Rah-Rah-Rochester!

So the other day I wrote about where I grew up --- North Dakota. Today I will talk about where I live now--- near Rah-Rah-Rochester, MN!

We have been here nearly 4 years already! We live in a small town just outside of Rochester that has the basics---grocery store, gas stations, hardware store, Dairy Queen (yes I sometimes consider ice cream a necessity!), McD's, a bar/grill, etc.

My town is a quick 10-15 minute drive to work each day. Travis and I carpool---want to know the real reason we carpool? Because I will not have parking priviledges at the Mayo campus for about 6 more years! I believe once I become a Nurse Practitioner, I will move up on the list. But for right now, there's about a 10year wait for parking once you begin employment. I am coming up on 4 years is all! There is just not enough parking spaces to accomodate so many employees in downtown Rochester. There are over 40,000 alone who work here. The vast majority of our parking spaces are for our patients. There are shuttle buses from all over town, and the 75-mile radius of small towns, that bring employees to/from work each day. I used to ride a shuttle prior to Travis getting a job downtown and getting parking priviledges at his employer. Bonus that my job is RIGHT on the way!

Mayo Clinic is a huge part of Rochester. Without it, I am not sure the town would exist. We also have IBM headquarters. It seems the entire area works either at Mayo or IBM! Many people I run into are interested in Mayo, so here it goes.


First of all, I love working at Mayo and am thankful each day for the opportunity. I have had experiences beyond my dreams and am very thankful to work for a system that values their patients so highly. Everyone I have come into contact with, whether it be as an employee or patient, has been outstanding and I cannot speak highly enough of Mayo's values and organization.

The campus is a little split up in that St. Mary's, which is our 1,200 bed hospital, is 10 blocks away from the rest of the campus. St Mary's is huge--and beautiful! The downtown campus, where I work, consists of multiple clinic buildings, and Methodist Hospital.
Methodist is where Emersyn was born. There are about 800 beds in this hospital. It is the building at the very back of this picture--the tan building. You see the Gonda and Mayo buildings on the left, the Plummer building to the right, and a hotel also on the right.
It's kind of confusing that there are 2 different hospitals within the Mayo system, even though the entire campus is collectively referred to as Mayo Clinic. I used to work at St. Mary's on the Neurosurgery unit. Now I work at the downtown campus in outpatient General Internal Medicine. Love it!

Some of my favorite pieces of art found here are these blown glass chandeliers by Dave Chihuly. There are 13 of them that hang over the lobby in the Gonda Building. They are beautiful--and huge! This picture doesn't show their ginormity.

This picture shows their size a little better. You can see how large they are compared to the people nearby.


One of the other lobby areas:


There is a lot of art scattered throughout the campus. One of my favorite buildings is the Plummer Building. It is breathtaking! I couldn't really find any pics that show how pretty it is on the inside...lots of Italian marble, lots of history.



The Peace Plaza in downtown Rochester sits on the other side of the clinic buildings.
Every Thursday during the summer months, there is a street fair along the Peace Plaza and surrounding streets. The last one was yesterday----tear, sniff! Downtown is full of neat shops, fountains, restaurants, bars, and the like.

Rochester is a great place for young families. There are always resident physicians and their families coming into town for their rotations. Kiplinger ranked Rochester in the Top 10 Cities to raise a family just last week. Rochester has also made the list of Top 100 Cities to Live for many years!

One of the other reasons I love Rochester and Minnesota in the fall:


That's the Bob Ross look I was talking about. It's beautiful!
Another reason I am looking forward to fall--the apple orchards!

This was Emersyn at the orchard near our town last year. I can't wait to go this year---soon! A few orchards are already open.

I'm out of here. Happy Weekend!