Seattle, Alaska, and Back Again

This is an old post that never was posted from 2013.

Our usual summer trip usually involves family, check. Though 'our' and 'usual' don't quite go together yet. We've been married for a bit more than a year and a half, so this is our second summer traveling together. And last summer was very unusual because we went to Europe.

To continue: We went to Seattle to see my brother get his Mechanical Engineering Master's. Does it bother me that my little brother has his master's and I don't? Yes. How much? A bit, mostly in the fact that it might be easier to apply to all these jobs that have 'senior' prepended to the software engineering title. I am interested in getting a master's, but out here in the middle of this puddle the closest master's is at UH Manoa and that is a 200 dollar round trip ticket.

But before I get into what I want to do: Udacity is working with Georgia Tech for an online Master's in computer science. That will be another post.

My brother picked us up from the airport and we met up with family. Got to do some site seeing in Seattle. The last time I was there I didn't have too much time because I was on Amazon's schedule. We had awesome weather, mostly the same as March, but maybe warmer. And a really cool sun halo, high clouds of ice.

We saw my brother graduate and got to hang out a bit more with family. Got to visit with Jessie's Aunt and Uncle as well. Then we were off to Anchorage.

So just a bit about time-shock. Not too bad going to Seattle, but going to Anchorage was a shock. Not so much in the many timezones crossed usual problem, but rather we arrived in Anchorage around 11pm and it was still civil twilight! In Hilo the latest the sun sets is around 7pm and dark by 7:05, so this was the shocker.

The first day we took a cruise around Prince William Sound <> and then we were driving back after eating dinner and it was still light, so stopping off at the many pull-offs along the Cook Inlet Highway we hiked a few miles starting around 8 pm. Sun still high in the sky.

Thank goodness the motel had blackout curtains. The sun really messed with our sleeping schedule, but we got up the next morning and drove north to a glacier. We hired a guide and gear and went adventuring across the glacier. <> A great time indeed! We were the only two that day and so our guide could move faster than he ever had with any other group. We were still going slow, but it was quite fun and we got to climb and poke around. If you are interested: Nova out of Chickaloon.