DC!!

So here are a few pictures from when I was home in July--as I said, I didn't take near enough pictures, but at least I did take a few! Here's Me, Mandy, and Brooke after a delicious Olive Garden dinner:

This is at Mandy's birthday party at Honeysuckle--what a beautiful day!

Now on to DC! I'm out here for 9 days interviewing for fellowship at Walter Reed for Peds GI. (Fellowship is 3 years of extra training after residency to get board certified in a subspecialty in medicine) I'm staying with Cristy which is great fun, and we've seen some sites! Here's Cris with FDR at his memorial!

He seems so friendly!

So this is a depression era tribute and I had to lighten it up a little with my antics

Me and Cristy

Gotta love Eleanor... seems so very nice--definitely one of my favorite first ladies

The Jefferson Memorial at night--so pretty!

Ditto for the Washington monument--the sky was really reddish purple and I'm glad it showed up a little in this picture!

The front of the Jefferson memorial

So my interviews for fellowship have gone well so far but it will totally depend on who else applies so we'll see. It's very rare to get to do fellowship straight out of residency but we'll keep you posted! I'm here til Wed so I've got lots more sites to see with Cristy but it's been a lot of fun so far! I made her gnocchi tonight with indoor s'mores for dessert so at least we're eating well! :)

San Juan Islands

Things have been busy lately as usual, but of course good too! Now that I'm back from my month away in Spokane, which was really fun, we took a quick trip up to the San Juan Islands and had so much fun! Everyone has also spoken of this place with wonder, and it really lived up to all our expectations! We made a few stops on our way up, including of course, Chipotle for lunch on the way, then we stopped and saw Harry Potter in Everett, then stopped at the Marysville Outlets and found a few things, most notably a refurbished Blu-Ray player for Bob at the Sony Store. This will be his EARLY Christmas present AND covers me for our anniversary coming up in 2 weeks too! You've never seen a happier Bob. :) So that was fun and unexpected!

Then we drove on to our hotel in Burlington. We'd planned to camp, but a week is not enough planning for summertime so they were all booked everywhere, which actually turned out incredibly well for us, since it POURED both nights! With the evening showers we were loving our hotel! We woke up earlyish on Saturday morning and drove to Anacortes and took the ferry to Friday Harbor, San Juan Island, then took a van to Roche Harbor where the fun began! There were so many fun options of what to do up there, but we tried not to pack too much in so just planned to kayak around the islands and the websites all had pictures of kayakers with orcas around them, so we had HIGH hopes that we'd get an opportunity like that, and we DID! Our guides said about 30% of the groups in July end up seeing an orca, and we were lucky enough to see a mother and calf AND a male very close! They were hunting together near us for about 20 minutes and kept surfacing and it was AMAZING.

This is the ferry terminal in Anacortes as we left

The mist in front of the mountains was so pretty--the whole area was pretty beautiful!

The reflection of the trees in the water from the ferry

Arriving at Friday Harbor!

Bob looks pretty sweet decked out in his practical and fashionable kayak skirt!

Out on the water! Sorry it's crooked-it's a 2-person kayak and so I'm turned around to take this and trying not to tip us over!

If you've never really seen kelp up close and personal, it's pretty impressive so you're missing out! It was all around us the whole day but I never stopped being impressed by it! My hand is here to give you some scale... the bulbous parts of it were pretty solid and hard and were size of my palm! The length was impressive too... the smaller ones were still longer than our kayak and the biggest ones were HUGE.

Here's a tiny island covered in seals with a kelp forest in between

Here's some of the impressive sea life we encountered! This is an ochre sea star, clearly attempting to grab Bob's face!

And there's its underside. The mouth is in the center and there are TONS of "tube feet" that are mostly retracted on the arms. His back was kind of poky and hard and his underside was really soft and squishy, but he was a LOT heavier than I thought he'd be!

The rock cliffs were pretty cool too

Me on the island we ate lunch on

More of the views

Both of us on Lunch Island (Ok, it was the southern edge of Henry island I think)

More sealife: The tidepools near where we had lunch were so entertaining. They all had a few of these tiny crabs in them

We were VERY popular with the harbor seals! Pupping season is early July, so there were lots of pups who'd just swim right up next to our kayak to say hello! I guess their moms leave them on shore while they go out to hunt and sometimes they sneak out for a dip! They were pretty cute! We saw tons of other seals on different rock islands we passed throughout the day too--it was hilarious to watch them on land because they're so awkward as they slowly hobble!

Our guide caught several neat jelly fishes, and I actually saw about 5 throughout the day, which was pretty cool--Bob and I kept joking that we'd never seen "wild" jellyfish before--just the ones in aquariums! This was a common "water jelly" per our guide, and was surprisingly substantial--the look so filmy, but he was pretty solid. Most of the jellies in our area can't sting us, interestingly enough. Yay for that! (Although as you may recall, I did see a little girl with a jelly fish sting a few months ago, so not all of them are safe!)

After an AWESOME day of kayaking, we went to the whale museum, where my friend Jen worked for a summer during college, and it was awesome! Here's Bob with a giant orca

I guess he was hungry! And that flipper is huge!

Wow, who knew whale skeletons ate people?

Me too! I'd like to note that my arms actually almost look tan here! I'm going to enjoy that since we all know I remain pasty as ever... Better than burnt from our full day in the sun! Thank goodness for SPF 45!

We always have to document the fire stations for Ron (Bob's dad--he's the fire chief at home) so here's the Friday Harbor fire station!

Very cute downtown with flags. Gotta love the flags!

We had a delicious dinner after our long busy day, and our table had really comfy cute leather armchairs which Bob settled right into. Note that he's resting his eyes while tightly clutching his beloved iPhone!

So overall it was a wonderful weekend. We got to see orcas and seals really close up, saw tons of bald eagles, a bunch of jelly fish, some star fish, lots of neat sea birds, and a ton of beautiful scenery. We kayaked all around Henry Island, which is awesomely shaped like an "H" and went nearly 10 miles per our guide. (If you checked out the map at the start of this post, Henry Island is off the Northwest corner of San Juan Island)We're not terribly sore yet, but we'll see what tomorrow holds! We're taking ibuprofen in full anticipation of the big hurt coming though! That's way more work than my arms ever do, although at least Bob should be somewhat more conditioned! If you ever have a chance to go, take it! And spend more than a day... we definitely could have spent several days there and been quite entertained! The weather was perfect too---low 80's with a nice breeze so the cool water felt great when we'd splash ourselves but not too hot at all!

This trip really reinforced to us how very much we'll miss the Northwest when the Army sends us somewhere else next June/July. We have loved being so close to friends and family, but aside from that, this is such an incredibly beautiful area and there's still so much we haven't really seen! Our next weekend trip plans involve Victoria, BC since we didn't get to spend much time there on our way back from the Alaska cruise and especially want to see the world famous Butchart gardens there, although some people have said they're really beautiful around Christmastime too. We'll aim for summer but take what we can get! For now the only upcoming fun we have planned is my 9-day trip to DC to interview for GI fellowship (which I leave for tomorrow) and of course to enjoy visiting Cristy and Nathanial then too! Thanks again for letting me stay there! After that we have plans to see my family in Sep for Joe and Sandy's wedding which should be awesome! Sadly it means we're missing the resident retreat at the Great Wolf Lodge, but my little brother only gets married once! Have a great Sunday!

Here's a glimpse of the male orca--sorry it's so bouncy! There were some huge waves!

P.S. We all know I'm behind on the rest of the Alaska pics, and the trip home in July, but I took virtually no pictures of the latter trip, including my 10 year high school reunion, as sad as that is, so I'll get to it soon, but figured I'd do this trip while it was still fresh since I leave tomorrow and will surely get more behind soon!

Heading Home!

After a very busy month on the inpatient peds ward I'm off to Spokane for a month in the PICU! I'm excited to be home and see friends and family and hoping to learn a lot! Bob's coming out for a week starting Thursday, so we won't be apart for long which makes it fun too. Hope you're all having great summers so far and we'll see you soon!

Thanks everyone!

It is bedtime, but I feel so guilty having that last post still so prominently displayed! I just wanted to say thanks to all of you for all the great suggestions! I pretty much did do them all and my mood promptly recovered. Hard to be down for long when there's so much to smile about every day. Work is still busy, although today was mellower. I know it won't last, but I'm enjoying it while I can! Bob and I had fun on Saturday... he went mountain biking and I went to the Dupont city-wide garage sale with Cheree. We found fun stuff for good deals--my only goal was to find golf clubs for Bob and I succeeded for only $10! Cheree found a really cute school desk also for $10 too--the kind with a flat top and attached chair with a cubby underneath the seat to put your stuff in. I also found an old leather book entitled "The Army Medical Offficer's Field Guide" which is very entertaining and contains a section entitled "artificial respiration" which teaches you how to do CPR kind of upside down with the patient on their belly and pushing on their back after you've pulled out their tongue and "cleared the vomitus and juice." Entertaining for $5!

After that kind of fun we headed out for mani's and pedi's. Somehow I'm 28yo and have never had a true manicure or pedicure not done by myself or a friend. It was really nice and relaxing and we had a nice time just catching up as we're always too busy at work to hang out much!

After that, Bob and I had dinner and then went to see a movie and just had a nice relaxing day. Definitely the best part of being so busy this month is that we really make the most of my days off each week so that makes up a lot for all the busy-ness.

Otherwise not a whole lot going on here, except for the brief visit from the Poteets! Always exciting to have visitors, and although they were staying about 2h north in Bothel, we were able to drive up and have dinner with them one night while they were here which was so nice! Their boys are growing up way too fast but it was fun to see how excited they were to see us too!

The last piece of entertaining news here is that Bob had a pretty big gash on his forearm from work today so I brought home a bunch of stuff to fix him up but luckily was able to close it with just steri-strips and didn't have to stitch him! His wound was already 10 hours old when I saw it, which is older than we should really stitch, so it was great for both of us that steri-strips were enough! It was nice to know that I could take care of him though... I'm really grateful for my medical knowledge and I'm sure I'll be even more appreciative once we have kids that I can hopefully help them too and not just worry more because of what I know!

Ok, way past my bedtime, but thanks again for all the very nice comments!

I need a Pick Me UP!

Ok folks, this has been a rough few days since I started the inpatient peds ward on Friday. It's always a tough and busy rotation, but this one has not gone well so far! My first day I had to tell a 16yo that he might have cancer. That's pretty crummy. Couple that with constant busy-ness and I still have a big presentation to finish by next Friday and you get me right now! What picks you up when you're down? I'm just not enjoying spending all day at work, eating dinner, and going to bed. I've gotten home at 7 or later every night so far. Tonight was 8, Friday was 9:45, and the earliest so far was 6:30, which still stinks since I have to get up at 5am and try to be in bed by 9pm. That's my "poor me" for the day. Seriously, I could use some tips. Tell me what helps pick you up when you're throwing a pity party!
~Cathy

Alaska Cruise--Sitka!

We are back from our trip and it was awesome! Unfortunately, my memory card with most of my pics accidentally travelled back to Idaho with Carolyn, my mother-in-law! Whoops! Our trip started in Seattle, then we cruised for a day, got to Juneau the next day, then to Sitka, but this memory card began in Sitka as I'd nearly filled the other by then. :) Sitka is a beautiful little fishing town, and it's very proud that fishing is their main source of livelihood, NOT tourism, unlike so many other cities in Alaska now. The people of Sitka had an opportunity a few years ago to vote to decide if they should build a huge dock for the cruise ships so that more than 2 a day could tour the town, and there was a huge outcry and it was very strongly opposed because they like that they're not overrun with tourists. So, as there is no dock, we anchored in the harbor and "tendered" ashore. This means we got in the lifeboats and went to shore that way! At least we know they work! Here's a picture of one of the lifeboats

Here we are waiting in line to get off the ship onto our boat to "tender" to shore!

we passed a TON of bald eagles on the shore!

the harbor in Sitka--the mist on the mountains is so pretty!

Sitka has a huge Russian influence as evidenced by a lot of their architecture--this church in the middle of town was especially neat

These old steps were pretty impressive and the view from above was great!

This was on the dock where we came in at... I just thought it was so funny!

We went on a wildlife-watching trip on a boat around all the outlying islands in Sitka and saw a lot of otters, one whale up close, a ton of bald eagles, and a sea lion

They had nice binoculars for us to use, and as you can tell, it was chilly so we were bundled up! It was actually a beautiful sunny day until about 12, and our tour started at 1, at which point it was pouring hard, but luckily we were prepared with our gear and the boat had covered seating upstairs and down--the better views were definitely upstairs, but no one else was willing to brave the weather so we had it all to ourselves! Sitka is typically a very rainy city, getting 200+ inches of rainfall a year, so we were grateful to have that sunniness in the morning at least!

Bob and his mom looking for wildlife!

A view of our ship, the Zaandam, from our boat

Every night when we came back there was a cute towel animal on our bed, and in Sitka it was this very cute bear!

There was a movie theater on board--here we are enjoying it! We saw Australia (really good!), The Other End of The Line (cute romantic comedy), and W (eh)

We ate a LOT of really good food!

Bob and I at dinner the night before Sitka

There were 2 formal nights on our cruise, but the pics from the 1st one are on the other card! Here's the 2nd one though--it was the night we were in Sitka. We got back from our adventures and went to dinner only to discover it was a formal night, which we had missed, so we ran back and changed and were all ready in about 20 minutes! Not too shabby, huh?
Bob and his mom

Bob and I on the stairs by the old dutch organ which had these really ornate figurines on it that played music a couple times a day

This was one of the many nights I had 2 desserts because I just couldn't decide! This was chocolate mousse inside this white chocolate chef's hat with berries. SO GOOD! The head chef for our ship was Rudy, hence the signature on the hat

I'd never had baked Alaska before this cruise, but I had it at least 4 nights there! They couldn't set it on fire due to fire codes on the ship, but it was really good anyway!

This was the best one--Baked Alaska with caramel sauce! There was chocolate chip ice cream inside on top of a chocolate chip cookie

We had dinner with several strangers every night which was kind of fun to chat with people from all over. This guy next to Carolyn really looked like the old guy from Ocean's Eleven, and he was traveling alone and was very secretive. Everyone else was very open with where they lived, what they did, you know, basic getting to know you stuff, and he was pretty guarded, only mentioning that he was living with his daughter in Kentucky. I also wanted to get a shot of Carolyn's dessert so here it is!

Very impressive ice sculpture--it's a seahorse!

Ok, that's all from Sitka--we had a lot of fun there! I will post more in the next few days of the rest of our trip but here's a start!

~Cathy