I Gotta Say, Today Was a Good Day

High today: 38
Low today: 20

Well today started out like any ordinary Saturday, dragging myself out of bed at 10am trying not to waste the day. I really wanted to go somewhere or do something today but couldn't seem to find anyone willing to explore. I was ready to gear up for a long bike ride but got a hold of Josh and Deb who were ready for an excuse to not do their laundry. We headed up to Angel Rocks to go on a nice little hike - perfect place to be entertained by two geologists. It was an absolutely beautiful, warm day. The planning was all a bit last minute (which is always the best!) but we brought our swimsuits figuring we might want to go to the hot springs while we were all the way up there. We had dinner in this awesome small-town Alaska lodge then headed to the hot springs for a soak. As soon as we parked, we all looked up and there was the aurora!! It was only a pale green that started out as an arc. I had a funny feeling it would be a spectacular night for it and was absolutely thrilled to be at the hot springs when the lights were out. People come from all over the world to go to the springs in search of the aurora. We just so happened to go up there today. After we decided we had enough of the hot water, we changed and went outside to head back to the car and WHOOOOOOOSH - there went some crazy crazy lights across the sky. They were pulsing across the sky, dancing like a madman - green, pink, purple, white, orange. Everyone who worked at the hot springs was coming out to see the lights and "oo-ing" and "ahh-ing" over them. It was so much fun and spectacular. Everyone said they haven't seen them like that all winter. I was very very happy to be up there away from city lights when this all happened. The ENTIRE sky just lit up and went on for a long time. We eventually decided to head out but Josh was nice enough to offer to drive the 60 miles back home for me so I could watch the lights and not be focused on the road. It was amazing just watching the lights do their thing the entire way back to town.

Here's a few more pictures from the hike and hot springs - here's the North Fork Chena River We did an awful lot of random climbing on rocks. I'm not huge on the rock climbing thing but I like the not so steep ones.Wait.. season check! This is March...

This is July at the same spot. :-)Back to today.. keep in mind these pictures were taken with my point 'n shoot camera and not the fancy-schmancy one I had last weekend. So being that they came out, they can't do any justice for what was actually going on.Here's the above picture when I do an "auto adjust" in Macromedia Fireworks..
Ahhhhhhhh!

Meet the new dog

High today: 20
Low today: -14

I think Jim and Carla have found a new puppy - this is Hagrid, a two year old Golden from the Golden Retriever rescues. He's a fun, energetic pup, but sure loves to retrieve stuff... socks... gloves.. a sandwich out of my bag.. my cloud physics book.. "umm professor, my dog ate my homework.. no, really!!" He's a fun addition to the household. Still on trial so he's not officially here for good but it's looking likely that he stays.

March is here!

High yesterday: 11
Low yesterday: -12

It was an extremely windy day for Fairbanks yesterday. Winds gusted to 38mph and when it's 5 below that hurts a little in the face. It felt way worse than a calm 40 below is. All the beautiful snow got littered with dirt and branches too, which is kind of depressing.You can feel spring in the air. We're gaining 7 mins of light everyday and dawn is occurring around 7am and dusk is occurring around 7pm. No more sunrises at 10am. Means I have to get up early to see it. :-)
The Presidents of the USA (the band) played at the Blue Loon , also known as "moving to the country gonna eat a lot of peachesssss.." Remember? Mid-90s? Best genre ever?! Yeah... I got to experience my first true Fairbanks bar at the Blue Loon. Everyone looks SO excited about the opening band, don't they? :-P

Why I Love Fairbanks

High today: 16
Low today: -21I went to the library today to "borrow" a nice camera for a few days. They gave me one of those fancy Canon EOS cameras.. with too many options to understand. :-) I went on an aurora chase tonight after seeing the aurora forecast at 9/10. Started at UAF and then drove and stopped for well over an hour all throughout Goldstream Valley. I couldn't tell when I took the pictures that they were blurry - Jim even told me to take the monopod but I forgot it because I was too excited to go!! Oh well, this is only the beginning, my aurora chasing days are just starting and I'm self learning this photography thing. ISO what? Shutter time huh?? What button should I press??? AURORA! AURORA!! I can find that. :-)

A few more from home later tonight... even with monopod something still isn't right.. I will figure it out!

Nerdy McNerderson

I got to go catch a glimpse of an atmospheric science research aircraft today with some coworkers. These guys are from Britain and are doing research on the radiative balance of sea ice north of Barrow.

Below is one of the scientists on board showing us the dropsonde chute. Wouldn't this be a fun job???

They have a ton of equipment and workstations in this aircraft. Maybe a future career option?? Hmmm...

Who is Your American Idol?

Ok, I know some of you out there have to be watching American Idol. This is the first time ever I've followed it since the beginning. I am totally in love with a 17 year old ("Julie, that's illegal!") but I'm sure the rest of the female population is as well. :-) Anyway - any thoughts on who you like? Who do you think will make it to the end?? I know only the boys went tonight, so give me feedback tomorrow as well after the girls perform.

Western PA represent!

Just was checking out the Newsminer this morning and I see two PA cyclists are going to bike to Alaska. Didn't they ever read the book, You Can't Ride a Bike to Alaska, It's an Island?? Haha..

I want to join them....

South to the Mountains!!

High today: 22
Low today: 2

Today I headed down to Denali for Winterfest - a fun little celebration down at the park with different activities. It was the first time I got to go down to the mountains since I arrived Jan. 10th - I totally needed some fresh mountain air and to get out of town. I like Fairbanks and all but you know I can't stay still, and 6 weeks is a long time to not go anywhere out of town!
It was my first road trip with the Subie and my first time down the Parks Hwy in the winter. I was totally pumped to see the Alaska Range close up in the winter. Josh and Deb came with me to enjoy the festivities down south. I also learned how to use cruise control - never used it before, haha. Not sure that I like it too much with all of the windy corners.
Driving down it was pretty cloudy so the mountains were obscure but once we got close enough to Denali, the mountains started jutting out into the sky. It was awesome.
At Denali, they were having a snow carving contest. We decided to try our hands at it.
This one is not ours - but I thought it was rather entertaining, especially since the carvers even put some goodies in the toilet - how about it has a roll of toilet paper too!!
Deb and Josh are feverishly working on our moose carving. We named him Mikey the Moose.. he is a very over-fed moose who has more of a bear butt than a moose butt. We got some really good laughs out of passerbys. That's all we really wanted, the entertainment value! Josh actually did a very good job carving out the head of the moose.

Here we are with our finished product.

After our fun in Denali, we headed up to Healy a few miles north of the park to do some exploring at the end of the road. Literally. There is an old coal mine along a creek bed that Josh wanted to hike at.

This little "secret" spot was awesome - tough to walk on the frozen creek but the views were nice despite the clouds, and if you stopped and listened, you could not hear a THING. No passing cars, trucks, airplanes. Nothing. You could lightly hear some water flowing underneath the frozen creekbed. I don't know if I ever encountered that kind of silence before - even in the summer there were either birds chirping, mosquitoes buzzing, etc. What a neat place.To get back down the frozen creek, we decided it was easier to get just on our behinds and slide. Deb decided to race me down part of it, THAT was pretty hysterical. I bet it would have been funny to watch.
After our hike, we headed to the Healy Community Center for some chili and live music. Oh, and people watching - my favorite!

THON ON PENN STATE!

"I think I can I think I can I think I see THON, it looks GLORIOUS!" - THON '04 line dance

Every year, Penn State raises money for the Four Diamonds Fund - an organization that provides support and medical bill support for families of kids with cancer, as well as supports funding for medical research at the Penn State Hershey Medical Center. At the end of the money collecting, we hold a 48 hour (now 46 hours) no sitting, no sleeping dance marathon. Dancers from different organizations get to dance in this event, while the Four Diamonds families attend and get a weekend away from their daily worries and struggles having a child with cancer. It is fantastic having the kids there and letting them just be kids and not having doctors appts to go to or tests to go for. THON is mostly important I think though, that the parents and families of the kids with cancer know that they have such a large support group and know that the battle for cancer hasn't been lost and there are many people out there fighting and hoping for a cure.

Check out this promo video from last year.
Here's to you, THON '08 families and dancers.
"We will win this cancer fight. We are Penn State, always believing!" Go get 'em, kids.

Pedal, Pedal, Pedal!

High today: 38
Low today: 9

Today was another warm February day in Fairbanks. It's almost depressing that the snow is melting away a little bit. My plans to explore new trails with someone was canceled, so I went out and explored the neighborhood a bit more.
There are a lot of quiet streets, which apparently all lead to the same road.. I intercepted the road a total of three times, and immediately turned back around to try other routes. It would have been nice to have my GPS tonight to see how far I rode.. but unfortunately it is hanging out up on Chandalar Shelf somewhere.. maybe in a bear's stomach. :-)
It was a really nice night - I was actually overheating in what I was wearing. It was way too warm to have the poagies on the bike. But, it was SO nice being comfortable the entire ride and not having to worry about fingers or toes freezing and falling off.. and having water not turn into a solid block of ice!!
I found a couple of spots that had good views of town, and a spot that would be particularly nice to stop at when the aurora is really active.

"I'm at the top of the world!!!"