Alaskan Cruise June 12-20

We took a wonderful cruise in June, starting from beautiful Vancouver, Canada, then cruising the awesome coastline of Southeast Alaska. We stopped at several port cities to take tours inland or tours on the water to view the wildlife, including Humpback Whales, Bald Eagles, Sea Lions and a Black Bear. The cruise finished at Seward from where we took a transfer to Anchorage and flew home the next day.

Here is the cruise route overview. In subsequent posts I will highlight each stop along the way.

Hiking in Norfolk, England - April 24-30

Mike and I have been fast friends since we were 12 years old when we met in high school and despite my running off to America, we have stayed in touch and maintained the friendship. This year we decided to hike the Norfolk Coast Path, and being contrarians, we decided to hike it south to north, not realizing that the reason most hikers go the other way is to have the wind behind them. The goal was 84 miles over 6 days and we figured that would not be too hard since coast walks are basically flat, but the reality of hiking on sand and shingle is that it is hard indeed, even more so with wind and sometimes rain in your face. Long story short - we declared victory after 5 days and 63 miles, declining a final 21 mile hiking day. Actually, only Mike did that distance since I pulled a muscle early in the hike and had to take days 3 and 4 off leaving Mike to do an 18 miler and a 14 miler solo. I was happy to be able to join in again for day 5 and the big finish. The Norfolk coast is rugged and beautiful, the scenery changed every day and on day two we saw hundreds of grey seals, just hanging out on the beach a few yards from us.

All that exercise set us up well for good food and drink in the evenings and on day 6 we spent a happy couple of hours playing snooker. We are already thinking about where to hike next year ... and I might even do a bit of training before then to make sure my legs don't give out again!

For the video, here is Mike climbing up from the beach at the conclusion of his solo 18 mile hike from Sea Palling to Cromer. And yes, we went straight to the hotel bar for refreshments!

Ski Trip, Lake Tahoe CA - March 27-31

NVIDIA has a great tradition of "Two Free Days per quarter", usually a Thursday and Friday to make a long weekend. The most recent free days were March 28 and 29 and my good friends Justin and Adel from NVIDIA suggested I meet them at Justin's place in Truckee for a guys ski trip. Of course I did - and it was an absolute blast! It snowed 5-6 inches every day so we always had fresh powder. We skied Sugar Bowl on Thursday - 15 runs and 12K vertical feet. Then we went over to Northstar on Friday, met up with another friend and colleague Bojan, and that day we four amigos hammered out 20 runs and 20K vertical feet! By Saturday morning, my legs had seized up, skiing was out of the question and the boys headed back to the Bay Area to beat an incoming storm. On Thursday after skiing Justin gave us a tour of his favorite places in the area, including the Martis Clubhouse where Justin and Shea held their wedding, and we even fit in a few frames of ten pin bowling. Good times!

Here is the obligatory ski video - this one from Friday at Northstar!