Traveling to and from the Des Moines Embassy Club

Interviews start tomorrow! I went for a drive to assess the parking situation and to hopefully figure out some clear instructions so people know where to go and what to do with the applicants. The picture above is taken from the skywalk outside of the Ruan building and shows what is left of the parking garage we used to go to. So... that's why we have to find a new place!

Since Linda provides us with parking stickers, we need to be sure to park in Public Parking Ramps. There are two that are similar distance from Ruan Building, but the 4th and Grand skywalk route is much simpler than the 9th and Grand skywalk route.

To get to the 4th and Grand parking garage from Broadlawns, you can use your phone. However, I don't have a smartphone. So I am going to go through instructions anyway. Of course there are multiple ways to go -- I tried going the usual way (taking 6th south all the way into downtown) and I think that way is slow. 

My recommendations:

Take Hickman East (turn Left out of Parking lot) and then find your way to 2nd Ave and go south (turn right). You can do this by going straight across 6th when you come to the first light(Arlington and Franklin), or by turning right on 6th and then taking University over to 2nd Ave. The road shifts to a one way and turns into 3rd St to take you over the interstate. Take 3rd all the way to Grand, where you will turn Right (going west). You'll want to be in the left lane because the parking garage is on the left. You'll take the first left turn (onto 4th St) and then see the entrance to the parking garage on your left. 

The Parking Garage:

It is like a bridge that goes over 4th St. The skywalk is only accessible from the far North West corner of the building. When you first enter the ramp, you will be going up the ramp only on the side that is east of 4th St. You want to get high enough that the ramp is at its full length and you can park closer to the west side. The exit is on the West side anyway, so either way works. If you are really trying to set yourself up for efficiency, the skywalk is on level 2 so try to park on that level.

The red arrow shows where the stairs are for the skywalk access from the parking garage (GREEN SQUARE) Dont be confused, they made this map silly. The arrow is pointing WEST, not north.

The Skywalk:

You can look at the map, of course. Maybe you can, or maybe you can't see the text "Ruan Center/Bankers Trust." After coming out of the stairs, you will need to turn left. Take the first right and go straight (over 2 roads) until you come to a T intersection in the skywalk. Turn right at the T and follow the skywalk around the corner to the Ruan Building. You can go in the building to take the elevator (but you have to go down to the first floor and switch elevators) or you can take the stairs down and then go to the elevator bay that goes to the top (2 bays of elevators, only one goes to the top).

Getting back is just the reverse. Try not to miss that first turn in the skywalk if you are talking, after that it is straight anyway and you shouldn't get lost.

Leaving the parking garage, you will have to turn left onto Grand because it is a one way. The first road after that is 5th which is a ONE WAY the WRONG WAY. But the next light is for 6th St which you can turn right onto and go North all the way past Mercy to Hickman. Then you are home again, home again, riggidy jig. Call, email, text if you have questions!

In Iceland for our honeymoon

We made it safely to the Keflavik airport yesterday morning at 6:30, after a 5 - 6 hour direct flight from MSP. We picked up our tiny little Suzuki Swift rental car and hit the road! Our first adventure was to explore the Reykjanes peninsula where the airport is. Really, we just drove to the western edge to find the "bridge between two continents." Iceland is, I think, the only place where there is land at the meeting of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. So they set a bridge up over cliffs that face each other.. maybe the actuall meeting is directly below the bridge, and maybe its not. But it is pretty far out of the way and not built up too much as a tourist location to be entirely fake. We snapped a few pictures but it as SO windy and cold, we didn't stay long. Though we were there long enough for Michael to try his hand at standing on one plate and peeing onto another. He might be mad at me for saying that.

The best stop of our trip so far was next. As we drove along the south coast we stopped at Grindavik, which is a working fishing village. The guidebook recommended a cafe by the docks, and so we stopped. It was really good with an awesome breakfast and latte for me. But we really hit the jackpot because the worker (possibly the owner?) sat down and talked with us for quite a while. We enjoyed hearing about Grindavik and the challenges the fishing industry has seen there, the volcanoes and various geothermal hot spots around the island, the beattles and specifically John Lennon, the weather, the roads in iceland... we couldn't have planned it better if we had tried, but this man (never got his name) was a perfect introduction into Iceland in our first hours.

After we left the shop our plan was to drive up and see the three sights in the Golden Circle. But my faithful driver was very tired (i was too, but had had a latte), so we found a parking lot and slept in the car for 2 hours before continuing on to Geysir, Gullfoss, and then Thingvilir. So it was a pretty full day though our initial plan was to keep it short and get to bed early because of the short sleep on our flight. Time to start a new day!

Roller Coasters

After graduation, Michael and I planned a small road trip for just the two of us. We ended up making the 7.5 hour drive from Iowa City to Sandusky, OH on Thursday, so that Friday morning we could wake up and go to Cedar Point Amusement Park and ride roller coasters. I had hoped it would be a hot summer day on May 24th, but unfortunately it was cold and windy. The benefit to bundling up in jackets we usually wear in the winter is that we had zippered pockets where we could "secure loose articles." I had also hoped the lines would be shorter because we avoided the weekend and went on a Friday, but unfortunately there were buses and buses full of kids on end of the year school trips. Even considering these things, we had a great time. 

Michael had looked up a couple of roller coaster rank lists and was very excited that Cedar Point had 4 in the top 30 of one list, and another list had different roller coasters in their rankings. We decided to try and ride every coaster, in order to make our own rank list. Around 2 when we went to the car to make our lunch, I was very concerned we wouldn't be able to do it, because the lines were so long. Three or four of the roller coasters had wait times over an hour and a half. The longest line we waited in was for their new roller coaster called GateKeeper. It had only opened 2 weeks before we got there, and we waited for a little over an hour and a half. Even though we waited so long, I felt good about it as we neared the front and looked back to see the end of the line extending even further back in the maze of railings. 

By 5 in the afternoon, I started to think we would be able to ride all of them, because the lines started shortening. I think we would have done it, but when we arrived at the last 2 on our list they were closed for mechanical problems.. We ended up riding 10 of 14 roller coasters, and we were able to ride the one at the top of our list twice. Raptor and Wicked Twister we couldn't ride because of maintenance, and two others we chose to pass up because they were described as a black diamonds instead of black double diamonds (we rode one black diamond coaster and it was decidedly less aggressive and thrilling than the others).

Our Ranking...

1. Maverick. A western themed coaster. It's unique characteristic is that after it shoots you quickly up the first hill, the slope goes past vertical on the way down. There are lots of twists, but the ride is smooth and not bone-jarring. 3/4 of the way through the ride you enter a tunnel and slow nearly to a stop. Then the ride shoots you out of the tunnel, probably the fastest acceleration of the ride. This was obviously our favorite, and remained at the top after our second ride. :)

2. GateKeeper. This ride is touted as a "record breaker" for being the coaster with the highest point of inversion. That's all good and fine, but it is not why we liked it best. The seats are arranged in a bat wing fashion, so there are two seats on either side and looking across to the other set of seats, the rail is just below eye level. It makes you feel like you are on the wings of a plane, and when the coaster twists it is like the plane is banking. This is especially exciting when it comes to the gate. The coaster got its name because it is located at the front of the park and the front gate has two towers going up, like the prongs of a plug-in. Also like the prongs of a plug in, the towers have holes cut from the middle and the track goes through these, like threading a needle. As you first approach the tower, the car is horizontal and you feel like the bat wings will get clipped off. Of course the car twists and you slide through - just like you were flying through canyons or the maze of the Death Star.

3. Consistently ranked as one of the world's best steel rollercoasters, Millennium Force is our third favorite in the park. It doesn't have loops or twists, it's main thrill coming from speed and height. You're pulled to the top of the hill with the same slow steadiness I remember from roller coasters as a kid, the anticipation and the height almost dizzying (plus the incline is at a 45 degree angle to the ground - super steep!). I wasn't so scared that I didn't appreciate the moment to look around and take in the view of the lake. Then you're over the crest and zooming down. I had to check online, because I couldn't remember all the speeds from the day, but this one reaches 93 mph and that first lift hill goes up to 310 feet. 

This is where our lists start to look different. I think Michael ranks Mean Streak next, but I'm going to go ahead and stick to my list. 

4. Top Thrill Dragster is definitely built for height and speed. It was the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world for 2 years after it was built in 2003, reaching 420 feet and 120 mph. Even though it goes 100 feet taller than Millennium Force, you spend much less time at those heights and so you don't get to look around or psych yourself out too much. Also, it's super short. You basically zoom out, getting up to 120 mph in 4 seconds, then go straight up to 420 feet, turn around and come straight down. After that you stop and roll back into the station. It's only as high in my ranking as it is because of the novelty of its height and speed.

5. Magnum XL-200. This roller coaster was built in 1989 and was revolutionary. It was the first complete loop steel coaster to go over 200 ft. Compared to the new roller coasters, it doesn't really compete, but it is a quality ride all the way around with good variety. I especially liked all the little hills it has because I like the feeling of my stomach coming up into my throat (weightlessness?).

6. Gemini. This wooden coaster is named because it has two tracks running side by side, but we road it when only one track was running. It predates Magnum, but is another exciting and enjoyable ride. It comes higher in my list than Michael's because of the importance I put on those hills and weightless feeling.

7. Corkscrew. Also a pre-90's coaster, this one is steel with three inversions, one of which brings your right down over the sidewalk so that you feel like you can touch the heads of the people beneath you (of course there is a grate directly in between). Looking back on this one, I am fond of it, but it featured upside down tricks instead of weightless sensation hills.

8. Mean Streak. This ride is the last wooden roller coaster we made it to. It is in the far corner of the park, and even when all the other lines were half an hour, this one was less than 15 minutes. It was high and had lots of hills, but it was too rattly for me to really enjoy it. I didn't even get the sensation of falling as we went down the first crank hill. The thing I was most amazed with on this one was how long the ride lasted. We kept going and going, racing along within an arms reach of the supports of the track we'd just come from or were soon headed to.

9. Mantis is a stand up roller coaster, but besides that, it wasn't anything special. I bonked my head and hurt my ears on the head rest, and got off of it complaining that it rattled my bones too much. Also, I think it was more of a twisty, inversion thrill ride than a weightless thrill ride, and it really emphasized the twists.

10. Iron Dragon. I'm starting to think this one should maybe go ahead of the Mantis, mostly because I was really uncomfortable on the Mantis. But it sits at the bottom of the rankings because it wasn't very exciting. It wasn't thrilling, but it also wasn't uncomfortable. A good ride, just not a special roller coaster in a park filled with special roller coasters. 

 

Graduation

Today is day number four since earning my Doctor of Medicine degree. Of course I don't feel any different, and I think there was more hype leading up to my high school graduation. Strange, considering this is a degree I can actually do something with. 

But I guess I couldn't have gone to college without graduating high school, and I couldn't have started medical school without college - so they are all linked. 

Maybe high school graduations are easier to celebrate because there is a very established routine. The community where I grew up expected senior pictures, which would then be used to make graduation announcements/invitations. The invitations would all reference weekends in May, which are thus expected to be busily spent attending various graduation receptions. The receptions are easily hosted by parents in houses or community buildings.. as opposed to college, where such large gathering spill out of dorm rooms or "bachelor pads." 

Another contributing factor to graduation from high school being a more celebrated event could be that there were more people paying direct attention to what I did when I was in high school. Or, if people were not paying attention to the four years during high school, they may have been involved in the 14 years preceding it. The celebration of high school graduation is not only for accomplishments achieved during high school, but for all the years of life preceding it as well. 

With hype or without, graduation from medical school is an accomplishment to be proud and excited about - which I unfortunately had to be reminded of in the staging area before commencement. With all the stress of corralling my family from place to place on graduation day, I'd started to forget the purpose of the day. When my friend asked me how I was feeling and my response was less than enthusiastic, he reprimanded me and suggested I take a step back to look at what we'd done. What did we do? We studied really hard to learn facts and details. But everyone knows that. What else? We spent time reflecting on many of the ethical issues and questions that are presented to physicians daily. We practiced writing patient encounter notes, long and time consuming at first, little by little becoming more efficient. We put ourselves in uncomfortable situations because we needed to learn. We bumbled through presentations, hoping that repetition would make us less bumbly. We changed our sleep schedules to match whatever hospital schedule was needed, and frequently woke up at hours that other young adults see as bedtime. 

Maybe most importantly, we learned that we will always be learning. It is easier for me to look ahead and recognize all that is left for me to learn than it is to look behind and recognize all the knowledge I have gained. Talking to Liz, who just started medical school this year, is helpful for realizing how much I have learned. It is especially encouraging after a rough day "at work" where it felt like I didn't know or recognize anything, to come home and explain something - thus validating that the 4 years of study were not, in fact, wasted. 

An Easter Poem

I am copying this from a bulletin. It doesn't say who the author is.

An Easter Poem

Love is hard
     as nails
And life, a gift
     as tender and precious
     as the morning dew.
Come, now. Wake up
     and be glad.

Spring

Because of a combination of having a whacky ER schedule and April being unseasonably cold, I haven't been outside to run much this spring. I saw the sun peaking out today, and, deciding to be more productive than yesterday, I left for a run.

I ran down to Gray's Lake and around. The City of Des Moines has some kind of program going on and there were signs hung in the trees all around the lake. As far as I could tell, the signs all had haiku's printed on them. In two places around the lake, they had big blackboards and chalk for people to write their own haiku, message, or thoughts. A sign suggested writing your own haiku, so I tried thinking of one as I ran, and this is what I came up with...

feet hit the soft ground
cool air, warm sun on my face
first runs of springtime

On a separate thread, right where the sidewalk from downtown DM meets up with the trail encircling Gray's lake, there is an eagle's nest. When I arrived at the lake, I thought I saw a big dark thing in the next with a white part on top that moved, but I just couldn't be sure since I didn't have my glasses. When I completed the circle, there were 2 people on the sidewalk with tripod-ed viewing devices (one was like a telescope, the other was clearly a camera). I stopped to talk to the camera guy and he said both adult bald eagles were at the nest (confirming what I thought I saw as I approached) and that they were feeding the baby. He let me look through the viewfinder on the camera and right away I saw the little bird poking its gray head up and grabbing at whatever food was offered by it's parent. Really cool, and a good reward for getting outside today!

Summit of Kilimanjaro!

On Tuesday, March 5^th at 8:45 in the morning, Kendra and I reached the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro. It is called Uhuru peak and is the highest point in Africa. As a fellow summit-reacher explained, “I wouldn’t call it fun, but it was worth it!”

Our schedule on the day of summit was a little different than we originally thought based on the information online. We were also the only ones to do it differently.  Our guide, who goes by Future, thinks it is smart to wait and leave later in the morning, instead of at midnight. His explanation is that by leaving later, you have more time resting in your tent (maybe sleeping if you’re lucky) so then you have more energy for the climb. You also spend less time climbing in darkness, and the light is good for both psyche and warmth. He said that most people leave at midnight to reach the summit in time for sunrise. It is also traditional to go a midnight because it used to be that you had to walk on a glacier to reach the summit; you wanted to cross the ice before the sun came up and it became slick due to melting on the surface of the glacier. Our plan had us leaving Barafu camp(4,600 m) at 3am (we actually left between 3:20 and 3:30 am) so that we could reach 5,000 m in time for the sunrise. 5,000 meters is the magic elevation because above that there aren’t ridges to block the view. 

The first 3 hours we climbed in darkness, using our headlamps to see where to step. I was glad I got to sleep some more and I didn’t feel so very tired, but I also didn’t feel energetic and I didn’t like not being able to see very much. The sun rose around 6:30 and we had a clear view of it as it came above the Mwenzi peak to the east of the Kibo peak we were climbing. Actually, the sun came up between two layers of clouds, so maybe 10 minutes after rising we were back in shadows.  In fact, the clouds overhead had been obscuring the summit since probably 4 am. I don’t know if the people on the summit at 6:30 saw the sun come above the clouds that were above us or if they were in the clouds and didn’t really get a view of the sunrise at all. I liked my experience though and wouldn't change our later start time!

Once the sun was up, the mood was lighter. We could look out and see valleys with clouds rolling in, we could look back down and see our camp, and we could look ahead on the path. We couldn’t see our destination because the mountain above us was always in clouds. We could also look from side to side on the path, which wasn’t very interesting. Rocks, rocks, more rocks. Big and small rocks. Rocks that are a favorite site for a bathroom stop (I saw a pile of fresh feces less than 2 meters from the path once). 

Right before reaching Stela’s point, there is a very difficult stretch. It is difficult because the usual scenery of rocks has changed to mostly sand. As anyone who has tried a beach workout can attest to, going places on sand is extra work compared to going places on solid surfaces. Luckily for us, the people that had been to the summit around 6 were now reaching us on their way down, and it was nice to hear some encouraging words from them. Around 7 am, the clouds cleared and we could see Stela’s point. We kept going on the loose sand and then reached Stela’s point around 8:00. Stela’s point is an exciting place to reach, because after that the hiking is a “piece of cake” according to Future. 

At first we were skeptical of the “piece of cake” hiking, but it really is much easier – you follow along a ridge that is never very steep and the ground is not too loose. 45 minutes after Stela’s point, we reached our goal! Yay! A few photos… and down we go.

I think Future was anxious to show us that his plan was superior to leaving at midnight. When we passed people on the way down he always said, “See, they have no energy.  They are exhausted.” Which looked to be true. However, we were also exhausted. He kept us moving at a quick pace (at the time I thought he was a slave driver), and we were back at Barafu camp by 10:30. Part of the reason that we could come down in less than 2 hours, when it took us a little more than 5 to go up, is that we “sand ski” down much of the way. It sounds fun, but I couldn't enjoy it because I thought it was dangerous! I’ve never been skiing (snow or sand) with so many rocks and uneven coverage. You had to be careful to not hit a hard spot and have your foot stop too quickly so you went head over heels. I saw Kendra fly through the air once, but she caught herself very gracefully. We both slipped and stumbled multiple times, but luckily no serious falls.