Summer in Alaska: Easy to Love (Part I)

Hello again, blog world! After a long absence, we're back (boy, if I had a dollar for every time that I said that...). It's easy to keep a blog running for nearly a decade when you only post twice a year!! Anyway, with apologies, we hope this latest update finds you doing well and enjoying summer in your neck of the woods. Here in Alaska, the extremely long days mean that plants are growing at an alarming clip, that folks are much more energetic than in winter (some of them DO actually know how to smile!!), and that there is far too much to see during the glorious, brief summer! That said, with so many things happening, both big and small, we want to document and share at least some of these unique experiences, because we know we'll be looking back fondly on this time for many years to come.

In our most recent excursion away from our desks, we left Fairbanks to explore the Kenai Peninsula for just shy of a week. We'd been daydreaming about it all winter and listening to everyone rave about it since we've arrived, so it was time for us to make the long drive and see it firsthand-a reward for toughing out our first winter! Since there is only one major north-south artery in Alaska (the Parks Highway), the beginning of our trip retraced steps that are becoming familiar to us by now, and which I'll get around to sharing soon. Fortunately, those steps bring us right past Denali National Park (about 2 hours from Fairbanks), and actually through it for a stretch of 8 miles, so the scenery is neither ugly nor boring.

However, continuing south, we found ourselves in new and amazing surroundings as we entered the Kenai Peninsula (slogan: "Alaska's Playground"). We spent our first few days (and two nights) in Cooper Landing, a gorgeous outdoorsy community along the Kenai River, where two good friends live. We've crossed paths with them on countless occasions, rented the same house in Laramie at different times, and dog-sat for one another during our years together in Laramie, so it was great to catch up again in new and glorious surroundings. We enjoyed staying with them at their current abode, a former Forest Service cabin with no running water and limited electricity that is currently nestled alongside a rushing stream. It was probably about what you envision when imagining life in Alaska, and they're loving it (Shay also quickly grew to love having her meals augmented with fresh stream water)!

We had a great visit exploring some of the not-too-shabby local hangouts, including Kenai Lake, which is about a mile from the cabin.

Another particular highlight of our time in Cooper Landing was a 7-mile hike in the Chugach National Forest to beautiful Ptarmigan Lake. Everything was verdant and almost visibly growing!

We also took a quick side jaunt to Seward, AK, about an hour from Cooper Landing. There, we glimpsed the ocean, some of us (Shay) for the first time! We know this is a popular cruise destination, but on the day we visited, all was blissfully quiet, lines were short, and the beaches were nearly empty! 

All too soon, our time in Cooper Landing was over and it was time for us to head to our next destination: Homer, AK. However, as we began our drive south, Cooper Landing had one last surprise in store for us. Just a few minutes from town, we thought we glimpsed a few bald eagles along the Kenai River, and we pulled over for a closer look. We were quickly astonished to discover that we were actually surrounded by countless bald eagles everywhere: in the trees, in the river, and (as we jumped upon discovering) about 10 feet away from us on the bank!

At the risk of sounding like this blog has been coopted by Alaska's tourism board, I'll say that the Kenai is simply unbelievable. However, I need to reserve some of my gushing and cooing for Homer, so I'll end this post here, wish you a great weekend, and cross my fingers that we reconvene again in less than a year!

Snowvember

It's snowy here in Fairbanks!!! And cold!!!

How cold is it? It's so cold that we've started using our grill as additional freezer space [cue laugh track]!

One thing is for sure: all this cold and snow is making it very cozy and beautiful here in downtown Fairbanks!

This week, the sun has been rising around 10:15, dipping back below the hills around 2:45, and the temperatures have been hovering between 0 and -20. Also, this week it feels a bit tougher to get up in the morning, a bit easier to go to bed in the evening, and waaay less tempting to suit up and go for an AM run. Coincidence?

On the flip side, as the snow gets deeper, we're finding it more and more tempting to suit up and go for a ski! And, best of all, Shay loves to join!

We're planning to get Shay a real skijoring harness soon so that she can more efficiently pull us. That said, the homemade contraption we've rigged out of running leashes and walking harnesses has been enough to put a smile on all of our frosty faces in the meantime!

Well, it's a school night here, so we'll bid you adieu from Alaska as we cozy up-have a great week!

November in Fairbanks

Hi all, wherever this finds you! Given the very short period of time that Charlotte and I will likely be in Alaska (about 2 years), we want to share as much as possible of this unique experience. If we get a free moment, we'll share some photos of what was an incredibly gorgeous fall in Alaska. In the meantime, we thought you might enjoy seeing what things look like in November in Fairbanks. At just under 65 degrees north, Fairbanks is the northernmost city in the US, so things get intensely dark and cold in the winter. We received our first lasting snow in late October, and since then Fairbanks has begun to show its true colors! Here's the cozy abode where we're coming to you from: well-insulated and freshly coated with snow!

We lose between a half-hour and hour of daylight each week; at the moment, sunrise is at 9:50 in the morning and the sun dips behind the hills again around 3PM. In the meantime, it hangs low over town and casts a beautiful, surreal light (this photo, for instance, was taken just after 1PM).

When the sun's up, we are busy approximating normal life in the Lower 48, but in the Arctic: walking the dog around the neighborhood, grocery shopping, and going to work in the chilly weather. 

However, with the shortening days, we've also begun to tackle some of the normal daytime activities in the dark and semi-dark: shoveling (at 4PM), walking around the neighborhood (at 3PM), taking a frigid run (at 9:30 AM), and prepping for another frigid run (also after 9AM). 

It's pretty surreal to watch the sun continue to slip away (and to know that it will keep doing so for another 4 weeks before the days begin to lengthen once again), but the payoff is that we're surrounded by some pretty beautiful sights and places. 

Anyway, with the holiday season drawing nearer (and a trip back to the Lower 48 to see family and friends), it's fun to take stock of all the new sights we've been treated to over the last 3.5 months! With that, we'll bid you adieu from North Pole, AK (which, distressingly, is south of us here in Fairbanks).