently he was born with a few heart defects, and since having our first child in 2001 he has been investigating the inner workings of his own heart. He has visited cardiologists from west coast to east. One in Portland wanted to crack his chest as soon as possible. Now, a few years later Duke says that some congenital abnormalities have corrected themselves. He has an extra loop, a partial anomalous venal return, that isn't wildly changing the way his heart functions. Come back in a few years for a checkup.

Can you say load off of chest?

You can see how much fun we had at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham. We couldn't even do it all in one day. We want to go back to the Children's Museum in Raleigh and the NC Zoo in Asheboro. We pack a lot into a one night trip, but we enjoyed the funky sort of lowbrow strip in Durham, and wish we had a restaurant with a plantain sampler and a coffeshop with a hula hooper. Ditto Taqueria with a walk up window. Ditto Taco Bus. I loved seeing people who don't look like me, backpacked bindi babies, and giant butterflies.