The Grove Adventures...: June 2014

This year has us traveling all over the States for clinical rotations! After Syracuse, NY we went back to Connecticut for a few days to swap out our stuff before hitting the road again. Thankfully this involved putting away all our winter clothes and getting our summer gear!! We had a 2 day drive down to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with an overnight in Knoxville, TN where another medical family hosted us for the night. Once in Baton Rouge we spent the first 2 weeks with Allison and Barron (who live in a detached house from Clint and Paula), then the rest with Sam, Hannah, and their kids (Rebekah 6, Stephen 3).

Owen completed another elective in Emergency Medicine at Baton Rouge General Hospital. He had a great experience there and we would love it if we got residency there. I filled my time with running (including another Color Run with Leah, and running with Sam and Hannah's group), exploring plantations, and a hike in Mississippi. When Owen had free time, we played tennis (usually with Clint and Paula followed by dinner), tried out Clint's recumbent bikes also the Mississippi River Levee trail and around LSU, explored New Orleans with Rob, visited a swamp nature center, and went for many walks around the LSU lakes. While I was in California, Owen also fit in a camping trip to a little island in the middle of the Mississippi with Barron, a fishing trip down on the Bayou with Sam and Augie, and some tree climbing with Clint. We had lots of great southern food, including crawfish, alligator, red beans and rice, gumbo, jambalaya, po'boys, even chicken and waffles, and of course Tony's creole seasoning (on everything!) which we cannot live without now! We also had a chance to catch up with several island friends, including Leah and Aaron Tiffee, Laura Taylor, and Sydne and Jeff McKechnie.

Overall we had a great time in Louisiana, made several friends, and a lot of memories. Thanks to everyone who hosted us and made our time there so great!! We are very suited to the southern lifestyle and would love to return next year for residency, so keep that in your prayers! I'll post some highlights pictures, but for even more check out the full album Louisiana (sorry the photos there are a bit grainy, I've trained uploading twice and still no improvement).