Prior to this trip, Ken had been in the middle of a job search. When a few months of discussion with Target Corporation culminated in a request for an on-site interview, he decided to schedule that interview for Friday, June 9, immediately before leaving for Alaska.
At the time, this seemed like a good idea. He had already decided to take the day off because Mom and Mark were in town, so it was convenient. In retrospect, it was a poor idea. Ongoing conversions with Target after the interview added stress to the trip in a way that wasn't good. Ken couldn't be offline like usual on vacation, and he was never really able to relax. Cell phone connectivity in Alaska was not good, and the 3-hour time difference made it difficult to coordinate with people back in Minnesota. It would have been better to delay the interview until sometime after the trip.
Mom and Mark arrived in town late in the afternoon on Thursday. We grilled brats and shish kebab for dinner. In the evening, we watched some TV together and then Ken did a hard yoga workout so he would sleep well and be in good shape for his interview on Friday.
Ken headed off to his interview right away in the morning. It was scheduled for 8:45am-2:00pm at Target's Brooklyn Park office, about 15 minutes north of home. During the course of the day, Ken interviewed with around a dozen people from 3 different teams at Target.
While Ken was gone, Julie worked from home in the morning, and Mark and mom amused themselves. After lunch, Julie, Mark and Mom prepped dinner — an Argentinian Stew in the slow cooker.
Ken got back home around 2:30pm, feeling pretty good about the interview process. After he changed into casual clothes, we got in the car and headed down to the south side of town. We spent some time at Mall of America (where we shopped at L.L. Bean) and REI (where Mark bought a rain jacket).
After dinner at home, we played some cards in the evening before heading off to bed relatively early. (Ken and Julie considered packing, but decided not to.)