Pharmacy Conference

The first weekend of August, I went to my pharmacy fraternity's national meeting in Lexington, KY. This year's conference was focused on personal development and leadership. Three of us drove through the night on Thursday and arrived at 6am the following morning in Lexington. We did find some time for sight-seeing and came across this old castle nearby. Turns out it only costs about $300 per night to stay.

The University of Kentucky was only 2 blocks from our hotel, so we explored the campus on Saturday.

Their College of Pharmacy building is slightly larger than the one at Drake...

It turned out that our hotel was also connected to Rupp Arena, which is where Kentucky basketball games are held. They are one of the best programs in the country. Unfortunately I was not able to get a peak inside to see the court.

Saturday night was what everyone was waiting for, the awards banquet for the year. Last year our chapter won the Thurston cup for the top chapter in the country, which is based on scoring for reports of scholarship, leadership, service, brotherhood, chapter publication, and a window display. We were surprised and thrilled to win the award back-to-back years. There are approximately 70 chapters in the country, and our chapter has won the award 6 of the last 13 years, a pretty good streak.

Thurston cup

Our haul for the evening

Rotation 2

My second rotation was at an physician's clinic in Des Moines. The clinic has a full-time pharmacist along with 6 physicians/nurse practitioners/physician's assistants. I worked with the pharmacist and interviewed patients and developed a plan to adjust Coumadin (warfarin) doses based on how "thin" the blood was during their appointment. Diabetic patients also were referred to us by the physicians for diet, glucose meter, or insulin education. I also answered drug information questions for patients who called in to the clinic with various questions that could not be answered by the nurses. The 5 weeks was very engaging, and I spent a lot of my day in appointments with patients, so it went by fast.

Vacation Block

After my time in Seattle, I had my 5-week vacation for the year (unfortunately very early in the school year). Typically, students get 2 five-week vacations, but I gave up one of the them to be at Northwestern Hospital in Chicago later this Fall. I started my time visiting Neal, Jenny, Paige, and Austin in LA for a few days. We went to the beach and Disney's California Adventure, to name a few.

I then returned to Fargo for a few days, getting to see family and friends. On my way back to Des Moines, we made a stop at the Twins games for the weekend. Although it was about 95 degrees, it was still a great weekend of games, and there was also a double-header on Saturday.

Family name on the wall outside of the stadium.

In Hrbek's restaurant at the stadium

I spent the remaining 3 weeks of my "vacation" working at the hospital pharmacy, and preparing for my next rotation block, which was in Des Moines.

Mount Rainier

On my last Sunday in Seattle I decided to rent a car and drive out to Mount Rainier National Park. It was only about an hour and a half drive to the park entrance. The park is very large with numerous trails and scenic overlooks. It was not the best day to visit, but it was the last day I had left so I went anyway. The high temperature at the main gate was going to be about 55 and at the Paradise overlook (5,500 feet) about 45. It was overcast for most of the day, until I had to leave to return the car in Seattle at about 5pm.

Front Gate 

The Pacific Crest Trail runs from Mexico to Canada through several mountain ranges, and also circles Mount Rainier in the process. The section that runs through the National Park is called the Wonderland Trail and is approximately 90 miles and has elevation changes of about 22,000 feet. This is a foot bridge that is part of the trail, which I followed for a while in the afternoon.

Don't lose your balance on the footbridge... 

One of the visitor centers was called Paradise, which is about 5,500 foot elevation. As you can see there was a lot of snow left, even in June. This was one of the few times during the day that the clouds broke and the summit was visible. Several people were hiking in the snow, many of which had never seen snow before. It was quite amusing to see all of them who bought full snowsuits, snowshoes, and ski poles for walking on a snow trail. I did get questioned several times for walking in the snow with just my tennis shoes, jeans, and sweatshirt.

Just recently the hotel at Paradise reopened. It looked like a good place to stay during the summer, but there are pictures in the winter of the roof being completely covered with snow.

One of the few glimpses of wildlife during the day

This is the reflection lake. During the summer, the summit makes a good reflection off the lake here... not so much today, however.

The main visitors center is called Longmire for the family that originally settled there in the late 1800s. They made their home near a meadow that they later discovered to be a mineral spring. I believe the orange water here is filled with iron. The family started marketing the mineral springs to have healing power, and built baths for guests to visit.

There were several bridges during the day, and on every one I had a strong desire to bounce a golf ball across.

This deer was not frightened by people at all, and was eating right next to the trail. It is slightly different than the frightened reaction back home.

This cougar was shot near the park entrance in the early 1900s by a ranger, and has been on display in the visitors center ever since.

When I was just about to leave for the day, the clouds decided to break up, and I did get a nice view of the mountain. It was too bad I was not able to stay longer, as the weather became very nice.

Overall, the pictures do not give justice to the incredible sights at the park. It was a day well spent.