Today was my last day in Seward and it was pretty relaxing. I slept in and ate a leisurely breakfast at the hotel. The only thing on my agenda for today was a visit to the Alaska Sea Life Center. The Sea Life Center is at the other end of town from my hotel. To get there I walked along the coastal walkway, a nice paved path that winds through campgrounds and along the coast with amazing views the entire way. There were lots of families sitting down to breakfast next to their campers or out walking their dogs. There are signs along the path with information on Seward and the nature surrounding it. Several focus on the earthquake of 1964. It was a 9.2 earthquake, the second largest ever recorded, and the quake plus resulting ... read more

Today I took the Coastal Classic train to Seward and hiked to Exit Glacier. Both were amazing! The day started early. Honestly I was up at 2 AM (5 AM Chicago time) and couldn't go back to sleep. So I had a snack and did some reading. Finally it was 5:30 and time to check out and head over to the train depot to check in. A light rain was falling but the walk to the depot was 5 minutes so I decided to walk rather than use the shuttle. They have a handy luggage check right outside the depot and will tag your bag with the hotel name so it goes straight from the train to the hotel on arrival. A few minutes later I had my boarding pass and fancy Gold Star pin. Car ... read more

For some reason I dreaded turning 30. Still have no real idea why but at the time it wasn't something I was looking forward to. To cheer myself up I made a bucket list of things to do by the time I turned 40. That bucket list included a few things but the main item was to have visited all 50 states. At the time I had 8 left to go to. As of 9/1 I will have set foot in all 50 states at least once. Some were brief visits, some were longer than needed visits (10 days in Nebraska???), some were repeat visits but all provided me with opportunities to learn something new, see something new and broaden my horizons. America is full of beautiful places and beautiful people. There are corners that will ... read more

Today I woke up to fog, and not just any fog, dense fog. The window screens and sill were wet, the balcony was wet and I could just barely see the dunes out my window. This put a slight hitch in my plans as the ferry was not running at all, visibility for driving was poor and I couldn't decide what to do. In the end, I decided I should not plan anything and should just go wherever I felt like. After laying around the room, I finally got moving and drove into Gulf Shores and further along the coast to Orange Beach. This time of year the traffic is pretty light so it was a nice easy drive. The fog was all along the coast and I couldn't see much so I turned around. I ... read more

When you start to get overwhelmed at work and need a break, you start looking for where you can go quickly and cheaply. For me, that ended up being the Gulf Coast so I could finally cross some more states off my list. As far as the basics, I got a cheap $75 round trip flight on Spirit from O'Hare to New Orleans and found a condo right on the Alabama coast for $56 a night. You can't really get a better deal than that! Every time I fly Spirit I say I won't fly it again and then I do. The advantage on a short trip like this is I did not need to bring a bag bigger than my backpack so it was worth it. This time the flight left on time, arrived on ... read more