We just finished our Alaska 2025 trip, preceded by our Tarpon Springs 2025 trip, itself preceded by our Disney Cruise/EPCOT 2025 trip. It’s safe to say that we’re all vacationed out. During the cruise and EPCOT my ears were really pulsing/beeping and bothering me. It wasn’t until the Tampa trip that I decided that no remedy was really working, not the ant-histamines, not the dramamine, nothing. These were all false positives. I would take something for my ears and it would either “work” or “not work”. It was really only when I decided to accept that there’s no magic cure for my ears that I was able to let go. Now I see that if I just relax, practice a little mindfulness, and not freak out when my ears act up, that the problems eventually go away. If I can focus my attention elsewhere then the beeping/pulsing stops. I would much prefer to focus my attention on work and 3D printing rather than becoming some sort of Indian swami, master of my consciousness and unconsciousness. But life isn’t always fair, rug pulls happen, and other people have it way worse than I do. Anyways, my life is great and I have so much to be thankful for. Maybe my life was going TOO good, and my body had to create some malady to slow me down and make me focus on other things. Who’s to know?

The Disney Cruise was nice. The ship was the oldest in the fleet and it showed its age when compared to the newer Wish ship. Castaway Cay had the clearest, bluest water and whitest sand I’ve ever seen. And Jack threw up at 3AM due to seasickness. Then we went to EPCOT, which was freakin hot. But the Guardians of the Galaxy ride and Ratatouille ride were worth it.

Our Tarpon Springs/Tampa trip was nice as well. Really not much notable except we saw the Rays play in the Yankees AAA stadium. That was also hot AF. The seats would literally burn your bare skin.

The Alaska trip was awesome! We had a nice AirBNB with a great view of Mt. Marathon from the back porch. We had an uneventful night in Chicago at Embassy Suites, then took the boring-ass 6 hour flight to Anchorage. Then we stayed the night in town, having a delicious dinner of rotisserie chicken from Walmart lol. Then in the morning we took an uber to the train station and took the 4 hour train ride to Seward. Ted greeted us in Ted fashion, driving his truck alongside the train. Then we went kayaking. The next day we went on the whale-sighting boat. Friday the 4th of July we watched the runners in the Mt Marathon race during the day and watched fireworks at midnight. It was really cool to be in a little seaport town like Seward during this holiday. The downtown area was packed with people and food trucks. All of the bayside RV parks were full. The town is full of little mom-and-pop shops, with Subway being the only franchised business around. It was like a cross between a summertime Hallmark movie and Bob’s Burgers.

Saturday we climbed Mt Marathon. Note to self: Hey idiot, if you’re hike a goddamned mountain then at least get a slight bit in shape before hand! Do a pushup! Take a walk! Eat a goddamned vegetable! But no, I had to climb for 3.5 hours to the top, then slide downhill for another 2 hours. But damn it was nice to finally get to the top. This had been my white whale since we tried to climb it 3 years ago but fell short.

The wife and I got to spend some quality time together just going for walks around the bay. And Jack and Elsa got to spend lots of time with their fun uncle. It was really an incredible trip.

The 3D printing is going gangbusters. I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had time to stop and think and wax poetically about what kind of business it could be, or what my grand vision is for it. I’m too busy working to do any of that lol.

So life is good!