Part 1 – Oceanic Nostalgia

The first part is almost entirely melodic deep house. For reasons I can’t quite explain, more than half have an aquatic vibe, hence the name of the list. Some have oceanic album art (Purple Disco Machine, Shiver, Chris Luno), some evoke a “deep sea” sound (Shiver, “HRSN”), some have a beachy sound (“Don’t Say”), some immediately take me back to Anjunadeep in Albania (“HRSN”), and the finale hits all of those notes at once.

Part 2 – Volcanic Dance

Tinlicker and Purple Disco Machine, two of my absolute favorites, released new albums last year, so it should be no surprise that they make up a quarter of this list. “Blowfish” was my track of the year and is an atomic weapon to be dropped at the beginning or middle of a high-energy set, so there was no better choice as the intro here. “All My Life” is a perfect joyful finisher and is a matching bookend with the Balearic remix, which is the intro to the first part.

Part 3 – Twilight

Okay, I lied earlier: there is a tiny third act so that I could have room for a couple of honorable mentions. The first song is not from last year – in fact, it’s not even from this millennium – and most people will know it from The Beach soundtrack (again with the ocean theme!). The artist Paul Spencer (aka Dario G) passed away last year, so the inclusion of his best-known work feels very fitting. After that, we close with a gorgeous piece of acoustic piano pop from Tony Anderson to take us home.

Monday: We just finished up a fun weekend in Minnesota seeing family, so our itinerary ended up being slightly different this year, but basically the same thing: MSP – Chicago – Athens – Corfu. Even though we’ve done this travel day before, this one seemed to drag on forever. Get us to coastal Greece already!

Tuesday: Just as with the previous two years, we went directly to Angsana Resort for two days of relaxing by the pool, gorging ourselves on the best Mediterranean buffet on the planet, adjusting to our new time zone, and enjoying fresh seafood by the water every evening.

Wednesday: Sleeping, pool, and sleeping by the pool. That evening, for the first time in three years, we finally made it to Benitses, the little village down the road from the resort. All the restaurants and shops are on a single street, which gets quite lively in the evenings. We picked a restaurant at random and had a great dinner, with lots of seafood, feta, and white wine.

Thursday: Another Explorations, another ride on a slow ferry that we didn’t book. A few weeks before the trip, we got an email from the festival organizers saying that one of the ferry company’s boats had broken down recently, so a whole bunch of people (including us) were getting bumped to a slow ferry. We were refunded the difference in price, but it was a little deflating that we’d be stuck on slow boats. Again. Thankfully the weather cooperated – cloudy and even a brief rainstorm – so that we weren’t baking and sweating all afternoon. Somehow we got through passport control quickly and got on the first bus to Dhermi, though there was a lot of extra walking this year: a long walk just to get to the bus (due to road construction) and then a 20-minute death march over cobblestones to get to our hotel. This year we stayed at Nassau Hotel, which was in a different part of town than we’ve seen in years past: the beach southeast of the festival site, which has been built up in recent years to handle all the increased tourism. The aforementioned cobblestone path – which is much cuter when you’re not dragging 50-pound suitcases behind you – is lined with hotels, restaurants, bars, bodegas, beach chairs and umbrellas, and outdoor lounges with hookahs and bean bag chairs.

After checking in, cleaning up, changing, and getting dinner, it was time to kick off the week’s festivities. Thursday evening was a little bit of Braxton at Splendor, followed by a whole lot of James Grant (who played an excellent 4-hour set), and an M.O.S. nightcap at Yacht Club.

Friday: Gjipe for Romain Garcia, CRi, and Hana. There was a bit of a delay leaving since the waters were too rough for the boats to run, but once we got out of there, we treated ourselves to the requisite post-Gjipe dinner at Luciano’s.

It was at this point that my voice, which had been slowly dying since the previous night, basically gave out completely. I joked that I went too hard the first night and blew my voice out, but in retrospect I realized that I had caught something from my brother while we were in Minnesota, since he started losing his voice at the end of that trip (Sunday evening). I still stayed out all night to see Qrion and then Dosem at Empire (aka the Jereme Block), and our crew wore the squad shirts I had made for this year’s trip.

Saturday: The cold/flu hit hard and I spent most of the day in bed, forsaking what I’m sure was a wild James & Jody set on Gjipe. I rejiggered my whole schedule to go out only in the evening (and not stay out all night), so I ended up at a sunset set, which is usually pretty rare for us on these trips. I caught Chris Luno and then Cornelius SA at The Cove and then a wild Amy Wiles party at Yacht Club. She’s very deserving of some recognition, so I was really happy for her that she finally got a primetime slot and a rowdy audience to match. After that I was ready to go to bed. (Such a shame too, since I missed My Friend and Simon Doty at Empire.)

Sunday: Again, I spent most of the day resting, but by the evening I was starting to come around (a small miracle for me, since even the common cold will often have a long tail of a couple weeks). I pulled it together to see P.O.S. at Splendor, which I knew would be one of the highlights of the week, and Paavo did not disappoint. Though the plan was to head back afterwards, I ended up staying out a bit to see some Nox Vahn, CRi, Durante, and Hana.

Monday: This was the one day we did not have Gjipe tickets, so Jereme and I spent the afternoon at our hotel’s pool, which was actually a glorious way to spend the day. It was so good in fact, that it’s made me strongly consider not doing Gjipe ever again. Gjipe days can be pretty draining, but spending an afternoon at the hotel pool is such a great way to remind yourself that you’re on vacation, and you don’t need to be doing something all the time. That night we caught a little bit of Sinca and Jody at Splendor, then it was the 4-hour block I was most looking forward to all week: Guy J at Empire and then Luttrell at Splendor until sunrise. Both played exactly what they were supposed to: Guy J was the conductor of a non-stop train of dark minimal progressive house, and then Luttrell had a fun, emotional, melodic dance party under the soft yellow sunrise.

Tuesday: We skipped Gjipe again – since it was kind of a repeat of the night before – and instead went to Havana Beach Club, which was mere minutes from our hotel. Michael Cassette and anamē played a really fun pool party, which once again was so much more reenergizing and relaxing than going to Gjipe. The final night of the festival was pretty chill: we bounced around between Komytea (Michael Cassette without the 80s vibes), Nils Hoffmann, and Enamour, before turning in “early” (probably 2:00).

Wednesday: We had a very reasonable checkout time and boat departure time, but it was still a long and very hot travel day back to Corfu.

Lummi and I stayed on Corfu until Sunday, spending our downtime wandering old town (though very much limited by the 95+ degree temperatures), shopping for souvenirs, looking for bakeries, eating seafood by the water, and saying our goodbyes to the friends leaving before us.

Since we’ve done basically the same exact trip three years in a row, the current thinking is that we might skip Explorations next year. It requires a lot of time off from work to do this, so we end up missing out on other travel opportunities, and we already have some possibilities on the horizon for 2025. But who knows, we might change our tune next year when we start having dreams of the Albanian Riviera…

Chicane released a pretty good album this year, so he appears twice. I think Nevertheless is an amazing opening or closing track and had trouble deciding where it should go here; in the end, it felt right as the closer. The Paavo and Spencer Brown collaboration is the emotional peak here and brings back memories of Anjunadeep Explorations this past summer, where the two of them were the closing set of the entire festival and they finished with this track.

Upon picking my favorite 20 tracks from 2022, I realized they neatly fell into two camps. The first list is pop-adjacent in places, with a few “peak time” bangers and lots of emotional vocals. If you played this for someone not into dance music, they still might find something here that they like.

The other ten tracks are more for the dance music expert and really get into the weeds of slow-burning deep house and melodic progressive house. Really sit back and relax for this journey.

The astute listener will notice that a (very) different version of Gratitude by Above & Beyond appears on both lists!

Partially as a public benefit, partially out of intellectual curiosity, and partially for my own joy, I’ve started a podcast! (wait for groans to subside)

No, it’s not another opinion or news or murder podcast. It’s purely a technological convenience for myself and it costs me nothing to share with the world, so why not?

Background: I listen to a lot of mixes, sets, concerts, and compilations of music, and these days, a lot of them get posted to YouTube. Usually, there is an accompanying post to SoundCloud or Spotify, but not always. YouTube is not always convenient for listening to music – for example, it’s not natively supported in Android Auto or Apple CarPlay – so I’ve often found myself wishing that just the audio was available somewhere.

This is where a podcast becomes quite useful: I can easily write a new entry, upload the audio, and voila! Now I have a convenient, more portable version without the hassle of video or YouTube.

My new podcast is called Just The Music Please and it should already be available on Apple Podcasts and Pocket Casts (and hopefully other directories soon). I tried to add it to Google Podcasts too, but they seem to be in the middle of transitioning all their podcasts to YouTube (sigh).

I had considered SoundCloud as a solution here too, but their free account sharply limits how much you can upload (only 3 hours of music). Since I already have a website and hosting service, starting my own podcast is basically free, plus I have more control over it.

My intention for now is that I’ll dig through my favorite YouTube videos and upload only the ones that don’t have an audio-only version available somewhere. If I post every two weeks or so, I should have a steady stream of content for a while before I really have to start digging into the archives.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the convenience, but more importantly, the music!

Monday: We knew that jet lag was going to be bad for this trip and that manifested immediately. Our 10-ish-hour flight from SFO left in the afternoon, so just as we were starting to feel sleepy, we landed in Amsterdam and it was time to start our day. Fred, our wonderfully quirky Airbnb host, thankfully let us check in early, which helped us make the most of the day. We spent that first day wandering the neighborhoods since it was some of the best weather on the trip. We accidentally stumbled upon the Almost Summer store, whose “Do Nothing Club” branding I had noticed recently in a Chris Luno video. In the late afternoon, we wandered to Mikkeller for beers and pub food for dinner. They had a surprising amount of veggie options, which I realized was typical for Amsterdam (signs everywhere advertise vegetarian food). After dinner we walked by Melkveg – a music venue housed in a former milk factory – on the way home and passed out early.

Tuesday: Up bright and early, we ate a little breakfast and then fast-walked to the Van Gogh Museum since we were late for our time slot, though no one seemed to mind. We opted for the audio tour and did the Pokémon scavenger hunt as well (the museum currently has a Pokémon tie-in). I think some of Van Gogh’s lesser known works are much better than his popular ones. (Really, we all think this sunflowers painting is actually good?) Afterwards we walked to Oeuf for lunch and had a pretty excellent brunch on their patio. Their menu informed me that (a) they had shakshuka (which I ordered) and that (b) a “porn star martini” is apparently a thing. I put in a few hours of work back at our Airbnb and then later in the afternoon we took the tram to Central Station for our wine-and-cheese canal boat tour.

Wednesday: I worked (or slept) most of the day, then in the evening we went to Melkveg with Ville and Kristiina to see Tinlicker play with Metropole Orkest, a Dutch orchestra specializing in jazz and pop and world music. The show was super cool and they recorded a very professional production of the event (available here and here). It was a great kickoff to the week.

Thursday: I worked for a bit in the morning and then we “adopted” Ville for the afternoon since Kristiina had to work as well. We tried to go to Chun Café for lunch, but the line literally went across the closest bridge, and we ended up having a much better time across the street at Pluk instead. We left Ville in the late afternoon to go to the Claptone live interview and Q&A session, which was hilarious. He was in character the whole time – voice modulator and all – and would say things like “Well since I’m several hundred years old…” in the middle of serious answers. We got some nice swag too (masks, comic books, and playing cards). That night was the Luminosity party, which wasn’t part of ADE, but Ville and Kristiina had tickets to see Nils Hoffman, so we bought tickets too. In retrospect, we could have skipped this – Nils was playing at our event on Saturday – and gone to one of the other events or venues.

Friday: Jet lag hit incredibly hard – plus I think I was fighting a mild cold – so I stayed in bed until 4:00. Going out in the rain to go to a steamy, crowded boat party did not sound appealing, so we skipped that and rested instead. In the early evening, we met Ville and Kristiina, who were coming in “scorching hot” (their words) from the boozy boat party. We met them at the Albert Heijn in Central Station, which was a bumping party with a DJ. We were on a tight schedule, so we all grabbed to-go food and drinks before getting an Uber to the Armada offices for a pop-up party that we (partially) had tickets to. Somehow we weaseled all of us inside and were rewarded with a hell of an evening: access to the Armada radio studio, an open bar at the small nightclub down the hall, being present for Joris Voorn and Eelke Kleijn receiving a gold record, and then a great party all evening with music from Joris, Eelke, and Yotto.

Saturday: We spent most of the day wandering the city, had a Dutch dinner (with mixed reviews) with Ville and Kristiina, and then set off for the big Anjunadeep party. It was a great lineup with a lot of the usuals (James and Jody, Yotto, Eli & Fur, Marsh, etc) but we left “early” at 4:00 since we wanted to enjoy our final full day.

Sunday: Well I guess it was a great week, because I woke up with no voice. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the nice weather, wandered the neighborhoods, did some shopping, got a massage, and had a fancy seafood dinner at Pesca, which I would highly recommend to anyone.

Our week in Amsterdam was somehow action-packed and too sparse at the same time. We barely made use of our conference passes because we were either too jet lagged to go out or synchronizing our schedules with our friends. We did really enjoy all the events we made it to though. I think if we went to ADE again we would approach it a bit differently and make more of an attempt to go to the daytime events and some of the iconic venues. Getting into Europe early, beating back jet lag, and not working remotely would help a lot with this.

All that said, I was really impressed with Amsterdam. In some ways, it feels a bit like the good parts of San Francisco: beautiful, walkable, green, bike-friendly (but to another level obviously), vegetarian-friendly, metropolitan, yet also kind of casual. Everyone speaks perfect English and the tram and Uber both work very well, so getting around is incredibly easy. I would absolutely go back, for ADE or anything else, though ADE is a pretty good motivator. I realize most of the non-party portions of this blog post were just us wandering around, but honestly, it’s a really great way to experience the city.

See you next year, Amsterdam?

Monday: Here we are again, on the same SFO – Newark – Athens – Corfu itinerary as last year. An uneventful but long day.

Tuesday: We meet up with Ville and Kristiina in the Athens airport and fly to Corfu. Once again, we head to Angsana Corfu for two nights to deal with jet lag, be pampered for a bit, and just generally kick-start the trip the right way. Our favorite taxi driver Giannis (from last year) ends up being our driver for the entire trip. Jereme also uses him when he arrives from Alaska, but he actually meets up with old friends who are (coincidentally!) living on a boat in Corfu for the summer. They come by the hotel in the afternoon and are a joy to have with us by the pool. Half-jokingly (but also half-seriously), we inquire if we can charter their boat next year and avoid the ferry entirely.

Wednesday: Just as we did last year, this is a day for sleeping in, gorging ourselves at one of the finest brunch buffets on the planet, swimming, and laying out by the pool.

Thursday: Based on our experiences with the slow ferries last year, Lummi made a point of booking us a fast ferry this year. However, something was miscommunicated somewhere, because when we attempted to board, we were turned away by a very uncompromising captain who said the boat was already over the limit. The festival staff were also a bit confused and the best explanation we got is that some people basically stole our seats, either with their butts or their bags. We got bumped to the next departing slow ferry – sigh – but it ended up being a fun ride because we got seats inside, brought along some beers, and had a lot of great chats with all the people sitting around us. After the picturesque 1-hour bus ride through the mountains, we arrived in Dhermi and set off on a long, pebbly trek to Empire Beach Resort, the nicest hotel in town, and also the site of the main stage! As is common at Anjunadeep events, Jody Wisternoff materialized out of thin air in the lobby as we arrived. Classic Jody – literally everywhere all at once. We chatted with him and his wife briefly, inquiring about the current state of pranks that they play on each other. After checking in, getting some beers for the room, and sitting by the pool for a bit, we set out and bounced around all the stages, catching a bit of VONDA7 at Yacht Club and Jody and Simon Doty.

Friday: Gjipe (day one of four!) for Yotto and CRi during the afternoon and a little bit of M.O.S at Yacht Club on the way back to the hotel. This night ended up being a truly unique experience, as we basked in the synthy, hypnotic, 80s-inspired progressive house glow of Michael Cassette at the Cove. He’s a bit reclusive and rarely plays in public, and it’s actually kind of difficult to find any of his live sets online. Ville and Kristiina were unfamiliar with him, but they trusted me when I said we absolutely had to see him (plus they appreciated the Finnish connection). Within 15 minutes, they – along with everyone else in the crowd – were completely blown away. We pushed to the front for the remainder of the set and even got a photo with him after he was done. Buzzing from that, we hurried over to catch the rest of James Grant, who played at Splendor until sunrise. Those of us still upright finished off the night at Empire – as one does – with the last 30 minutes of Dusky.

Saturday: (Editor’s note: Because I can’t remember exactly, I’m just going to assume that every day started with sleeping in, going downstairs to the Empire restaurant, eating pizza for breakfast, and then barely making it to Yacht Club by 3:00.) Marsh and Simon Doty at Gjipe, dinner and a rest back at the hotel, and then back out all night again. Dosem played with HANA (a.k.a. Jereme’s match made in heaven) at the Cove for three hours and it was incredibly fun – the two of them seemed to be having a blast and their styles went together really well. I’ve never seen Dosem smile that much! At this point (3:00 am), there was a terrible choice to be made: P.O.S at Splendor or Yotto at Empire. Since we saw a Yotto sunrise set last year, a few of us went to see Paavo, telling ourselves that we’d stay for only 15 minutes and then leave to go see Yotto. But just like last year, Paavo played an incredible set with lots of new music, and there was a tangible feeling of I need to stay here a little bit longer because something special is happening. 15 minutes became 30 minutes, then became an hour, and then we just gave in to staying until the end. Though it won’t be quite the same, Paavo’s Finland set is probably the closest approximation to what he played that night. After he finished, we walked back to Empire to catch the rest of Yotto. The perfect end to the night was him finishing with the greatest Daft Punk mashup of all time.

Sunday: James and Jody at Gjipe (we actually made it this year!) and then our evening itinerary was Nils Hoffmann, Eli & Fur, Simon Doty, and finally Dosem (by himself) at 3:00, who played an absolute banger of a set. Jereme was in heaven, and once Dosem finished, he decided to end the night on that and go back to his room to sleep. And it’s a really, really good thing he did, because when I went back to Empire to catch the end of Marsh’s set, I walked into a scene of pure confusion: Marsh playing an entire hour of drum and bass. Talk about polarizing! Some folks were super into it, but most of the crowd had thousand-yard stares as they tried to comprehend what was happening. I listened for a few minutes, then went back to the safety (and ear plugs) of our hotel room.

Monday: Gjipe for Spencer Brown and Eli & Fur and then two really extraordinary sets that night: Jeremy Olander at Splendor and Tinlicker for a truly epic sunrise set at Empire. People were buzzing so much after Tinlicker, our entire hotel was awake for another hour after the music was finished. Everyone was hanging out by the pool or on their patios, trying to comprehend what they just witnessed. It was really special.

Tuesday: Paavo played on our final Gjipe day to a noticeably smaller crowd than usual, since people were probably still recovering from the night before. Still a great set, but his Splendor sunrise one is really the one to remember. Our final night in Dhermi took us to see a bit of Jody, a bit of Durante, and then a really wonderful b2b with Spencer and Paavo that perfectly capped off the festival, especially when they closed with their collaboration It’s Me.

Wednesday: Sad, a little tired, but glowing, we made our way back to Greece. Once again, we were able to get inside seats on the ferry, which made the trip a heck of a lot more tolerable (we were even able to nap a little bit). Upon returning to Corfu, Giannis took us to our beautiful seaview apartment in Corfu Town, where we’d be spending the next few days. Jereme’s itinerary to get back to Alaska required him to leave for Athens the next day, so he booked a hotel close to the airport and that evening we met up for one last delicious Greek dinner.

Thursday: We discovered a small, wonderful cafe (GABAO Bistro) in one of Corfu Town’s cutest alleys and had some excellent breakfast sandwiches with Jereme before saying our goodbyes. The rest of the day was spent wandering the town, shopping for gifts for friends, napping, and then spending the evening with Ville and Kristiina.

Friday: Today was more of the same, capped by an amazing waterfront dinner at Corfu Sailing Club, which had come highly recommended by our new friends Tim and Wally. More wandering the town, more shopping, and more thoughts of I could really spend an entire summer here.

Saturday: Sadness. Time to go home again, with full hearts, new friends, and a million more wonderful memories. Time to start planning 2024!

Monday: Started off the week right by getting on a plane to Europe. It only took me 40 years to get there!

Tuesday: Pretty uneventful travel, other than the hassle to get a taxi from the airport to Angsana since there aren’t enough taxis to go around. Angsana is a beautiful property on the coast, with amazing views from the infinity pool and rooftop. Corfu beer is excellent. We split a bottle of white wine (seemed appropriate) and lots of small plates on the rooftop for dinner while listening to the hotel’s DJ spin deep house, accessorized nicely by the live saxophone.

Wednesday: Holy shitballs, this is the most amazing and complete hotel breakfast I’ve ever seen! What a treat to have bright, delicious Mediterranean food alongside eggs and potatoes and coffee. We ate so much that we skipped lunch entirely and didn’t eat again until dinner. Spent the whole afternoon at the pool, but also used the gym since it was mostly empty and very well apportioned. Really nice dinner by the pool and then a relatively early bedtime to rest for the next day’s travel to Albania.

Thursday: The ferry to Albania had a great vibe, with everyone excited and chittering and drinking and sweating and meeting new friends. We started chatting with a Finnish couple across from us and they became our BFFs for the week (Ville and Kristiina). The weather was thankfully overcast for the last hour of the boat ride, which probably saved a lot of people from sunburn and/or heat exhaustion. Passport control in Albania was slow and we all had to stand on the dilapidated concrete dock with only two officers checking passports. Most people passed out on the bus and we had a quiet, pretty ride through the mountains to Dhermi. Once there, we had to lug all our stuff up the huge hill and arrived at Elysium Hotel soaked in sweat. The 200 euro room deposit mostly wiped out our euros, but it was life-saving to finally have A/C and a shower and a bed to flop in. After unpacking, showering, and having a bit of a rest, we set out for the evening to catch Jody at Empire, a bit of Franky Wah (who was evidently staying at our hotel), a bit of VONDA7 (who we saw the next day at the hotel next door), and a bit of Richie Blacker before calling it a night after a very long day. However, even this abbreviated nighttime itinerary had one of the best moments of the trip: Paavo was at Splendor for VONDA7 and Lummi got to talk to him for a little bit and give him a hug. Achievement unlocked!

Friday: I honestly don’t remember much of this day, so my guess is that we slept in and took it easy during most of the day, though I do remember that we had our first Luciano dinner. In the evening, we saw a bit of Amonita at the Cove, James Grant at Splendor, all of Eli & Fur at Empire, and just a tiny bit of Luttrell before heading home a bit after 3:00. Eliza was staying at our hotel, and we saw her (and her girlfriend) multiple times on Friday, but evidently she left Albania the next morning for her next tour stop.

Saturday: This was our big Gjipe day and it did not disappoint. Yotto and Simon Doty were super fun the whole time and it was such a luxury that we could walk to the beach and take a cold dip in the ocean to cool off. The boat ride was really fun both ways and we had our first meal at Vasilika for dinner (still following the tried-and-true formula of one pizza, one Greek salad, and one seafood dish). After the customary late evening rest at the hotel, our evening itinerary took us to Yacht Club to catch Gareth From The Office (who was on fire, until he impaled himself later that night), then 16BL at Splendor, then Marsh at Empire for a bit, then back to 16BL on the way home.

Sunday: Another late start, another great Gjipe day, this time for Tony. He played a great set, ending with an emotional deep remix of Gratitude, and Lummi got to talk to James Grant for a bit and tell him about our upcoming wedding. There was a great moment of all of us (Ville, Kristiina, Daniel, and Nick) going to the beach for a refreshing dip in the water. We went to Luciano’s for dinner and coincidentally, there was a huge Anjuna “company dinner” at the same time and we saw lots of artists and employees at some of the long tables. We had a very good rest and then geared up for the biggest night of the festival for us: David Hohme at the Cove, Ben Bohmer at Empire, and then Yotto at Empire until sunrise.

Monday: Getting up at a reasonable hour was a bit difficult and we quickly ruled out Gjipe, even though it was James and Jody, since we would miss Yotto’s Yacht Rock set, which turned out to be the best sneak attack set of the week. After he finished, we made sure to get in line to get a photo of all of us with him. Amy Wiles was a bit too energetic for 6:00 – she never gets the time slot she really needs – so we left and went to dinner at an Italian restaurant close to Ville and Kristiina’s hotel. After our last evening nap of the trip, we had another great night: Cubicolor at the Cove (which was packed, so we got overlook spots instead), Paavo at Empire for one of the best sets of the week (all the music was new and unreleased), Sunny Lax at Yacht Club, then finally Dosem for the last Empire sunrise set of the festival.

Tuesday: On literally no sleep (there’s no time!) we showered, packed, and caught the early morning bus back to the docks. This travel day was much more brutal: no clouds, intense sun, no shade, the ferry was 90 minutes late, no shade on the boat, then our pre-arranged taxi never showed up at the port. We hailed another taxi at the port and our driver Giannis is now my favorite taxi driver in Greece: we used him again to go to the airport and I still have his card. We arrived at Eleals Hotel, had a nice snack, then a really good dinner, and then slept for about 18 – 20 hours.

Wednesday: Lummi had another bad reaction to shellfish, so she ended up staying in bed for almost two full days and ate only some fruit and toast. I managed to wake up and shower just in time for dinner: bread and olive oil, baked feta (my new favorite food), fresh fish, and quinoa. Then right back to bed.

Thursday: I managed to get up for actual breakfast and spent some time on the hotel’s private beach in the afternoon, before we met up with Ville and Kristiina in the evening in Corfu Town. We walked around a lot, had wine and tapas at a wine bar, did some shopping, had Corfu beers, ate a full Greek dinner in one of the many random alleys, and probably all secretly wished we had stayed in the town.

Friday: Our flight situation was touch and go for a while, since I had changed our flights through United, but we were flying with partner airlines. We said our goodbyes to Ville and Kristiina in Munich, had a long transfer between airlines and terminals, had a great German sandwich for lunch, and were thankfully rewarded with premium economy seats on our long flight back home.

Can’t wait to do it all again next year!

The full album has all my photos from the afternoon, but here are some highlights.

Not to be outdone by the aircraft, we even got a fly-by from some “avian jets”:

Since that 2019 trip, Lummi and I had been threatening to visit Jereme in Alaska and the pandemic made this much more possible, given that it didn’t feel safe to travel to most other places. The relative remoteness, the limited contact with strangers, and the fact that we’d be outside a lot was a great selling point, so we bought flights, packed our bags, and brought Nari, our 7-month-old Shih Tzu to Alaska.

We landed in Anchorage on a Thursday after a harrowing and stressful flight with Nari, who apparently hates flying and really does not like being confined in her carrier. We were barely able to keep her calm, even with Benadryl, so finally landing on the ground was a major relief. Jereme picked us up in his jeep and took us to his beautiful home, and we caught up with him in his kitchen until his girlfriend Lynn was finished with work. We walked to the weekly jazz fest for surprisingly good Thai street food. Rain was sporadic but never heavy, and we learned that day that using umbrellas is a sign of weakness in Alaska.

Friday morning, Lynn noticed that the weather in Whittier was surprisingly good – which is rare, hence the expression “it’s shittier in Whittier” – so she proposed that we do the Portage Glacier hike. The drive to Turnagain was pretty, but the views from the hike were incredible. Nari – who was in heat and wearing diapers! – was a great little hiker and kept motoring the entire time, much to the amusement of all the other hikers we passed.

Upon reaching the glacier lake, we sat down and had convenience store sandwiches and glacier water ice cubes for lunch, listening to the periodic rumbling of the glacier calving.

After heading back and finishing the hike, we had beers at the Whittier Inn, then drove to Girdwood Brewing for more beer and food trucks.

On Saturday morning we went to South for a really good brunch, walked around the farmers market, and then drove around town for some sightseeing, including a long walk to “what Alaskans call the beach” in Kincaid Park. That evening, Jereme and Lynn hosted a small party at their place, so we enjoyed food and drinks, music by Dave Dresden on Twitch, multiple dogs, and lots of Codenames.

Sunday was a DIY “biking brewery tour” and our hosts were able to wrangle some extra bikes for us. Lummi and I had brought a backpack for Nari, so I put her on my back, we hopped on our bikes, and set off for the breweries: Turnagain Brewing (excellent chili lager), Anchorage Brewing (all IPAs and really heavy beers), and finally King Street Brewing (great rooftop). Nari seemed to really enjoy being in the backpack initially, then almost seemed to doze off after a bit.

After biking, we spent the early evening at Lynn’s place and they cooked up a really good seafood dinner: salmon and halibut cheek. We went back to Jereme’s for some TV and whiskey and ended up chatting until 2:00 in the morning. It didn’t even seem that late because the days are so long in Alaska during the summer. The sun was still out at 11:00 at night, so it really feels like you can do a lot with your days there.

All in all, it was a really great trip to a place that had been on my bucket list for a long time. I realize we’ve seen only a tiny, tiny fraction of the entire state, but that was enough to see that Alaska is a pretty fascinating and really beautiful place, especially during the summer. I have a feeling we’ll be back again!