family visit 1

As I said before, my sister Jocelyn and her husband, Mike, were on a vacation driving across the USA and back. Their route brought them through my relative longitude on the globe, and I met up with them in Salt Lake City, UT. We arrived at our KOA at the same time, set up the tent, then went to get Chinese food.

This was my fortune :)

We spent the evening catching up, watching fireworks, and laying in a hammock.


In the morning, we packed up and headed to Antelope Island, which is an island on the Salt Lake.

Here you can walk around, explore, watch buffalo and antelope, see brine flies, and float on the salt lake.

photo by Mike Hartnett

photo by Mike Hartnett

the water stinks.

but was warm and so bizarre to float in! There were flies EVERYWHERE which was kind of gross, but once we got past that it was a fun and weird experience. 

 Afterwards we got back on the highway and drove to Denver.

photo by Jocelyn Hartnett

The next day, Mike and Jocelyn caught up on some much needed sleep while I ran some errands.  In the afternoon we followed through with a common suggestion I've heard for things to do; float down Clear Creek.  This fast flowing river goes along the highway and ends in a nearby town, Golden.  A youtube video I saw when researching this summer venture showed 4 guys floating down the river on pool rafts and tubes.  Thinking we would do the same, I purchased floaties and we headed to the river.

We knew there was going to be a problem because everyone that we saw said, "you're going down on those?!", "you need a Go Pro", and my favorite, "yeah you are!!!!!"

Once we hit the quick moving water it was clear this was a bad idea.  The rapids and rocks were so frequent that the maybe 20 ft I spent on the water on the raft was like being punched and beat up repeatedly.  There is still a bruise over my left kidney to remind me of this poor decision. Our flimsy rafts felt like the equivalent of floating on tissue paper. After we bailed, we walked down the river and found a group of people jumping off of a 12' rock into the quick moving water.  So we did too.

After time by the pool we had dinner and spent the evening by the fire.

These past three days I worked. Today I helped a patient stay comfortable as she passed. She had a big family who I spent a lot of time getting to know while they struggled through this time.  They asked me if I had "done this" a lot, meaning, have I taken care of people dying. Suddenly I realized how much death I've seen or been around in the past two years.  It's quite sad. The strange thing was, it wasn't a "bad day" at work. She was comfortable as she died, the family was at peace, and my other patient was getting better.  After work I went to the grocery store and my cashier seemed a little down. I asked how she was doing and she said, "oh it's just been a busy day here" and I thought about how she was having a bad day because it was busy, yet I witnessed someone die today and I wouldn't classify it as a bad day. Strange really, but I guess it's all part of the job.

That being said, I really like it here. The hospital is fabulous and the staff is friendly and helpful. Not to mention the area is exciting and speaks to my heart. 

So I'll take the good days with the bad as I explore this new area. The week will be extra special, since my sister Erin is coming out to do just that with me :)