Hiatus

I'm obviously taking a break from updating the blog. It wasn't planned, but that is how it has happened. Check back again in August when, hopefully, I'll have a chance to make some updates. I hope everyone had a safe and happy Fourth!

Kenai: Take Two

Less than a week later, I was catching a 6:00am flight out of Fairbanks and a gorgeous morning view of Turnagin Arm,


only to return to Kenai to do some troubleshooting with the field equipment and to establish a more robust internet connection with our field sites via satellite.


Even though the trip involved yet another Saturday spent working in the field, I did manage to return to Fairbanks in time for the annual beer scramble on Sunday! Yes, it was time once again for a bunch of crazy adults to enjoy a great brunch and dig through the snow looking for beer.


Some took the digging a little more literally than others...


Never let it be said that life is boring.

Life's Been Busy

As if life hasn't been busy enough, in the month after my last entry, two friends had babies, multiple ski races occurred, the ski season ended, final reports were due at work, a visit from an out-of-town friend was super welcome, and my NCAA basketball bracket took me on an emotional roller coaster, but that was March...

After all of that, I had to leave town rather unexpectedly to monitor ocean surface currents in Cook Inlet. I know that may not seem busy nor exciting, but it is for me. A volcano in Alaska, Mt. Redoubt, has been causing some trouble.


For a while Redoubt was cancelling a lot of flights and showering ash on people in south central Alaska. More recently things have quieted down a bit, but originally there was a chance of oil spilling into Cook Inlet from storage tanks at the base of the volcano, so people like me wanted to make sure we knew where any spill would directed and when, in order to help expedite a cleanup during such a disaster. To accomplish this goal, we set up three different field sites around Cook Inlet, Alaska, one in Kenai, one on an offshore platform named Osprey, and one in Kasilof.

The first setup was on the beach north of Kenai, a town which is known for great fishing.


It was chilly, but the snow was melting, so things were definitely moving in the right direction. I got to enjoy the weather while walking around the beach with a GPS, VHF radio, and an antenna in a backpack. This is the way we calibrate our field instruments.


The beach access was a little sketchy, but luckily I made it both down and up.


The next day we were flown in a helicopter out to an oil platform to set up another field site.


It was my first helicopter ride, and the take off and landing were pretty cool, but other than that, it was (thankfully) uneventful. I think the most strange part for me is that you don't taxi down a runway, but rather just go directly up or down.


At any rate, in about ten or fifteen minutes, the ride was over as we landed on the platform:



Being on an oil platform was another first for me, but once you forgot about where you were, I thought it was just like being on a research ship with lots of stairways and floors and doors to various hallways, so that you had to kind of learn your way around the lay of the land.


After we finished setting putting everything together and setting it up



the tide began to come in, bringing a lot of ice with it which made it feel like we were the ones moving rather than the other way around. (The orange pod is an escape capsule for the platform, although I'm not sure how well it would aid in an escape if it is dropped onto an ice floe rather than the water's surface.)

I didn't take many pictures at the third site we set up other than the one of Mt. Redoubt above. I suppose by that time I was tired of taking pictures, and really just tired in general. Toward the end of any trip, I'm really just ready to sleep in my own bed and return to my regular routine. We returned from this one exhausted and by driving the nine hours back to Fairbanks on Easter Sunday.

How much snow?

A lot of people have been asking me lately how much snow we have on the ground in Fairbanks. Well, here's my answer. About this much,

What's Been Going On?

So, it's Tuesday evening, and I was sitting here thinking...hmmm, what should I do? And then it came to me! Hey, I have a blog!! Don't I? I haven't updated it in a while, but I bet it's still active, and when I checked, it was! OK, it hasn't been that long, but from all the people who have been harassing me about updating it, you would think it has been. I guess it's hard to make your life seem exciting when it's cold and dark outside, but that is rapidly changing with about nine hours of daylight greeting us this time of year.

I realized that I never mentioned the holidays other than to say that I didn't get out of Alaska to visit my family for Christmas. I do however have a few pictures from Thanksgiving, which was celebrated at Carrie and Duff's house this year. It was a warm, inviting setting complete with a long table,


tons of food,


and lots of friends.


I also had a great Christmas, but I didn't use the old camera much, so I don't have a whole lot to show for it. Carrie and Duff had a rockin' Christmas Eve party, and then a wonderful Christmas was spent in Delta at Jeff and Ellie's feasting on their homegrown pig. Then it turned really, really cold out (-40) from December 27 through January 12 but broke with a record high temperature of 52 degrees Fahrenheit, which was very welcomed and deserved.


What else have I been up to? I went to Kieran's 1st birthday party, complete with an out of town grandparent and plenty of little girlfriends running around.


New Years was bitterly cold, but we still managed to get our butts outside and enjoy a fantastic fireworks display at the stroke of midnight.


Since I missed visiting family over Christmas, a late January trip had to do as a stand in. Little did I know there would be a four inch ice storm with five inches of snow to follow. We were stuck in the house for a couple of days, but I suppose that is what a vacation is all about, relaxing. I tried to take a picture of the yard covered in a deep sheet of ice, but I'm not sure how well it turned out. Use your imaginations...see the shiny surface??


The trip wasn't all spent in isolation, I was able to visit some people, and Mom invited her side of the family over to visit. It was great to see everyone, and to see all of the great projects Mom has finished in the last year. Attendees demanded a showing, and she didn't disappoint. Various sewing projects were displayed,


while the crowd oohed and aahed.


Back in Alaska, this past weekend brought another baby shower. This time the guest of honor was Cashell. I think Thea is excited to have another little friend coming in to the world.


Yes, true to tradition, there were plenty of games,


and super cute gifts (Great job on the booties, Lauren!).


Unfortunately I didn't get a very good picture of pregnant Cashell. Hopefully this one will suffice until I take a better one.


Well, that's all for now. We've been doing the same ski races this winter as we have the past couple of years. I'll try to get some pictures up from those in the near future.

Hot Chocolate Anyone?

What do people in Fairbanks, Alaska, do when the temperatures have been hovering near -40 degrees for a week and a half?


Apparently they drink hot chocolate. Who knew? Maybe I should stock up. Stay warm!

Stuck but not Stranded

Well, it wasn't in my plans to be in Alaska for Christmas, but that's how it has turned out. You can't control Mother Nature!

I'm just glad my flight got cancelled before I got out of Alaska because I could have easily gotten stuck in the Seattle airport for the 25th. Yikes!

Chick Here for Fairbanks Daily News Miner Article

Happy holidays to all!!

Tolovana Pilgrimage

Every December, about fifteen friends make the trip from Fairbanks to Tolovana Hot Springs, but this year was different. New babies and people on vacations left us with only four of 'the gang' going this year, plus three other people we know who just happened to be going the same weekend, which was a welcome surprise.

If you do it right, every trip to Tolovana begins with breakfast at the Hilltop Truck Stop where the menu includes such items as the Train Wreck (which Jeremy tackled with some help from Tom), the Breaker Breaker Breakfast, and the Trucker's Special. Ah yes, after breakfast at Hilltop, you won't have to worry about eating lunch, which is nice because it is an eleven mile trail in to the hot springs and can require a bit of effort to get there.


Usually the parking lot at the trailhead is super windy, but we lucked out with just a slight breeze and pretty good temperatures.


Jeremy and Tom mushed in,


Dianna handled the snow machine with giant gear sled in tow, and I trotted around on my own two feet with a sled for the downhills.


These downhills aren't just downhills. They are sometimes STEEP, which just adds to the fun.


The sled on the snow machine had a little bit of trouble with some soft snow on the way in, but other than that, things went pretty well. Tom took my picture upon arrival, and I was surprised to see that I wasn't even all that frosty.


From there on out, we enjoyed four days and three nights of eating, relaxing, exploring a bit, and soaking in the hot tub under mostly clear skies and temperatures that I think remained above zero. What a life! Good food. Good friends. No email. No cell phone. No plumbing. No electricity. It was great!

The cabin...


The view from the cabin...


The 'Upper' Tub...


Checking out the Airstrip...


Visits from Emma, Brian, and Emily helped to break up the day.


Before we knew it, it was time to head back home. The trip out was beautiful with gorgeous views of the White Mountains, Alaska Range, Denali, and the Minto Flats.



Of course, it wouldn't be a complete trip to Tolovana without just a little bit of drama...on the way home, a flat tire on the snowmachine trailer rounded out the trip.

Sea Ice Workshop in Barrow

Mid-November took me to Barrow (place to hunt snowy owls), Alaska, the farthest north town in the United States and one that I had never been to before. I, along with a few other people, gave a tutorial to representatives from various coastal Alaska communities on how to access scientific information about sea ice on the internet. The workshop was a success, and I was happy to have finally visited the town of Barrow because we may set up a field site there next summer.

The workshop was held at the Barrow Global Climate Change Research Facility, whose doors were just opened last year, and it was a great place to host a meeting with plenty of computers and high-speed internet access.


The signs labeling the rooms were given in English, brail, and Inupiaq.



I'm thinking about taking an Inupiaq class in the spring, but I'm not sure how well I would do. We'll see how it goes. The Barrow Arctic Science Consortium provided lodging in a Quonset hut onsite.


After the meeting was over, I got to drive up and down the coastline a little bit. It looked just like you would expect the Arctic Ocean to look this time of year...frozen.


Another treat for me was the opportunity to see the last sunset of the year for Barrow. Goodbye from Barrow until the spring, old friend. Makes me glad I live just below the Arctic Circle.

Halloween

Steve Springer hosted his 10th annual Halloween party on November 1, and as always, the costumes didn't disappoint. In this posting, the pictures pretty much speak for themselves:

The monks...


I went as Joe Six Pack.


Georgina the illegal alien...


Marla the penguin...


Karen the queen and Hank the witch doctor...


Party host Michael Jackson...


And what respectable Alaskan Halloween party would be complete without a Sarah Palin?


Paige the crazy sweater lady and Cody as Ali G...


Cashell the Care Bear and Tim the gnome...


Max, Kieran, and Mette straight out of The Wizard of Oz...


Carrie and Duff as Olive Oil and Popeye...


There was even a band, Steve Brown and the Bailers, and they dressed up too!