Chicago

Flight #3 to Long Beach, CA
3 hours down to southern California, lots of awesome geology to see, including volcanos. And Crater Lake!

Flight #4 to Chicago
I started with breakfast in Portland, Oregon, had lunch in Long Beach, California, and ended the day with deep dish pizza for dinner in Chicago. Lots of flying today, but that's the deal with flying the All You Can Jet, going through hubs in New York JFK or Long Beach.
I love Long Beach airport because it's still small, and you board planes out on the tarmac.

My trip to Chicago was just going to be a quick trip, and I booked a hostel right near University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC). UIC is not high on my list either, and I've landed enough times at O'Hare airport but never had the chance to go see the city. First thing I do in a new place is try to go the highest point, and this is Chicago, so that's Willis Tower Skydeck, or as it used to be known, Sears Tower.

And the skydeck has 4 all-glass portals that overhang out from the building, from 1350 feet up! It was awesome!

I took the water taxis around the Chicago River to take in all the amazing skyscrapers,

and then from the Navy Pier over to the museums.

3 musuems in a row, all free thanks to my ID badge! And seriously, the Field Museum may be the best museum I've ever been too. All the exhibits are so well done, and they have Sue!

Another t-rex! This was Sue, the first complete fossil discovered of a t-rex. Samson at the OMSI was discovered later and kept private for many years. I love that all these museums are all right next to each other right on the Lake Michigan waterfront. The Shedd Aquarium and Adler Plantetarium.

I was feeling pretty jet-lagged and tired from walking so much in the past week, so the best part of seeing Chicago was hanig out by the Crown Water fountain, the 'bean' and the Millenium Park. Here's some night and day shots:

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So, Chicago is a concrete jungle for sure, but if I went to UIC I wouldn't mind living there.
Up next, Denver!

Portland Oregon

So yeah, no jetBlue flight to Portland, I took the Amtrak Cascades down and it was a great scenic trip. I kinda geeked out seeing the Tacoma Narrows bridge. Galloping Gertie is still there, though a newer bridge has been built beside it.

Pulled into Portland with no real plan. There isn't a public health program I'm interested in at Portland State University, so this was just a stop to see a new city, and see Sarah, who was lovely to let me crash at her place. First thing I've noticed after now visiting Seattle and Portland, their public transportation is so much better than the T in Boston.

Using my Museum of Science ID again, I checked out the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), and you'll see a trend coming up: dinosaurs! OMSI had the fossils of Samson, an almost complete t-rex.

After finding Sarah's place, I had time to catch up and meet her girlfriend Stefanie. I hadn't seen Sarah in years and since she was in Ithaca. Inspired by remembering visiting all the gorges there, I rented a car to drive out to Mt. Hood and see the Multnomah Falls. This place looks just like Rivendell!

Again, it was overcast and rainy, so I never saw Mt. Hood either, even though I was just a few miles away. I headed west next for the coast. Oregon's coast is stunning, I went up the coast from middle of the state all the way up to the tip, where the Columbia river forms the border with Washington.

So even though Portland wasn't a campus visit, it did do something important for me. I realize I'm kinda in love with the Pacific Northwest, but more than that, places that have mountains, lakes formed from volcanos, waterfalls, etc. It has been the best part of this trip so far seeing such amazing nature, and I need that access. If I went to Columbia in New York City, not so much. So I've crossed off Columbia as a school to apply to. I want real jungles, not concrete jungles of Manhattan or Brooklyn.

Up next, the concrete jungle of Chicago!

Seattle!

Flight #2 to Seattle

It turns out the CEO of jetBlue was going to speak at the kick-off, but the event was pushed back to 11am, and my flight boarded at 10:20am. It was still cool to go to both the Boston and New York kick-offs. Lots of free food and AYCJ gear.

So far in my travels it has been cool to see other folks with AYCJ bag tags or pins, then trade stories. I met a lady on the Bainbridge ferry of all places!

Here's a quick video of taking off from JFK. I'm not in seat 22F, they were sold out in regular seats so I had to book an extra legroom seat, 3F.

It was a long flight, 6 hours, and we came in right over downtown Seattle but I didn't have my camera handy. Apparently, the light rail connection into town from the airport is only a year old. I don't know anyone in Seattle, so I stayed at the Green Tortoise hostel, right at the Pike Public market, where they throw the fish.

I didn't rank it high on my list before, but after checking out the University of Washington School of Public Health, I'm really intersted now and would go if accepted. The campus is great, just 10 minutes out of Seattle.
Other touristy stuff included taking a ferry across the sound to Bainbridge Island, going to the Experience Music Project (which I couldn't get into for free) and the Pacific Science Center (which I could, hooray for my Boston Museum of Science staff badge getting me into places for free!), and my fave, the observation deck atop the Space Needle. But in all my time in Seattle, I never saw Mt. Rainier! It was true Seattle weather, cloudy and damp the whole time.

 Rainbow Space Needle!

No flight next, a train! I'd rather take the scenic Amtrak train through the Cascades than fly all the way back to JFK to Portland. And it's only $29, pretty sweet for a 4 hour train trip. Next up...Portland Oregon!

And we're off!

Flight #1 BOS-JFK
I'm writing now from JetBlue's Terminal 5 at JFK, waiting for the AYCJ kick-off festivities to begin. Can't stay long, my flight to Seattle leaves in an hour.
The kick-off in Boston began at 7:30am, but I had to board at 7:20am and go through security. But as I was checking in, the JB folks were setting up. I was able to be the first to write on their banner of AYCJetters, and got some swag! Neat baggage tags that have the AYCJ logo, a Boston Red Sox cap and lanyard, and a AYCJ sweatshirt!
The JFK kick-off looks to be a lot bigger, they have the whole concourse ready for the event. A lot of AYCJetters are leaving from here today, and like me, came in early from other places to check it out.
1 down, 18 to go!
So excited for this trip!

T-minus 1 week

I'm not sure if any folks will actually read this, but I thought it would be a good place to write about my trip.
This is all happening because of one reason: I was let go from my research technician job at Brigham and Women's Hospital after 8 years of working there. The funding that had sustained the lab in previous years was lost this year, and cuts had to be made. I was given 6 weeks notice, and in the planning of what to do next, I found out that JetBlue would be reprising its All You Can Jet (AYCJ) pass from last September. I remember reading about it, and the blogs of several folks who were doing it, like myself now, recently unemployed and able to travel. So I decided to use a month of my separation  pay to do the AYCJ this year!
The plan is to spend the month of September (and till October 10th) traveling around the country on the AYCJ pass to look at potential School of Public Health grad schools to apply to for next Fall, and then just see a lot of the country, picking cities that I've never been to from the list of places JetBlue flies to.
Now, I've been flying JetBlue a lot, especially their Boston to Florida routes as my family has been in Orlando and Tampa. It became sort of a tradition to pick seat 22F on their Airbus 320's, since I prefer window seats, the right hand (starboard!) side of the plane, and in back away from the wing to get a good view. I'm a dork, I know. And in planning my AYCJ flights, for almost all my flights except for two that were close to being sold out, I have picked seat 22F! So my blog about my travels this month is appropriately named: Seat22F.
It's gonna be quite a trip!