Benziger babes

We did it! Graduations 2017 For all the graduates this year - CONGRATULATIONS! This time of year is one for recognition and celebration of years of hard work and passage into the next chapter of life; one that is full of new challenges and exciting new adventures. This June, I closed two chapters and am about to open a new one in Duluth, MN this fall. I graduated from not one, but two programs that I have spent the past decade or more trying to achieve. The first, my Masters of Public Health - Global Health program, was something that I have wanted to do for over 10 years and always told myself I would do during my cardiology fellowship. When I put my mind towards something, I do it. This quality, let's call perseverance, can drive some people nuts but it is a quality that has helped enable me get to where I am today. What I didn't realize when I was 24 and had the brilliant plan to do this as a cardiology fellow, was that completing a Masters program with a toddler an...

I love to go a-wandering,  Along the mountain track,  And as I go, I love to sing,  My knapsack on my back.  Chorus: Val-deri,Val-dera, Val-deri, Val-dera-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha  Val-deri,Val-dera.  My knapsack on my back. I love to wander by the stream  That dances in the sun,  So joyously it calls to me,  "Come! Join my happy song!" -The Happy Wanderer, scout song Now that the days are longer, the sun is shining, and the snow has melted (mostly) in the mountains, we have been getting out on some family friend hikes in the Cascades and Olympic Peninsula.  Hike #1: Lime Kiln Trail. 5.4 miles, 625ft elevation gain. Highlights: a nice flat well maintained trail along an old railroad grade used for timber and a 1890s lime kiln for making lime (calcium oxide) from limestone into pulp to be used for melting ores. Cons: we forgot the carrier for Marit so she had to walk about 2 miles and...