almost done with interviews

The most recent trip was to the midwest.  The upside is that omaha actually is pretty cool.  Lots of concerts, cool zoo with almost everything indoors, tons of restaurants, great cost of living, and of course, duck hunting.  The downside was that Omaha was cold... like -20 with the wind chill.  It was so cold that when we would walk outside, my nose hairs froze and I couldn't breath through my nose.  I liked the program a lot in Omaha, I also liked that one of the intern years offered there had a night float system which means that you don't have to take overnight call every few nights like everwhere else.  We then went down to Wichita Kansas, not much to say about wichita, not bad.  While in omaha we went to check out winter quarters- it was actually pretty cool.  

Me outside winter quarters.

Kev inside the jungle at omaha zoo.

Me outside the hospital in Kansas.

Pour some sugar on meeee!

Not exactly a G-rated song but we weren't in a G-rated place. New Orleans is by far the filthiest city i have ever been to.. in every sense or the word. Nonetheless, we had an amazing time. Kev and I never plan anything, but we went with planners and it was a blast because we got to do so much cool stuff. First on the cool list was our tour of the swamp where we saw red ear turtles, snakes, beaver things, heron, egrets, and drum roll please... TWO alligators. They have these "camps" all along the rivers that are like shacks that they go hang out at and drink. Examples are pictured here in Sheryl Crow's 2007 "Love is free" video. It still looks like that with stuff floating in the rivers and capsized boats etc.

After the swamp tour we went into town and spent new years eve on Bourbon street. That was pretty fun. But a little crazy. There were a million people and I was not properly attired (I had on way too much clothing to fit in). Even my underwear would have been seen as too much clothes. However, Kev managaed to get beads thrown down from balconies at him (which he graciously gave to me). Jen and I did flash on a balcony as pictured below. Okay, psuedoflash. We lifted our shirts to the point of... nothing showing still. Being endowed as I am I was able to lift the shirt shockingly high without any fear of immodesty. Alas. At any rate, the pictures are fun and now I can say I lifted my shirt for beads on bourbon street. 

We went to an awesome local place for dinner and had file gumbo, jambalaya, shrimp, catfish, and fried oysters (my favorite). The evening capped off with fireworks being shot over the mississippi.

The next day was fun, we went to the garden district the upppity part of town with amazing houses and huge gorgeous trees. We went to the pep rally (Craziness). And headed home.

Then it was game day! Had breakfast at Brennans (a little spendy but delicious). Then went to the WWII museum and off to the game. The game was tons of fun and we had phenomenal seats (thanks Jen's mom). We're glad we went, glad we won, and glad to be home.

Palmyra

Since we were in Rochester we decided to also check out a few church history sites before Christmas.  It was tons of fun.  The Joseph Smith Family Farm was really pretty cool.  We even saw the fireplace where they hid the plates.  Then, since it was the middle of winter and no one else was there, we went tromping out into the sacred grove alone.  It was an amazing experience to be standing in such a sacred place.  It really helped put is in the Christmas spirit.  Then we climbed the hill Cumorah in a blizzard.  This was also a great experience but a little less fun because of the fear of frostbite.  The next day we went to the place where The Book of Mormon was printed.  Actually a really fun place to go see and understand better the amount of work it took to print it.  Wow!  Anyway, I was kinda like "you want to go to the printing press place TOO, seriously?"  but it was one of my favorite stops.  I highly reccommend the trip.  

The last couple of weeks

Sorry, I've been studying for step 2 of the boards and haven't updated the blog in a while. Since our last post we have been to Boise, Portland (oregon this time), Vermont, New York (twice), and Niagara Falls. It's been fun to have so many adventures, albiet a little expensive. Here are the pictures.

Kevin in front of the Boise VA. Liked the sign.

Me alone in my uber posh room (which the school paid for) in Portland, Oregon. This is the only trip so far Kev hasn't been able to come with me on.

Here I am walking out of the Albany Medical Center. This is New York trip #1. Actually was pleasantly surprised by Albany's program. Nice group of people.

Here we are on church street in Burlington, Vermont. Burlington was super cute with little old houses and buildings everywhere. I really liked the program and the people. This was also the first program that Kev came to dinner with me for. All in all it was good time, we plan on ranking them highly. It didn't hurt that they had a fly fishing shop on the drive from the airport to the hotel.

We drove from Vermont to New York and took the ferry from Vermont to New York across Lake Champlain. We then drove through the adarondak mountains and across the state of New York. It was quite the adventure but a beautiful drive.

After my interview in Rochester, New York we drove to Niagara Falls where Kev surprised me with a suite at the Sterling spa. Awesome room, hot tub, fireplace and a shower bigger than my condo. From there we went to the Marriott which overlooks the Falls and stayed in the Junior Presidential suite. Same fireplace, hot tub, crazy cool room, and this one had a separate living room too (a little extravagant if you ask me but i guess prices were amazing cuz it was the off season) He also surprised me with a spa treatment at the Marriott (early Christmas present). It was a very cool adventure. Especially since the entire city shut down yesterday because there was a HUGE snowstorm. We went running around like crazy people anyway and it was tons of fun. There was no one ANYWHERE. It felt like one of those end of the world movies where you're the only one left.

Here's Kev in one of the Hotels in Niagara falls. We would walk through the casino lobbies to warm up in between runs through the blizzard.

My blizzard proof gettup. Yes, I realize I'm quite the fashion icon.

Here are a couple pictures taken from our room.

Ann Arbor Michigan

Ann Arbor Michigan is a cute little college town outside of Detroit. Now that's the first problem. As far as anyone not related to academia is concerned the only thing they hear is Detroit. A conversation typically goes something like this

"We went out to Ann Arbor and loved the area and they had a great program with an awesome schedule."

"Oh that sounds nice. Where's Ann Arbor."

"About 30mins outside of Detroit. Its a cute little college town with lots of surrounding farmland."

"Detroit! Why would you want to move to detroit?"

"No. We wouldn't move to detroit, we'd move to Ann Arbor. They have a great program..."

"But Detroit is so filthy. And so far away."

The conversation usually ends with me banging my head against a wall repeatedly.

Truthfully. I really liked Ann Arbor's program. Its a big program which translates into better hours and a lot less overnight call. They also have a strong teaching program which helps prepare for the test you take at the end to get your license. The downside is that with such a large program you can get lost in the shuffle.

This is the psychadelic tunnel between terminals in Detroit.