johnwilker.com

Travel

Anchorage

by

After the cruise, we went to Denali National Park and Preserve. With the vagaries of travel we opted to get off the boat, bus from Seward to Anchorage (2 hours) and then stay the night vs. hopping right onto another bus for the 6-ish hour trip to the park and our lodge.

A parking lot in Anchorage

Anchorage is an interesting city. In the 60s there was a big earthquake and they had to rebuild much of the city.

They’re also hemmed in by water, permafrost and mountains so real estate is at a premium.

Yet, they didn’t, and aren’t building up…

The tallest building we saw was maybe 15 floors? 10 tops. Sure they’re on a fault line, but so is all of California and Los Angeles ain’t being shy about reaching for the clouds with their buildings.

Another parking lot in anchorage

I imagine Anchorage is what Denver was like until the late 80s. Car centric, empty when not a work day. The parking garage in this pic, is new. It likely replaced a surface lot, of which Anchorage has no shortage of.

I don’t know if it is a revenue thing, a lack of interest thing, or what, but as tourists, Anchorage was bleak. Which is sad because there’s no shortage of awesome history, it’s just not well displayed.

We were there on a day (Monday) that I guess people don’t work? Downtown was empty except for the unhoused. Tuesday before we got on the bus, the city was very different. The surface lots filled in, people were walking around. Still a bleak get where you’re going fast, kind of busy-ness, but better than the ghost town that was Monday.

We went to Alaska

by

The NCL Jewel in Skagway, AK

Technically we’re still there. I’m writing this from a hotel room (With actual balconies that you could jump off of if you wanted) in Anchorage before he head into Denali National Park.

We did a cruise. I like cruises, mostly. I know what you’re thinking, ”June 2022, a cruise ship? Gross, COVID City!”

You’d be wrong.

Let’s get the safety stuff out of the way.

You had to get a PCR or Antigen test done, 2 days before your departure day. You had to have proof of vaccination (at least 2 doses), and for kids too young to vaccinate, they had to be tested on board at the halfway point. Since we never got any notices from the boat after that point about infection, I assume the kids were fine, which as a sample, likely means most of us are. So yeah. They took this shit seriously.

Once on the boat, the moment you stood up from a chair or table, a crew member would swoop in with disinfectant and wipe everything down. You couldn’t use the same cup or plate twice. Once it was at your table, that was it, get a new one.

They had a strict no licking policy… Just kidding, making sure you’re still here.

A house on the water

Ok, so the fun parts.

We sailed out of Vancouver (oh yeah, currently at least, Canada also still requires masks on flights, and random pull aside COVID tests on arrival). We sailed through up to Alaska stopping first at Ketchikan.

We did the Misty Fjord excursion, which was fun. It was made more fun/worth the price, when we saw orcas, which we were told was pretty rare that far into the fjords.

Orcas in the Misty Fjord

So that was kinda cool. I learned that photographing whales is hard as shit when the water is murky (Maybe all the time). You have no idea where they’ll surface next other than roughly (Hopefully) in a straight line from where they were last.

That said. It was fun. We got back to the ship thrilled to have seen the whales and the rest of the fjords. The weather was perfect (for pics).

Then we went into Juneau, which despite being the state capitol was a tiny sleepy little town. Well, a tiny sleepy little town that entertained several cruise ships a day. We got our first view of a glacier (The Mendenhall), and wow are they noisy. Like semi-constant thunder. It was weird to think that somewhere behind the face we could see, tons and tons of ice was gnashing its way forward.

Mendenhall Glacier

After that we had a whale watching tour. It was fun enough, didn’t see much that we hadn’t seen. Hard to imagine becoming jaded so quickly about freaking humpback whales. It was a great time.

From there it was on to Skagway. We didn’t book any excursions. Well, we did. I did. Mom and I were gonna do a train ride. Except Dad’s COVID test came back positive, and the NCL policy is that the entire party are canceled, so mom and dad weren’t able to join us.

It was fun, we just walked around, enjoyed some beer and fish and chips. Skagway is one of those places that lives on tourism (and probably fishing, but mostly tourism). COVID really did a number on the town. 2 in 4 storefronts was shuttered. Artists that sold in the various shops were forced to do other things and didn’t (as yet) come back to art. It was honestly sad. It really showed how poorly our country handled everything about the pandemic as it relates to businesses, especially the small ones.

Glacier Bay National Park

And then we saw more glaciers. We had two days at sea, hitting first Glacier Bay National Park, then Hubbard Glacier. We got to see one of the Glacier Bay glaciers calve three times, which was awesome. Much like whale photography, you literally have no idea where a calving will take place, and then it’s half over.

A glacier calving

Then it was onward to Seward, where we disembarked. After that an uneventful 2.5 hour bus ride from Seward to Anchorage. Tomorrow (at the time of this writing) we board a bus for 6 hours into Denali. I’m making sure my airpods are charged and my Kobo is ready, LOL.

Part 1 Final Thoughts

I’ll post about Denali seperately but will end with, cruises are great if you’re the type of person that likes to mix your vacation days with ”go go go, do the things” and ”Chill out and relax”. The at sea days are enforced relaxation. No leaving the boat, not awesome internet (but better than it used to be to be sure. More on that next time too). It’s a time to read, for me to write, to just generally not be going. I love that.

One more Orca fin pic

Taking Your Media with you

by

We decided we needed to get out of the house a bit. So we went to Park City Utah for a week.

Road Trip!

Nicole skied, I wrote and attended an online event, and we watched our shows like we would have at home.

I’ve long been a huge fan of Plex. Been using it for years to manage our media library (TV and Movies). I gave up trying to let iTunes be a home media server, it just sucked over time, but that’s not the point here.

I had a spare AppleTV that will eventually be shipped to my mom, but since it was here, I took it with us.

Set up

What’s nice about AppleTV is that you can plug it in, click a few things, then hold your iPhone over it and boom, it is set up. Handy to be sure.

Within a few minutes I had Netflix and Plex installed. I was able to continue my binging of Person Of Interest, streaming it from my home network media server in Denver, to Park City. Seamless, lag-less.

Do I wish the AppleTV wasn’t so “big”? only a little. I see people moaning about it not being a dongle like others, I honestly don’t care. It’s literally 3 inches square, I’ve got the space. If you don’t, I don’t know what to tell you.

Usage

As mentioned above, it was 100% seamless to watch an episode of Person of Interest the night before we left (It’s my current writing in the living room background show) and have Plex at the rental know what episode was next.

The one biggest issue was not the AppleTV at all, but the TV in the rental. At home I have a nice Sonos ARC soundbar with Atmos. The TV on the wall of the rental had nothing, just the pitiful little stereo speakers mounted inside it.

It took me a day of cranking the volume on the TV to its max to realize it sounded so bad because the TV was doing it’s best (and failing) to still produce sound at Atmos. Thankfully it was easy to tell Plex to play the shows or movies in stereo. It was like night and day sound-wise.

One of my biggest gripes with traveling generally is not having access to my media, short of whatever I’d load up on my iPad. I hate being in a hotel room and having to watch a show on my iPad because that’s where it is and the big screen in the room is useless.

Is lugging an AppleTV around ideal? sorta, it’s not that big, easy to set up and better than nothing.

Hope you enjoyed some pics from our trip. Park City was beautiful.

Moving to a more iPad oriented life

by

I’ve always loved the iPad. I’ve owned an iPad since the first one came out. Up until the last few years, despite Apple’s advertising, and die hard fan’s shoehorning, the iPad was mostly for consumption.

That’s not a dig.

It was an awesome RSS/Blog reader. I love relaxing on Sundays and reading the Washington Post (via app) and Colorado Sun (via browser) while holding my iPad in one hand and my coffee in the other. I love watching TV and movies on flights, reading comics, etc. It was perfect as a media consumption device.

Over the last couple of years things started to shift to more actual creation. The Apple Pencil (despite Steve’s insistence that Stylus = failure) opened a major door for creativity on the iPad. I know there were stylii before that, but meh. Now anyone could doodle, not just the more dedicated. And the more dedicated artists could create wonders.

Then we got got keyboard folio cases, whether Bluetooth or Smart Connector. Again there were solutions before that, like lugging around a full sized BT keyboard (No thanks, tried it, it sucked). Now writing on the iPad was a real thing. An easy, non hacky thing. It immediately made the iPad more useful, overnight.

My recent trips to Egypt and Tanzania were both iPad only trips. It was awesome. My bag wasn’t overloaded with a laptop, chargers, etc. In Egypt I took a much smaller bag, which fit in airplanes easier, was less burdensome to carry. I wrote a large chunk of a Space Rogues novel in Egypt floating down the Nile river with just my iPad and Apple folio keyboard. It was awesome. I also used the pencil to write in my digital journal (using GoodNotes, go get this app, it’s incredible). In Tanzania I took my regular backpack because I had a camera and a bunch of gear, and my iPad was negligible in size and weight.

I can’t imagine I’ll ever bring my laptop on a trip again, short of work specific travel.

Which brings us to now.

Now, I’m sitting in my living room, my MacBook Air (complete with shitty keyboard that works intermittently, thanks Apple) is in my office. I’m writing this on Sunday, and my laptop spent most of Saturday in my office as well.

IPad and keyboard

Adding trackpad support to iPadOS, plus this new keyboard folio, has come pretty damn close to removing my need for a laptop. It’s not perfect, and that’s fine, I don’t want the iPad to be a laptop replacement directly. If it were it’d be clunky and lame without a keyboard attached.

I picked up a Hyperdrive for connecting to monitors, SD cards, etc. I wished I had had it in Tanzania as my goal was to offload the SD card each day, but I quickly realized my iPad didn’t that that much storage, so I was left hoping nothing happened to the SD card/camera.

My goal However is to start doing more work on my iPad. I’ve already proven I can write novels on it, now I want to see if I can do 360|Conferences work on it. Sadly I doubt I can run a virtual conference from the iPad, not that the MacBook Air is much better equipped for that. Thankfully I have an eGPU to plug the laptop in to. It’s entirely possible, when it comes time to replace the MacBook Air (likely sooner than normal thanks to the keyboard) I’ll move to a Mac Mini solution, and when mobile, it’ll be all iPad.

I told a friend it felt weird to be so excited about a keyboard (a not cheap one at that), but we both agreed it really was a bit of a game changer for the iPad. And it is.

I Made a Lightsaber

by

So my friend Jeffry organized a “guy’s trip” to Disney World. This was my first ever guy’s trip and it set a high bar.

The main goal of the trip was Galaxy’s Edge, or as I call it, “Star Wars Land”

It was a blast. Disney has truly outdone themselves. Everything about Batuu is immersive. Dollars aren’t accepted, you have to pay in Imperial Credits. The denizens all have back stories, the characters don’t stand in one place for photo ops. Storm troopers patrol the small outpost stopping visitors randomly. Rey and Chewie walk around going about their business.

I’m not going into a full review of Galaxy’s Edge, they’re all over the internet, just Duck Duck Go-it. When the idea for this trip formed, I was in. “I don’t care what else we do, where we go, etc. I want a lightsaber.”

The entire process is truly amazing. Before you check in you get a ‘menu’ of the four main lightsaber styles. There are a few file cabinets with the parts in them so you can touch them and get a feel for them. They’re secured in the drawers so you only really get to rub your hands on them, but whatever.

Once you’ve selected you pay, buy your add-ons (you know you need a stand, and a belt clip!) and you’re given a pin that matches your selected design. That’s how the junk collectors know which tray to hand you.

Once you go inside, it’s amazing. You’re walked through the story and the construction process. There’s an amazing ceremony where you ignite your blade for the first time, it’s pretty awesome.

I chose Power and Control, mostly for aesthetic reasons. The Blue Kyber crystal called to me, so I’m a bit of an outlier in that Power and Control is more a sith thing, but whatever, I’ve never been a follower!

One more bit about Galaxy’s Edge, stay until the end of the day! We lucked out and there were extended hours the day we went, and by the end of the day, it was mostly empty. During the day getting near the Falcon is tough, at least without hundreds of people around you. At night, we all took pictures without a soul in the way.

Getting together with friends I haven’t seen in years, and Dave, the brother of a friend, was really awesome. Tom and I hang out at least once a year usually. I haven’t gotten to hang with Jeffry in at least ten years. The bar for future guy’s trips is hella high.

Again, we need a law to enforce “Don’t be a dick”

by

I travel a fair amount, nothing like my friends in United’s 1k program, but still, enough to know how it works, what to do, etc.

Airports are like movies and concerts in that they encourage asshole behavior hand “It’s all about me” thinking. I don’t know why, and not everyone does it, but it seems easier to get to that point when flying.

I typically check my bags. Either I’m meeting Tom and my flight is first anyway so I have time, or I’m traveling long enough that I need my big bag. 9 out of 10 times, even when I’m flying with my smaller luggage (that can fit overhead) I check it.

I understand a lot of people are in a hurry (whether they really are or just think they are) and don’t want to wait for luggage, that’s ok. But those same people seem to usually be the ones who can’t or won’t grasp the “must fit in overhead, and only 1 allowed” rule. I’ve seen people with 2 rolly bags, 1 rolly bag, and a huge duffel, etc. there’s many variations.

What sucks is that, a big bag will fit sideways if you’re the first person on the plane, and as usually happens, the people with the big bags make sure they’re on early and can steal an overhead for their oversized bag(s).

I guess congress is stepping in on behalf of the non-asshole-air travelers. I read about it on the Tom Bihn (awesome bags) blog.

I agree with the Time’s Writer, when he says that pushing bag size checking to the TSA zone, means slower security checks. Yeah, as if we need slower security. My only recommendation to make that not be a huge time suck, make the apperture of the xray machine the size of the “allowed” bag. if it can’t fit in the machine, it won’t fit in a bin. This will at least solve 1 dimension of the “steamer trunk” problem.

I’m torn. I don’t like laws that enforce common sense or non asshole behavior, but having been forced to watch the plane I’m on leave late because of the baggage wrangling that is required, I certainly wouldn’t mind a “gold standard” in luggage.

Maybe instead of making luggage size a TSA problem, the luggage industry should step up and make bags that are the right size, and clearly the wrong size, so there’s less guesswork, “will this fit” going on.

OR, we could all stop being self centered retards. I know, who am I kidding

Your Cart