"I wonder if you know? How they live in Tokyo"

This trip with Sarah started as a trip to Costa Rica, then Belize, then Paris....all the flights prevented us from getting to these places. So at the very last minute, as both of us scoured our phones to find the next flight out of Seattle to ANYWHERE, Tokyo happened to be leaving 15 minutes later. The two of us ran across the terminal and jumped on the Narita, Japan flight! As we sat in our first class seats we suddenly realized that we had no idea how to even get out of the airport we were headed to, let alone where to stay or anything else! With the help of some other crew members we got directions to a hostel that might work when we got there, but from there we were winging it (pun totally intended!)

 

We were both very excited to be on an A330 that had "pod" seats that laid all the way flat into a bed, Sarah's first time in Business Class. We watched movies, ate great food, and freaked out the entire 10 hour flight.

 

We landed in Narita in the early evening, got on the train, then proceeded to get completely lost trying to find the hostel after leaving the train. Eventually we found someone that was spoke basically no English, but went out of her way to walk us to the hostel that we never could have found on our own. The hostel had filled up during our flight, so a very kind Australian kid walked us to another hostel about half a mile away. Luckily they had space and we got settled for the night.

 

We met some really awesome people at the hostel the first night as we all hung out in the common room together, plans were made for going out the next night after everyone was done with all their sight-seeing. The next night we accidentally stayed out all night with all the hostel-peeps, because apparently nothing in Japan closes at night and we didn't know that!

 

This trip was an absolute blast, it was flying by the seat of our pants and being exhausted by the time our whirlwind trip was over. We can't wait to go explore more of the world together, Sarah is an amazing travel buddy. We were able to work together when flights went south or when a weird dude got a little scary during our tourist time. I'm loving this job that gives me these opportunities!



 

 Japanese option for dinner on the flight

 I literally still have no idea what I was eating....

 Harajuku district

Waiting for the train after our accidental all-nighter

 The Mountain Dew tastes SOOOOOO amazing over there and there were vending machines randomly along the street everywhere we went

 Sarah and I at the traditional dinner we went to with everyone from the hostel

Hostel night out!

PDX Shootout

I'm going to be lazy and just repost the article that Skywest created about our event. It was a blast! I love my airline family here in PDX! They didn't list it, but I took third in the shooting competition and got a $25 gift card to Cabela's!

 

 

EMB Captain Tracy Leland, PDX and CRJ First Officer Dustin Taylor, SFO recently organized the first annual Taylor-Made Farms BBQ & Shootout. A good number of SkyWest employees turned out for the event including, pilots, flight attendants and ramp agents from a variety of bases. The event was held on Dustin’s spacious farm in Lebanon, Ore.

That day, there were four ranges safely set up at 15, 30, 150 and 200 yards for folks to bring their firearms and ammo for practice; there was even an area for skeet shooting. This was a great opportunity for participants to try out different firearms that included .22, 9mm, .40, .45 ACP, 44mag, 357 mag, Rancher mini 14, AK-47, AR-15, .300 Savage, 30-06 and the list goes on!
The afternoon ended with a friendly competition for accuracy with handguns, rifles and finally skeet. The grand-prize winner was EMB Captain Matt Richardson, PDX who received $100 of Taylor-Made Farms pasture-raised meat (check out www.taylor-madefarms.com). First runner-up was EMB First Officer Kevin Molskness, PDX who received a hand-made clock from PDX mechanic, Wally Colson. Several other prizes were also given awarded.

An additional challenge of was presented for the marksmen (and markswomen) as they were fine-tuning their techniques to avoid hitting Dustin’s precious livestock that was on the farm!

The bbq portion of the event included Dustin’s delicious bbq chicken (pasture-raised) as well as wood-fired pizza heated in a travel brick oven!
With fantastic weather, awesome food and great company, all who participated had an enjoyable time. Stay tuned for the Second Annual Taylor-Made Farm BBQ & Shootout – everyone’s invited!