"Big Sky Country" Indeed!

 "Big Sky Country" 

One of the most important concepts I've learned in my many years of working is to keep & maintain a work life balance. Being able to recharge/reenergize and of course spending quality time with the family is key to being productive at work and on the home front.  I happy to share a little from my most recent trip to Montana aka "Big Sky Country" and how it fir it into the work life balance mantra that everyone should follow. 

Let's start with the trip out there. Flying into Kalispell was uneventful, but unfortunately Southwest Airlines doesn't fly there 😞. My first tip in keeping a good work life balance is to pick an airline and if they have one an airline credit card and start getting your preferred status. My airline of choice is Southwest. Good, bad, or ugly, they are the one I have my status with so I try to fly them wherever I can. So off to United we went. Since this was our big trip of the year we decided to splurge on first class - something you can't get on Southwest. Yes, domestic first class doesn't have the "pods" but even the bigger/nicer seats was great for our journey to Montana.  Coming in over the mountains is a great way to welcome you to the 41st state. 

We chose Montana for a few reasons, first and foremost how beautiful the Glacier National Park and surrounding Rockies are, and it gets us another "M" state off our state list.  Plus we like to see new places in general. When they say "Big Sky Country" they really mean it - what great mountain views.

If you been reading my blogs, you know I have to put some tie into cyber or at least technology, well this one is no different. I wanted to do a shoutout to smart glasses - in the case of this trip I brought my Rokid AI glasses with me. Yes there are 100's of reasons to love smart glasses but what I wanted to point out, especially on this trip was 1. the ease of taking pictures & videos and 2. being able to identify the plants/flowers/trees we saw. The video below was taken from the glasses. It really allows you to enjoy the surroundings without the need to always whip out your phone for a shot.

My suggestion - embrace the technology and leverage it to better enjoy the day. The glasses certainly made the trip more enjoyable and helped us learn things along the way.  Mind you that in Glacier National Park cell service was spotty at best so didn't always have the best connections for AI uses but the picture taking and videos made up for it. 

We met a few friends along the way:

The "brown" spot in that last picture is of a bear. Yes, you have to zoom in a little to see it but that is the closets we wanted to get (and the park ranger on the scene wouldn't let you get closer even if we wanted to).

Getting out in nature is so relaxing even when you are hiking 2+ miles, at times it felt like straight up, it just takes your mind off all your problems and concerns. I highly recommend getting away and enjoying what you like.  Where do you like to go to recharge/reenergize? Have any good recommendations?