Joy and David

The occasion for this trip and mini-family reunion is Joy and David's move to Madison to complete their professional formation as veterinarians. Joy is doing a residency in neurology at the university and David has been accepted into the doctoral program there. So they will be there a while but everyone has always told me how great Madison is, so why wait?

It's probably been an adjustment for them since the first two years after Joy's graduation from vet school were spent in California, in Davis and San Diego, as David did his residency in pathology. It will be interesting to see how they've adjusted. Joy is more familiar with the Midwest in general and knows Wisconsin fairly well from visits to her grandparents' cabin there.

We went out to Manhattan, Kan. for their wedding reception (the actual marriage was performed in California without much ceremony) and Joy's graduation three years ago. It will be great to catch up with them.

I actually had a hand in helping Joy arrange an "externship" at the North Carolina zoo while she was in vet school. A guy I shared an office suite with while working for Newsdesk was a consultant for the zoo and recommended her to the director there. So we got a chance to combine a visit with Joy and with Andrea's niece Marcia in North Carolina that summer.