The Dog Days of Summer
So the end of July and August has been unbearably hot in Texas. I believe we've had almost two weeks of greater than 100 degree weather! Our plants are wilting and so are our spirits as we try to stay indoors as much as possible. I finally had some time to work on some of the pictures from our big road trip to the west and northwest coast which I've uploaded along with this post. I think I've got a couple hundred more pictures to look through to get to the end of our trip and then I can start taking some new pictures!
Melissa and I were blessed to celebrate our 7 year wedding anniversary on August 9th. We celebrated by going out of town to Mineola, TX to spend two days at a bed and breakfast called Munzesheimer Manor while mom and dad watched the kids. We loved our hosts Bob & Sherry and how welcome they made us feel. We spent the weekend exploring Tyler, caught up on sleep and even managed to bring home some new plants for our garden including some new English rose bushes and a Japanese Maple tree. I've been so blessed to have Melissa and can't thank God enough for such a wonderful wife and mother who keeps our family grounded. This year is also special for us because it also marks our 10 year anniversary of when we first met in India.
In other news, we welcomed the newest immigrants from my dad's side of the family two weeks ago. My uncle, Kujumonachayan, his wife Dolly aunty and their three kids immigrated to the US from India at the end of July. We have been excited to have them in Dallas and are hoping that they will be able to find jobs soon to help them get settled in America. They waited almost 15 years before they finally got their green card to come this year. Karuna, Luke and Vivek have enjoyed having multiple new people to spoil them.
July was my first month of my third year at Parkland and the transition has been fairly smooth - much easier than the transition from year 1 to 2. All of our 2nd years seem to be doing great adjusting to their new roles in leading their sections of the ER and I've enjoyed the teaching role as part of my chief resident responsibilities. July also marked the beginning of a third moonlighting job for me. I now work at a surgical center here in Dallas covering their ER along with my part-time work at CareNow. This new job has been ideal for me because most of the time I seen zero to two patients in a 12 hour shift and so I've got plenty of time to work on things for the residency and to catch up on other work. The pay is not the most but the workload is definitely a plus.
In August I started one of my community months at Methodist Hospital in Dallas, which is a level 2 trauma center in the middle of Oak Cliff. It has a very different population from Parkland including a much greater elderly, nursing home population as opposed to mostly middle aged patients at Parkland. It has been a fun month so far with lots of intubations, joint reduction and central lines. I work my first series of overnight shifts this weekend and since Methodist is in the middle of the knife and gun club of Oak Cliff I'm hoping for a busy night with at least one thoracotomy - I guess I'll just have to wait and see.
August has also brought along to us a new roommate, Elise. Elise is one of the tech's that works in the ER at Parkland and she recently moved from Arkansas and needed a place to stay and so we thought it would be great to have someone else come and join our family. Our kids have enjoyed the extra attention from Elise and the love of her dog, Toast.
The pictures from the first part of our trip are attached. A couple of comments regarding the different places on the pictures:
Arches National Park, Canyon Land National Park & Dead Horse State Park - One of the most beautiful sites we visited on our trip. Just check the weather forecast before you travel here because this is where we faced 60 mph winds while camping in the desert and had our tent fly off. The arches are absolutely amazing and good hikes for kids - our kids did all the hikes with us and their little legs were able to carry them about 5 miles over the course of the day.
Zion National Park - Melissa's favorite national park from our trip. Absolutely gorgeous to see this oasis in the middle of the desert. The hikes to see the waterfall are definitely doable with kids and well worth the 2 hours or so that it will take to do. This would be an awesome place to visit in fall to see the leaves change colors. Spring is the time to come here if you want to see the waterfalls because they often dry up in the summer.
Death Valley National Park - a landscape unlike any you will ever see in America. Not sure if I would make a repeat visit but worthwhile to at least go and see it once to say you've been to the lowest place in North America and to see the history about the people that lived out here in the past (there is even a golf course out here for you golf addicts).
Crater Lake National Park - One of my favorite locations we visited during our trip. The lake is absolutely gorgeous and it is the deepest lake in America at almost 2000 feet deep. You can see down into the water almost 100 feet because of how clear the water is (this is mainly due to the fact that no streams or rivers flow into the lake and thus there is no sediment). The lake is filled up with water that it gets from rain and snow melt from the sides of the caldera. Just be aware that travel is extremely restricted anytime before summer because of the heavy snow that the park receives (44 ft a year). If you go in spring you will just get to visit one spot along the Rim Drive that goes around the caldera.
San Francisco - We loved visiting this city. The weather as gorgeous - mostly 60-70 degree weather throughout the year and some of the best food we had during our trip. Make sure to visit Golden Gate Park, along with the harbor and the Piers. It seemed like we found cuisine from every part of the world as we drove around San Francisco. Try to take a trip out of Ghirardelli Square to try out their wonderful chocolate. One other thing we couldn't have lived without on our trip around the country was the Yelp application on our iPhone. I have this tendency of always trying to find local cuisine as we travel which Melissa loves as well but much to her chagrin I often end up on wild goose chases trying to find a mystery restaurant. Yelp has saved our marriage in that regard because now we can always find good local restaurants close to where we are - give the app a try - it allowed us to find some very unique and tasty place to eat at during our trip.
Redwood National Park - The trees here are amazing - the costal redwoods found here are the tallest trees in the world. We camped out in Elk Prairie which was a great launching point to us exploring this part of the country. Watch out for Elk and bears!
