Aurora Watch 2011

The last couple of nights have been a dream for aurora enthusiasts. The lights have been out relatively early (~10pm), and the temperatures have been warm enough to endure standing outside to watch the colors swirling above. There was one problem I found…walking around on my porch in the dark while looking up at the sky instead of where I’m going can wind up being a little painful, but I won’t bore you with those details.

I couldn’t decide on one picture, so I offer several. That’s why you check this thing, right? For the pictures? I’m pretty sure it isn’t for the witty commentary, but if you’re looking to broaden your knowledge base, I may have a little tidbit for you. While looking up at the sky I started wondering what Native Alaskan lore says about the northern lights. I found a few different reports on the internet, all with a similar theme: ancestry. Some say the lights represent the souls of their ancestors, others that they are a bridge for the spirits to use on their way to the heavens, and yet another reports that the lights symbolize torches carried by ancestors who act as guides for people on their way to the after life. Other stories say that the motion of the lights represents the spirits dancing, drumming, and game playing. Whatever the case may be, I think it’s a beautiful idea to reflect on one’s ancestors while enjoying the quiet of the night and the beauty of the lights. Perhaps I’ll try it myself next time.

I'm Back...With Ice

I’m back!! Although my break from blogging wasn’t intentional, I suppose I enjoyed it. Rather than fill the time gap, I’m just going to start from the present and keep moving forward. It was a great winter, but in my mind we really turned a real corner this past weekend. It was sunny and 20 degrees, which is an extremely welcome change after a long, dark winter. My mood has lifted, and it’s hard to stay inside.

On Sunday I went to the ice park with Mette, Kieran, and Lola. The ice park is the sight of the world ice art championships and takes place every year here in Fairbanks. If you want to learn more, you can go to www.icealaska.com. Having said that, I will now mention that we didn’t stroll through any of the sculptures. I guess we'll have to do that next time. Instead, we went straight to the kid’s section of the park where, among other things, there are tons of ice slides!!

First Kieran and Lola checked out the igloo…


…and then we hit one of our first slides, which was a giant halibut!


Here’s a video of the action:

We slid down a few other slides before arriving at the BIG slides!


If you’re wondering what sliding down this race track is like, I took a video of Lola and I riding a sled down…yes, I’m the one screaming, not Lola!

Kieran showed us all how to crawl through the ice tunnel


and then we hit a few more slides before nap time.


What a fun, fantastic morning!!

The rest of the day wasn’t nearly as exciting and consisted of shoveling snow off the porch and strapping on snowshoes to make a new packed trail out of the yard after a big snow storm a couple of weeks ago that gave us about as much snow in a week as we saw all of last winter! I think I’m finally finished with all of the shoveling from that one, but if we get another big snowfall, I have no idea where I’m going to be able to dump the snow. Surely I can come up with something!