May ended up being a pretty busy month with travel. I already had an Alaska road trip planned for latter half of May, but an unexpected Employee of the Year Award at work earned me a free trip to the East coast to receive it in person by senior leadership at headquarters in Maryland. The award ceremony was on the 15th and I had to leave on the 16th to be back in Juneau in time to fly out on the 18th for Anchorage, with some time to spare for repacking. So as soon as I found out about the travel opportunity, I booked my flight out to DC for three days later, on May 3. It was going to be a tough squeeze trying to see everyone in a week's time. I have friends in Reston to see, a brother in Charlotte area, and a brother in Virginia Beach.
Travel to DC from Juneau is an all day affair. I catch the first flight out of Juneau to Seattle, and then an early afternoon flight to DC, which gets me there around ten at night. By the time I got the rental car and made it to my first stop on the trip, Spa World, it was nearly midnight.
Yes, I stayed at Spa World on my first night. I was so looking forward to this place before I even got there. I just really loved the idea of taking a bath right before going to bed, and getting one right after waking up. Besides, I didn't want to bother any of my friends for a place to crash so late at night on a weekday. The place isn't exactly designed for sleeping, but it is designed for relaxing. There's a common area where people can rest on seats or on floor mats with wooden head rests. A few had managed to sprawl across the seats and sofas. I found a spot on the floor, with about 10 others doing the same. I can't say I slept well though because the floor was hard. The baths and saunas there are really nice though. I can probably spend an entire day there - bathing, reading, sauna, napping, eating, relaxing, reading, bathing, etc. I only had a few hours after waking up though, before I had to go meet couple of friends for lunch.
The first couple days there were spent meeting friends. Then I had a 7 hour drive to my brother's house in in SC. Luckily I had online training that week so I planned to work from his home all week. It was a silly idea in retrospect though, because he had a 1 and 5 year old that wreaked havoc all the time. Still, it was really good to spend that time with them. On Friday, I drove another 6 hours to my other brother's house. I only had couple nights there, but I got a chance to see their new house. They upgraded to a larger house, so now I don't have to kick the kids out of their room when I visit.
I drove up to Maryland on Sunday and met up with a friend who came to visit me. We spent Monday meeting up with another friend, and visiting the zoo. Tuesday was the award ceremony and Wednesday was my flight out.
It was really nice getting that visit to see family and friends. I had been so home sick, especially since I was having a rough winter. I also got to enjoy lots of really good food, something I don't get much of in Juneau due to shortage of restaurants. Then there was the sun and warm temperatures. For the first time in a long time, I wasn't cold. On the flip side, I recalled some of the reasons why I wanted to leave the East coast, like traffic. Some days I really want to be back on the mainland, some days I am glad to be away from it. I keep having this inner debate in my head about where I want to be more and it's driving me a little nuts. I want to buy another house and put down roots somewhere but I just don't feel settled here in Juneau. It's a bit of a shame because I really like my job here a lot. Most likely though, we'll be heading back East in the near future.
No comments:
Post a Comment