Rochester, Minnesota

Late October deep in the autumn, Rochester is already quite chill, grey colored sky yellow falling leaves. It looks like those ordinary small-to-medium size US cities. Then it is where Mayo clinic is located and so it is not ordinary. It is a busiest and warmest city. All the providers here want to save patients.

When the day just starts off at 6am, surgeons, doctors, nurses and technicians are already on their way to work. Walking on the sidewalk among them with my Mayo ID jiggling on my chest, I had big smiles on my face.

Mayo is a campus where all the buildings are closely located. The main buildings such as Hilton, Mayo, Gonda, Eisenberg, Charlton are connected through the “subway” level (underground). Some dinning areas and hotels like Marriott are also connected. I really enjoyed walking through the buildings and passing coffee shops, patient waiting areas, gift shop … with no wind shivering in my neck 🙂 Mayo is a patient-centric hospital. The lobbies and patient waiting areas are big and then the office spaces and conference rooms are small.

At 5pm off-work, I walked back and heard this beautiful music in the hospital lobby. Classical music and hospitals always marry well :). The music is calming and comforting.

Lunch at cafeteria was full of people in scrubs and they were just out of morning surgeries.

Food and groceries in the city are quite expensive. Out of curiosity, I explored restaurants with fun names. “Star Ocean Buffet” claims they serve seafood buffet and charge close to $25 for a week-day dinner. Then I found it is just a regular Asian buffet. “First meeting” sounds romantic and appealing. Who am I going to first meet here?

Thinking about it, a lady next table said hi. “Your Chinese and English are so good”. I smiled. Then she told me “we are from DC and come here for my husband. My husband is a scientist in Smithsonian “. Then we talked about Virginia and that terrible 495. I guess I am old enough now so it’s always a small world —- no matter where I met people in different parts of the world, I always can find connections with them. I asked “why you don’t go to John Hopkins? it is at least closer” She said, “we love Mayo, there is no place that can compare with Mayo Clinic”. I smiled again. I was once a patient here. Some of the fine procedures operated on me required expertise that are only available in one or two hospitals in the world.

Such a festivity in our hotel lobby (see below). This hotel is called “Center-stone Plaza Hotel Soldiers Field”. It had a pool/jacuzzi, free breakfast, free parking, a 7-8 minutes walk to Mayo. The room is old but the bed is comfortable. Importantly, the price is so good. Then of course, many people stay here and the parking lot is almost full. Most people here are patients and their family, so I have made best wishes to them.

Driving back home during the sunset time. there was this stunning Midwest landscape, fields and windmills in front of me. The view is open, grand and beautiful. At the. beginning of my drive, I saw sunset and rainbows. Then the sky gets darker a bit a time, followed by the twilight. Occasionally the thunder and lightening rumbled at the horizon and broke the clouds. Such an enjoyable drive, especially with my favorite music.

Tesla charge station is quite convenient nowadays. In Rochester, I used a charge station near HyVee and there is also a truck stop at Albert and Lee I went often. I used to drive 3 hours without charge. Nowadays, typically Tesla navigates me for a 15-minutes charge as a break. After I came out of the bathroom and explored the store, the car is already ready to go.