Last Saturday, Jeff and his friend Ray were already out on their hunting expedition. I packed for my trip to California, took one last hike with Hank, had a last day of cuddles with Sally, and then went to see another Gertie’s show with some friends before heading south on Sunday.

After leaving Gertie’s, the northern lights were out! I couldn’t stay for the midnight show because I had to get to bed so I’d be up and at ’em on Sunday morning. I needed to drive to Whitehorse with Hank to get him into the boarding kennel. Our local boarding kennel is still not back to normal operating procedures after a busy summer, so Hank wasn’t able to stay locally. It meant a couple days of driving for me, rather than flying from Dawson, but whatever, it isn’t a bad time of the year to travel. Most of the tourists are gone and the traffic is light.

Hank and I had a nice drive down, and I spent the night in a motel by the airport before flying down to Vancouver the next morning. What a beautiful morning in Vancouver!

Then, I continued on to San Francisco. It’s my third time flying to San Fran, and for the first time, I saw the Golden Gate Bridge!!! Here are some terrible pictures of the experience from the backseat of a Lyft car.

We travelled north to Petaluma, California for a few days with my division at work. There were 15 of us from 4 teams that work together. Many of us hadn’t met in person so the week’s goal was to get to know each other, build some bonds, have some experiences. It was a great success!

We stayed at the historic Hotel Petaluma. I had a room on the 5th floor. The elevator only went to the 4th floor, though, and then there was a flight of stairs up. The 5th floor was where the hotel staff used to live! My room was small and quiet and dark when the blinds were pulled. It was absolutely perfect! I slept well.

Here’s a scene from the lobby:

Petaluma has a population of about 60,000 people. It felt like a small town. Quiet, yet loaded with restaurants and shops, all within a few blocks of the hotel, which was ideal for a meetup! There was a beautiful little market just 2 blocks away, so I was able to get some yogurt, granola, and fresh berries to put in my mini fridge for breakfast all week. Perfect! That helped with my newest travel hack for my late 40s: don’t drink alcohol, drink water with an electrolyte mixture before bed, and make a simple plan for breakfast to maximize an 8-hour window for sleep 😁 It worked perfectly!

There was a neat little cheese shop off the hotel lobby. My friend and coworker Stephanie and I tried some cheese and played foosball one afternoon during a break from our sessions!

There are grain elevators in Petaluma and the city is known for its roots as a chicken processing place. At one time, Petaluma was known as the “Egg Capital of the World”. I bought Jeff a neat t-shirt that says “Chick City” on it.

Our week together was a mix of tremendous food, short walks, smiles and laughs, and one day we had lunch at a winery and visited a redwood forest!! Here are a mix of pictures:

On Friday, I flew back to Whitehorse through Vancouver and made it back to the motel for the night.

It was such a perfect meetup! I got to know several of my coworkers better, get a deeper connection to our work and goals, and see a new part of the world. The travel was completely hassle-free. No long layovers. And the security and border checks were quick and easy (thanks Nexus). And bonus, it was all within the same time zone!

I woke up Saturday morning in Whitehorse, had a couple quick stops at Canadian Tire and a grocery store, then picked up Hank when the kennel opened at 10am. I had a new toy for him and some treats as bribes after leaving him for a week.

It rained all the way back to Dawson. It took us almost 8 hours, but there wasn’t much traffic. That construction zone with the pilot cars took almost an hour to get through again. It was between 3 and 7 °C all day.

Hank seems to have forgiven abandoning him for a week. He gets to play with lots of dogs and I think he likes that?

And Ray got his moose! So Jeff and Ray spent a few days processing it and I missed all the work! Ahh shucks 😁