Home Alone in Salt Lake City

Good news!  The lymph node biopsy is back, and there is no evidence that Mark's Father's cancer has spread.   The days after surgery are tough, but the prognosis is good and Clarence is getting good care.  He has a general doctor, an oncologist, a cardiologist, a surgeon, a physical therapist, an occupational therapist . . . and they are doing a great job of trying to get him home.

Meanwhile, back in Salt Lake City, Denisa has determined that hanging out in a large city by herself is not very much fun.  She did some shopping and figured out the street system, and found herself at a new sporting goods store called Scheels.  Hard to take pictures because of the sky lights and windows, a ferris wheel takes up most of the center of the store.

Visitors coming in the west entrance are welcomed by an arched salt-water aquarium that is big enough to walk under.

Some of the displays seem a little random for a sporting goods store, like Abraham Lincoln reciting one of his famous speeches with a ferris wheel in the background.

More appropriate to the hunting section of the store was this mountain of taxidermed Utah wildlife specimens.  Because Denisa has never seen a moose in the wild, she thought she should photograph one on her hunting trip for bargains today.

We are used to hiking almost daily, but Denisa was advised not to hike in the mountains by herself.  So she drove to the foot of those pretty Wasatch mountains, looked longingly at the trail heads, and then drove home.  The recent rain has washed the smoke out of the air, and she has beautiful views of those mountains from all over the city.

 
She found a mega-church in Draper and got lost in the crowd on Sunday morning.  She headed to the pool and to the shopping center when she didn't want to wilt in her hot motor home on afternoons that reached 98 degrees. The campground is still having problems with the electricity, and she hasn't had air-conditioning in the afternoon for the last week.  The good news is that they have shuffled the reservations to give her an additional two days at her hot site, so she hasn't had to move the motor home yet.  Cooking for one isn't any fun, and eating out alone isn't fun, so food was skimpy.  That is good since the exercise was also skimpy.  There aren't too many pictures because there isn't much picturesque going on.

Meanwhile, back in Oklahoma City, Mark is spending all day (and some nights) at the hospital.  He was glad to get to spend time with his parents and siblings, even though it was a stressful reunion.  He was blessed to also spend time with our son Blake, who we haven't seen since June.  Blake was at the hospital almost every day after work, and Mark spent nights at his apartment.  Blake has been dropping Mark off at the hospital on his way to work at 6:20 a.m.  But on Saturday Mark walked the 4.5 miles himself.  This was the most picturesque part of the only "hike" in Oklahoma City from the last week.

Mark was surprised to also get to see our son Luke.  Very busy with his medical residency in Kansas City, he and his wife were both in a wedding this weekend in Oklahoma City.  So this emergency trip to Oklahoma had a great unexpected benefit of spending time with both of our sons at the hospital.

They even found some time for fun.  One day they fit in a trip to the new Top Golf in Oklahoma City.  The next day, the three of them, plus Blake's girl-friend Claire, went climbing at Rocktown Climbing Gym.  

This is an old grain elevator that has been converted to a rock climbing facility with routes both inside and outside the silos.  Blake's long legs should make him a champion rock climber, but this was stretching his comfort zone because of his fear of heights.

Besides these vertical climbs, there are also some near horizontal sections that Luke is trying.

Mark has determined that losing 25 pounds means less weight to carry up those silos.  He enjoyed climbing with the rest of the kids. There are only fans inside those concrete silos for air circulation, and Mark can confirm that it is about the same temperature as a motor home without air-conditioning in the summer.

Denisa has to admit that getting that phone call with her three favorite men giggling and having fun together on the other end of the speaker phone was hard.  She wanted to be in Oklahoma too!