Ireland 2012: Mom's One and Only Marathon

Our beautiful banner.  We pretend that we let small children help us make it, but really, it was was all us...

So my mom has been talking about running her first (and last) marathon for her 60th birthday for about 2 years.  She finally told enough people that she had no way of backing out, so she started training instead!  She decided to run her marathon in Dublin with some of her close running friends (Nanette, Tammy, and Roz), and all three of her children came to cheer her on!  Since I had known about this trip for a while, the organizers of the Dairy Production course were good enough to work with me and allow me to take vacation during the 8 week rotation. 

Mom, Brendan (my brother), Tammy, and Roz started their trip a few days before me, my sister, and some of their other friends arrived.  They headed out to the west of Ireland and made it back the afternoon that I, Nanette, Carmel, and Doreen arrived (the last two being friends of Nanette's who came to cheer the runners on).  And that was when the fun really started!

The first few days were spent in Dublin while the runners acclimated and prepared for their race.  We went out for a Literary Pub Crawl in Dublin (code for: drink a lot of beer while pretending to learn something), a nice dinner with our cousins Tony and Mary, collected Lauren (our sister) from the airport, made banners for the runners, and checked out Malahide and Howth on what might have been the coldest day of the year.

Mom and Roz at the Literary Pub Crawl

Why we braved the freezing cold weather...

Seriously, it was so cold. We were not dressed appropriately.

Tammy, Doreen, and Carmel at dinner

Visiting the cousins in Navan

Mom and I helping to bring in a boat... or something

Race day was more fun for the 5 of us NOT running than the 4 runners, for sure.  We cheered them on at about mile 10, then headed to the Guinness Brewery for a tour and a pint before meeting them at the finish line... with our amazing banner... that looked like 3rd graders made it.  We are not particularly artistically inclined, but mom seemed to love it anyway.   After a hearty Irish meal and some more beer, the runners crashed, and the rest of us headed home to plan for the rest of our trip.

Mom and Nanette being very excited at Mile 10

Our race alternative

The rest of our trip?  Yup!  The marathon was only the start!  While Brendan had to head back home, the 8 ladies headed out of Dublin for the next few days.  We caravanned down to the southern coast for a few days to stay in a gorgeous 5 bedroom home overlooking the ocean in Ardmore.  The next few days were filled with lots of fun, lots of food, and beautiful scenery; we couldn't have asked for more! 

The Miller women in Cobh

Lauren, an official whiskey taster, pretending she likes whiskey

Mom at the Jameson Distillery

Lauren and I hiking the Ardmore Cliff Walk

Requisite trip to Blarney

Lauren through the murder hole

Mom and her new friend at the local pub in Ardmore

We split up when we left Ardmore so that Lauren, Mom and I could visit with some of our relatives before heading back to Dublin while the other 5 could see more of the sights.  We got a chance to catch up with our cousins, play with the little boys, and of course eat lots of food :)  Then we all reconvened in Dublin before heading back home, where we all needed another vacation to catch up on sleep!

Lauren and I at the top of our hike

Simon and Barry, the two littlest cousins in Kilfoylan

Breda with Barry

At the Grand Hotel

Breda and I

In Dublin

sWINE production (and dairy production medicine)

All of the swine rotation participants!

Once I got back from Oregon State (way back in September, I'm just a little bit behind), I had a fall full of production animals ahead of me!  It all started with a two week Swine Production rotation and was followed by 8 weeks of Dairy Production Medicine.  I took a little break in the middle for a trip to Ireland (more on that in the next post).

Anyway, I don't have many share-able pictures from those rotations, so I'll keep this kinda brief.  Both of these rotations were pretty awesome, and they worked pretty similarly.  They were designed to put us, the veterinary students, in charge of identifying and (hopefully) solving herd-wise problems.  They were two of my favorite rotations in vet school, as they really asked us to think and problem solve and then to convince our clients that our suggestions were worth incorporating! 

During the swine rotation, we got a chance to visit pig nurseries, finishers, and slaughter plants, so we got a really good gauge of the industry.  We also got a chance to practice a few of our clinical skills like blood draws (super challenging in pigs), field necropsies, etc, and learned how to do a herd investigation.

But swine production was not all work!  We also got together for a sWINE tour of the Kennett Square area on the first Sunday of the rotation.  All of my rotation mates as well as most of the faculty and post-docs in the swine facility joined us for the wine tasting followed by a chili dinner.  Here, I have pictures!  And finally, on the last day of the rotation, we put together a pig roast for the New Bolton community.  The pig was provided by the Swine Unit and beer was provided by Boxcar Brewing in West Chester (they are beyond awesome).  We also had the coolest cake in the universe...

Kathryn and Clint (he's an honorary swine rotation member)

Yum!!!

Our amazing cake for the final BBQ

Maura and Andy getting the food ready for our pig roast!

Dairy production was pretty similar in structure; we had a number of lectures and labs throughout the 8 weeks, but then we had a lot of free time to spend at a local farm (which had volunteered to work with us and to allow us to visit all aspects of their operation).  Like Swine Production, this concluded with a presentation for Field Service folks as well as for the farm.  Because the rotation was much longer, we went into a lot more depth when analyzing the farm; each of us was "in charge" of one area of production, but we worked as a team to collect information and solve problems.

I was put in charge of calf rearing, so I got to spend a lot of time with newborn calves and the heifers up until calving.  We also analyzed their milk production, nutrition, transition cows, reproduction, management, etc, while we were there!

And finally, here's a collection of pictures taken during our wine tour.  Three wineries in, these pictures seemed pretty amazing.   The back story is that in one winery, these four pictures were up on the wall.  There was no explanation whatsoever, so we decided they were the four types of girl-drunk.

Type 1: The Giggling Drunk

Type 2: The Slutty Drunk

Type 3: The Closet Drinker

Type 4: The Depressed Drunk

Time Off in Oregon!

So my two weeks in Oregon was far from all work and no play!  Since we had no weekend duties, I had an entire weekend in the middle of the rotation to explore!  I opted to rent a car to get out of Corvallis and see some sights and started out on Saturday morning with an 8 mile hike at Silver Falls State Park outside of Salem, Oregon.  It was a great loop hike that went past (and behind) a series of gorgeous waterfalls. 

The first of the waterfalls that I came to

Hanging out behind the waterfall... The trail went directly behind the falls in a few cases, which was just really cool!

Behind the falls!

 After leaving Silver Falls, I drove east towards Bend, my destination for the night.  It was a pretty spectacular drive through mountains and past lakes.  On the way, I stopped for gas in Detroit and was able to get a picture of the lake.  The rest of the drive, I had to decide between taking pictures and staying on the road, and unfortunately from a souvenir standpoint, I opted for safety.

The lake outside Detroit

 After getting through the mountain pass, I arrived in the valley.  After driving through Sisters, Oregon, an adorable little touristy town, I pulled off on the side of the road to get these shots of the fire that was burning outside of town.  At that point, I didn't really know what was going on, just that the sky all of a sudden got very dark and some clouds seemed to be rolling in.  After pulling over and hopping out of the car, I could see that the sun had been almost completely obscured by the smoke!

That night, I stayed with an old friend I had met when I was living in DC; Meryl and her husband, Mac, had moved to Bend a few months earlier and were gracious enough to host me and to show me around!  Since it was evening when I got there, we headed out for pizza and beer at one of the fabulous Oregon breweries.  We drank a lot, and ate one of the best mushroom pizzas I have ever eaten.  When we finished, we stopped at the Platapus Pub on the way home for more beer!  Needless to say, we were a little inebriated by the end of the night, hence the terrible, terrible photos!

Meryl and Mac with our friend the platypus

Hanging out at the Platypus Pub!

 The next morning, after coffee and breakfast with Meryl and Mac, I headed out to do some more hiking and exploring of the area around Bend, this time to check out the volcano parks nearby.  I was pretty sore from my hike the day before, so only did about 5 miles total and in much shorter jaunts :)

Little chipmunk friend!  These guys were all over the lava field

Just amazing how far these lava fields go, and how difficult it is for trees to grow...

Another really cool lava field- this one was a lot further out from the highway, so it took 20 minutes on a dirt road to get there.  It was totally worth it though!

Just loved this question mark tree :)

 After hiking most of the day, I started my drive back to Corvallis.  I was pretty exhausted by this point, but determined to stop once or twice along the way for some pictures!  The next few shots are all from the pass through the mountains where a forest fire devastated the area a few years ago.
It's pretty cool seeing the different stages of growth in these regions, and just amazing to see how far these forest fires can spread.