If the longest journey begins with but a single step then our trip to Alaska began with sitting for almost four hours in one of the tightest airline seats I’ve ever experienced. It was in an Airbus A320, row eight.
I’m sure in the process of laying out the seating rows for the AirBus A320 there was a critical point when they had to make the decision to get one more row in before the mid-fuselage emergency exit. They decided they could if they scrunched it up about four inches closer then a regular coach row.
At 6’ 2“ and 200+ lbs sitting in this row required extreme leg origami. I’m certain the feeling in my legs will eventually return but I’m worried the fabric imprints on my knees from the seat in front of me might be permanent. 
Flying to Seattle, WA, from Charlotte, NC, consisted of two legs, Charlotte to Phoenix, AZ, and then with a change of planes and on to Seattle. The seating for that second leg was “normal” coach spacing which felt like a luxury after the experience of the first flight.
The weather for the flights was beautiful the whole way but upon arriving in Seattle it was a real surprise…90+F degrees and no rain. Having packed based on seasonal highs in the 60’s we found ourselves overdressed.
After a quick look around on this first day we grabbed a late dinner in our room and turned in preparing for an early start the next morning.
Note: It appears I’ll have some Internet access on board so I hope to upload some post and a few photos this week.
The hard part of leaving is today when I take my best little buddy, Foster, to the local boarding kennel. I’m going to miss him but he’ll probably have a great time with all the “new” people and other dogs. No doubt he’ll be running the place like he did last time we boarded him there.
Cool with rain each day would best sum it up! The temperatures will feature highs in the low 50’s (hopefully) and while there may be some partly sunny periods, rain seems to be 30-60% likely each day.
For substantial rain I purchased a product called 
The advances in GPS receiver technology continue to amaze me.
One use I’ll be putting this little device to, along with the 
I’ll be giving this GPS to Photo combo a trial during the next two weeks while in Oregon, Washington and Alaska. I’ll post an update as to how it worked.
