Livin' Our Dream...: Alaska!!!

Thursday, March 16: We got up at 4:30am, headed to the airport and were in the air by 6:50 headed for Fairbanks, Alaska by way of Houston and Seattle. Longest flights we’ve ever been on – one 3 ½ hours and one 4 ½ hours! Got our rental car at the airport – happy it was new – a 2016 AWD Ford Explorer. Very nice ride to have for a week on the ice. It also came with a blue extension cord and we were instructed to plug it in when we were going to be parked for any length of time. Our hotel and parking lots everywhere all had poles with four plug-ins available to plug your vehicle into because of the ridiculously cold temperatures there! The vehicles are equipped with a heater under the hood and it just keeps everything at a reasonable temperature so the car always starts. Our hotel was only a 15 minute drive from the airport and we had a fabulous room – a king suite! Very large and comfortable – large bathroom with a great shower, king bed, couch, chair, coffee table, desk, wet bar with a microwave and refrigerator – nice home away from home. We needed all that space and comfort, too. What our routine ended up being the whole time in Alaska was get up around 8:00, go eat breakfast and head out for our day around 10:00 when it warmed up to at least close to zero degrees, do whatever we had planned, eat a meal, head back to the hotel around 5:00 or 6:00, nap until 10:00, get up and go out to Cleary Summit to watch the Aurora and back to the hotel around 1:00 or 2:00 to go back to bed. It worked great while we were there but getting home and adjusting to the three hour time difference and all that crazy sleeping made it hard to get back into the swing of things!

After we checked into our hotel and got things set up there, we headed for The Banks Alehouse which was about five minutes from the hotel. I had Halibut Tacos and a couple of different local craft beers. Great atmosphere and the food was really good. We talked with several locals about where to see the lights and what to do. Found very few people who were actually born and raised in Alaska while we were there. Most were there for the military base – Fort Wainwright. After dinner, we hit the Walmart across the street from the hotel and stocked up on snacks. We got back to the hotel around 10:00 and decided to get a good nights sleep after the long travel day we had – no looking for the lights on our first night…just sleep!!

Friday, March 17: Found the breakfast at the hotel to be pretty good every day we were there and the best part is, it was FREE!! Headed out about 10:30 and it was -10 degrees…yikes. Went back to Walmart to get a fan for our room, some lotion because this dry air is even making Kenneth’s skin dry and itchy and a hat for me. I had my headband and a hood on my jacket, but I found I needed another layer on my head. We went to the World Ice Art Championship. It had actually taken place around the first of the month and all of the art had already been judged, but it was all still on display. It was all so beautiful! I have seen small ice sculptures used for centerpieces on tables, but these were magnificent and HUGE!! We went in the morning and got our hands stamped so we could go back at night when the ice was lit up. When we came out of the Ice Art, we noticed a sign that read “Sled Dog Rides” right across the road so we headed over there and I got to meet all the dogs and take a two mile sled ride!! It was wonderful! The dogs were much smaller than I thought they would be and the musher (I’m so sorry I never even got her name, but she was wonderful) told me that most sled dogs were small because they eat less, but are just as strong and much faster than the bigger dogs. The dogs were all so friendly and happy and they couldn’t wait to run! They were barking and jumping and all over the place, but once she started them off running, they were quiet and FAST! She kept the brake on just about the whole ride and they were still moving pretty fast. It was a beautiful ride around frozen ponds and little hills and trails through the woods. The ponds were actually where they cut the ice from for some of the ice sculptures. I was comfortable and warm the whole time except for my eyes. Can you believe my eyes got cold?! I could just imagine way back in the day when this was the normal mode of transportation in Alaska. It was just such a silent way to travel – skimming across the snow and ice with just the sound of the dogs feet hitting the ground and the swoosh of the sled on the snow…it was just wonderful to experience that. After my ride, we heard there was a dog sled race nearby so we headed for that. I had seen the signs around town and our hotel had several mushers and their teams staying at it. The trucks they keep the dogs in are unique. They have like a camper shell on the back with a bunch of separate doors/kennels and they plug it in to keep a heater running so the dogs stay comfy in their own little crate. It was the GCI Open North American Championship Sled Dog Race and did I ever enjoy watching all the teams take off!! Kenneth waited in the car – it was about 3 degrees and his boots turned out to be not so ice friendly. He was slipping all over the Ice Art place and ended up wearing his tennis shoes the rest of the time we were in Alaska and had no problem. But this day he was tired of sliding all over the place so I walked up to the start line by myself. Each of the 23 teams came up one at a time, they’d have people holding the dogs back because, believe me, they wanted to GO, give a one minute warning, then 10 second warning and count down from five to go. Those dogs knew how to count because when they heard FIVE, they started going crazy!! I learned that these were sprint races – lightweight, carbon-fiber sleds and small, fast dogs. It was a 23 mile course and all the teams ran the course once a day for three days. I read in the paper the next week that a 66 year old woman ended up winning the championship. When I think of a sled dog race, I think of the Idiarod so this was very interesting. It was a lot of fun watching them take off, but I didn’t wait around for them to all come back. I think that would’ve been about an hour and a half waiting and I was getting cold!! We found a restaurant close by, Brewster’s, and had an average lunch. Turns out, there’s a Brewster’s every five miles – kind of like a Chili’s here. After we ate, we went to the Farthest North Outpost Harley Davidson shop, got a chip for Kenneth board and a couple of shirts. One of the girls that worked there was born and raised in Fairbanks and said she wouldn’t live anywhere else…guess it’s all what you’re used to because we couldn’t figure out why anyone would live in this bitter cold!! Back to the hotel to rest, nap and then head back to the Ice Art to see it with lights. SO beautiful and I saw so much more detail the artists had carved into the ice…it was fascinating. Then we hit a couple of places local told us to go view the Aurora but we never saw anything so back to the hotel we went for the night.

Saturday, March 18: We were up, had breakfast and out of the hotel by 9:00 this morning on a mission headed for Chena Hot Springs Resort. In my internet research, I had heard to this was a good place to view the Northern Lights, so we were going to check it out. It was about an hour and a half ride, but it was beautiful. We were blessed with beautiful, sunny days every day we were there and it just made the snow glisten and everything bright. The Resort was a bustling place! Because of its remote location, it’s pretty much a small community with a full service restaurant, a café, a store and gift shop, a recreation room and lots of activities you can sign up for. We signed up for the Aurora viewing tour that night and since we didn’t have to be back there for the tour until 9:15pm, we headed back into Fairbanks. On our way back, we saw four moose…mooses…meese?!?! Two sets of a mama and her baby. They are really big, even from the road. On our way, we took a side trip to North Pole, Alaska and the Santa Claus House. North Pole was such a nice little town, all decorated for Christmas and it stays that way year-round. It was fun to stroll around the Santa Claus House, which is just a huge gift shop, listening to Christmas music, watching all the kids lined up to talk to the big guy, eat homemade fudge at the little deli and just enjoy the vibe. Back at the hotel, we just snacked and napped a bit and then headed back out to Chena Springs to eat at the restaurant there. I looked at the menu earlier and noticed they had Alaskan King Crab legs and I’d been wanting some! Kenneth settled for a ribeye and baked potato and after a wonderful dinner, we headed over to the recreation center to wait for our trak-mobile to take us up the mountain. Josh was our driver. Of course Kenneth went to meet him before we even left and secured us a spot in the front with him instead of the back car. I am so glad he did because that machine bounced all the way up and back down the mountain and I know the people in the back had to be really uncomfortable in that back car!! And it turns out that Josh was born in Shreveport and raised in Baton Rouge! What a small world to meet another Louisiana boy all the way up there in Alaska. They had two yerts (big, round tents) with a buckstove, heaters, coffee, hot chocolate, soups and chairs so we had a place to stay warm because as high as we were and as windy as it was, it. Was. COLD!!! It had to be somewhere around -30 degrees because down at the resort it was -20. And as soon as we got there, we saw Aurora activity!! This was the first time I realized that all the beautiful pictures I had seen of the Northern Lights are not actually what you see with the naked eye. When pictures are taken of the Aurora, cameras are set for a really long exposure to pick up all the particles that make the colors. So the lights you actually see are just that – light. White lights dancing and swirling across the sky. It started out looking like a white rainbow across the horizon and then they started their dance. It was still just as fascinating and I would recommend anyone who wants to see them to definitely go, but I do tell them not to expect the vibrant, neon colors seen in photographs. We did see some faint green at the ends of the run and it may have to do with how strong the activity is, but I enjoyed every minute of the four hours we were on top of that mountain. On our way back to the hotel around 2:30am, a moose ran across the road right in front of us! Thank goodness Kenneth was paying attention. The thing was so huge, I think it could’ve jumped over the car! Their legs are so long!

Sunday, March 19: So the pressure is off – we’ve seen the lights!! Anything after this is a bonus. We slept late, got up and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and hung out at the hotel until about noon. We headed for the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum which is only open on Sundays. What a gem to find in the middle of Alaska!! I don’t think I’ve enjoyed any museum as much as I did this one. The cars! From 1903 through the 1960s. And they all had period clothing displayed by each car that was so cool. And pictures all over the walls of cars in Alaska and what they endured. They had seating areas set up all around with videos playing about maintaining the cars in the museum, how these cars were introduced into Alaskan culture and a crazy motorcycle trip across the Alaskan wilderness! There was a wardrobe with vintage clothing that you could dress in and take photos in one of the old cars, which I was happy to do. People were much smaller back then but I finally found something that would kind of fit…J We wandered around for a little over two hours, Kenneth stopped one of the guys that works there and chatted with him for a bit and then we headed out to find somewhere to eat. Ended up at Gallo’s Mexican Restaurant, had some really good Mexican food, good margaritas and made some new friends! A lady saw that I was drinking a margarita and walks up to the table with an untouched margarita and said it was complementary from the management (they were good customers there and in there a lot) and she wasn’t going to drink it and asked if I wanted it. I am NOT one to turn down a free drink so of course I said “Sure!”. The guy she was with saw we were wearing Harley Davidson shirts and so was he so we started talking across tables. They ended up sitting at the table with us and we visited with Ron and Denise for quite a while. Another guy from the booth beside us chimed in on our conversation and he told us about a place he goes to see the lights at night. When we left the restaurant, we rode out to find where he was talking about and there were a lot of people out there enjoying the day. A dog musher had his team out on the frozen lake, snow mobiles were running all over and people were just hanging out, enjoying the sunshine. We went back to the hotel and relaxed and napped and then headed out around 10:00pm to the same spot, but didn’t see any lights at all. We drove back down a road we had tried Friday night, but went a little farther and I saw a sign that said “Cleary Summit”. I had read about this viewing place in my research for this trip so we stopped. My goodness, there were SO many people! Two tour buses and lots of cars. People were out with their cameras set up and the Aurora activity was really going. There was a really cute young couple from Australia parked next to us. They had two weeks left of a six month tour of the United States and had seen more of our country than we have! He offered to take our picture with his camera. Of course, we were thrilled to accept so we got pictures of us in front of the lights we were viewing. It was about 12:30am March 20^th – the first day of spring and our 35^th anniversary! He emailed them to me the next day and the kids surprised us with a framed picture of us in front of the Northern Lights when we got home. Again, all we saw standing there looking were white lights with a faint hint of green but they were more active than the night before. The movement of the lights is mesmerizing. And the stars!! We have a lot of stars at home living as far from town as we do, but there were ten times more stars in the Alaskan sky – so beautiful, especially when viewed with the Aurora Borealis!! I don’t know how long we stayed and watched but again, I enjoyed every minute.

Monday, March 20: Happy Anniversary to us! God has blessed us with each other, loving families, two awesome children, good jobs (one that has afforded Kenneth a comfortable retirement), good health, and the ability to travel a bit to see our beautiful country. We still enjoy each other’s company and have so much in common that I can’t imagine what my life would be like with him. SO BLESSED!! After breakfast and relaxing in our room, we headed for downtown Fairbanks to check out the Ice Museum, but it was closed for renovations. Then we tried to go to the Musher’s Museum, but it was just closed – permanently. So with that being a bust, we went back to Banks Alehouse for a couple of drinks and some appetizers because we were going to The Turtle Club for our anniversary dinner later that evening. Ron told us about this place yesterday at Gallo’s and said they had the best prime rib he’d ever had. Of course, Kenneth was interested in that! And they had Alaskan King Crab and I was interested in that. They didn’t open until 6:00 and we got there a little early, but I’m glad we did. You really are supposed to have reservations because this place is really popular, but they seated us anyway and we had a fabulous dinner. I topped my crab off with a Turtle Club Irish Coffee – Jameson Irish Whiskey, Kahlua, and a touch of sugar topped with whipped cream with Crème de Menthe and chocolate sprinkles – yum! Back to the hotel to nap and then up to Cleary Summit where again we were able to view some Auroral activity. It was just mesmerizing to watch the constant, quick dance of the lights. What a beautiful way to end the day.

Tuesday, March 21: After breakfast, we headed back up to Chena Hot Springs to see if we could get in on a snowmobile ride. We got there and saw one of the guys we met the other day behind the counter. Manny got us signed up for the Ice Museum tour with an apple martini at 1:00 and a snowmobile tour, lead by him, at 2:00. Since we had some time, we went to the little café there and got a cheese pizza for lunch then headed for the Ice Museum. It was a really cool building made of ice and kept at a constant temperature of 20 degrees winter and summer with some type of geothermal cooling system. It’s pretty cool – no pun intended! There was a carver there working and we got to talk to her about what she does. She and her husband live in the area and both work every day there. They had two sculptures in the Ice Art Championships and won 1^st place in the multi-block and 3^rd in the single block competitions. We watched her work for a bit and then toured the museum. EVERYTHING in the place is made of ice! I had my apple martini served in an all ice martini glass at the Aurora Ice Bar, lounged in the seating area at the bar and checked out all the sculptures in the place. They even have two bedrooms in the place that you can rent for the night, but rarely have any takers on that. I can see why. I laid down on the ice bed and it wasn’t a place I’d want to sleep all night! It was a really great place and I’m glad we were able to see it. Afterward, we walked back to the rec center and got with Manny and one other guy for our snowmobile ride. We each got on our own machine, got a quick lesson on the super-easy-to-operate snowmobile and off we went! I loved it! We started out kind of slow and got used to the machine and the terrain. Kenneth decided to get adventurous and go “off road” and ended up burying his snowmobile in three feet of snow. He managed to get himself up and then got his machine back on the road. Some people’s husbands… I really enjoyed going fast and since I was third in line, I’d let Manny and the other guy get a good bit in front of me and then I would give it all the gas I could and take off – what fun! We got to a clearing with some pretty fun hills and jumps and Manny let Kenneth go crazy, which is what he’d been waiting for. He had SO much fun and I had fun watching him. I didn’t go jumping hills because I could just see myself turning the machine over on top of myself so I just watched. We rode for about an hour and headed back to the resort. What a fun way to spend the day! We went back to the hotel, snacked, napped and headed out for Cleary Summit where we got to see the lights for the fourth night in a row!!

Wednesday, March 22^nd: Our last day in Alaska…started with breakfast and approval from the front desk for a late checkout at 2:00pm since we didn’t have to return our rental car until 8:00pm and our flight didn’t leave out of Fairbanks until 11:50pm. I got the room cleaned up and packed all of our stuff. We checked out around 1:30 and went by a viewing spot for the Alaskan Pipeline. We had heard that The Pump House was a really good restaurant, so we went by there and I had a couple of Bloody Marys, their famous Seafood Chowder and more Alaskan King Crab. The food and drinks were all very good. Then we drove out to Pioneer Park to check out the Pioneer Air Museum, but guess what? It was closed. Even though there are a lot of activities and things to do in Fairbanks in the winter, just as much of it is shut down until summer. The Pioneer Park grounds were fun to just drive around, though. So that’s how we ended our trip. Gassed up the rental, went to the airport about 7:00pm, turned the car in, got our bags checked, boarding passes printed, got through security and waited for four hours! Fairbanks is a small airport like Shreveport, so we made ourselves comfortable, Kenneth napped, I walked and played on my phone and the time actually went by pretty quickly. When we flew out of Fairbanks, I had a window seat and was able to watch the Aurora for two hours!! I fell asleep watching the lights and when I woke up, they were still visible although not as strong as at first. Oh, I’ll never forget this trip – five nights in a row I was able to see the lights I have always dreamed of seeing!