Adventures on the Gulf Coast

Helloooooo!!!  Wow, I have been really busy lately.  First, Rob came for a visit.  Then we started shadowing at a new clinic that is 2 hours away and the guy likes to make us stay super late.  Awesome…  So I haven’t been able to update you all! 

So you know I’m down here for schooling/shadowing and to prove it, I took some pictures at the various clinics:

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Learning to cut electron blocks for cancer therapy.  The top row were mine.  I’m failing Blockology!  LoL (luckily I won’t have to do this most likely ever again).

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Some various Linear Accelerators (linacs) used to treat cancer with X-rays.  As a medical physicist, I’ll be responsible for commissioning and checking these things on a regular basis for the clinic I will work in.

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The one on the left is ooooold and it was cool to see (decommissioned, no longer in use).  The one of the right is an older model but still in use!  These things are workhorses!

Not much else to show you from the clinic.  Of course there is a lot of patient related stuff that I obviously can’t take pictures of.  We learned a lot about treatment planning (dosimetry) too and got to do some of our own plans.  There have been other things we’ve been shadowing too but not very interesting for the blog.  Overall, this has been a great experience!


DSCN0412Rob’s visit down here was really good too.  He rented a car so he could go explore while I was at the clinic.  We were lucky and got out early that Friday he was here.  Friday night (my birthday), we went to The Pub which is a British themed restaurant in the area (there are few around Florida).  It was so good!  They had a ton of Half and Half drinks on the menu and a great happy hour.  Seriously, I wish this place was at home in NJ! 

Saturday, we ended up going airboating with the whole crew.  There are three other students down here with me (all from my grad school too).  One of the guys had his girlfriend down the same weekend as Rob was here so we were quite the crew.

 

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Sadly, we didn’t get to see much wildlife on the boat ride.  The alligators are illusive and the manatees are out to sea for the season.  It was still so much fun.  This was the only critter we got to see up close:

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It was still a blast though.  The airboat captain told us about a park a few miles down the road where you could see alligators though so we headed over there after eating at a local diner type place.  Rob got the alligator burger of course.

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The park did live up to its reputation with several alligators just floating around the water.  We were up high on boardwalk so no real danger.

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Sunday, some of us went up to Venice Beach, FL because we heard you could find fossilized sharks teeth in the surf and boy were they right!

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We all had a really good time and I don’t think Rob every left the water once!  We had bought sifters at the dollar store and they were totally worth it.  Even so, you could just scoop up a handful of shells and find them that way too.

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No, Rob isn’t in a pool.  That’s the color of the water at this beach.

On Monday while we were at the clinic, Rob headed over to another beach, Sanibel, that we were told to check it out.  We heard it was really nice and had lots of shells.  The guys and I went yesterday (Rob left Tuesday) and it was AMAZING.  Seriously, this beach was picture perfect and had shells everywhere.

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I only walked along the edge looking for shells but the people out in the water near the lighthouse were coming out with HUGE shells.  You just have to be careful not to take one that is occupied by a critter (nor take any live sand dollars).  I seriously have problems though.  I do no need anymore shells!  But I just keep looking for the perfect one or the pretty one.

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I’ll figure out what to do with them all when I get home.  Luckily our bathroom is beach/sailboat theme so I’ll have to make something crafty for in there.

Anyway, I think that is pretty much it for today.  I’ll save my health and fitness stuff for another day.  There isn’t much of it happening hear anyway since we are so busy.  I get a lot of swimming and walking at the beach though!  But I don’t wear my FitBit for it so I don’t know how much.  I’m just trying to enjoy myself!

Do you collect shells when you go to the beach?

3 thoughts on “Adventures on the Gulf Coast

  1. As usual, I love your photos! What a great job, almost feels like I’m there 🙂

    Keep on learning and having fun!

  2. the shells look amazing! And I am so jealous you were able to go to the beach. I would love to go on an airboat, and andrew would too

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