Fun in Fairbanks!

Jeremiah decided to come visit me and my family while I was up north, and we had some wonderful winterland adventures. Well, actually, the whole time he was up here the temperature hovered between a balmy -40 and -50 degrees F, so we really couldn't do much of anything. The thing is, Alaskans are used to operating in cold temperatures, but for most of the winter "cold" means about -25. When temperatures hit the negative 50s things tend to shut down in a big way- mostly because cars literally get frozen to the ground. So, we had a lot of great family bonding time (in a house with 1 bathroom and 6 people) and took some excellent cold weather pictures. Alaskan winters really are beautiful, when the air gets this cold everything become crystal clear and sharp, and if you can get above the ice fog (created when the air layers condense due to the cold weather and all the car and people exhaust gets trapped, creating an intensly dense fog in low laying areas) the views are stunning.

We went for a short walk in Creamer's Field, a wildlife refuge right behind my house. At this time of year the wildlife consists of moose, foxes, hares, chickadees, and sled dogs. Sadly, we only saw the tracks of all of these animals, but it was fun to get out and enjoy the short-lived Alaskan sunshine.

As the weather got colder and stayed colder I monitored the progress of the ice growing on our hall window, and on my last day there it had almost consumed the whole glass. The temperature in our hallway hovered just below freezing, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised... :) My sisters and I made the mistake of storing beer in the hallway (Alaskan Amber of course!) and on the second day when I opened one the whole thing exploded, and almost all of the beers were frozen solid. Whoops.

We did see a moose from the roadside, and after driving up into the hills we were able to see a beautiful aurora. My family also celebrated a belated Thanksgiving because, except for my parents, none of us were together for the holiday. With some help from my sisters I created a Thanksgiving feast.