Wherever the road may lead...

Trip #3: Another Rainbow Trout Trip (May 21-23)

2010-06-04T01:09:00.000-08:00

Destination: Quartz Lake, Alaska
Miles roundtrip: 172
Driving time roundtrip: 3 hours 30 minutes
Weekend: May 21st to 23rd

After an entertaining and successful fishing trip the previous weekend I decided to return to the same "fishing hole" for roadtrip #3 of the summer. I knew from talking with a guy at work and previous experience back home in minnesota that the fish don't stay in the shallows for long, they're up there for spawning and then they head back out to deeper water as the lake warms up. So I had to take advantage of this short time window.

I packed up the car once again on the thursday night and headed out as soon as I was done with work. When I arrived I found a couple familiar faces... we had talked about possibly meeting up this weekend again and it was funny to actually see the guys there fishing again. So more laughter and fishing banter back and forth for the evening before they invited me over for dinner... they felt bad for me bringing ham sandwiches for dinner... which I did as an incentive for me to catch a fish to fry for dinner... haha.

"I"m going out with my boots on" -country song lyrics...

Enjoying the quiet afternoon at the lake

So we had chicken and potatoes and bread over the fire followed by more entertaining conversations over a few beers. I also tried out one of the guys fly rods while the other one was working on dinner... I've been meaning to try it out for a while now but didn't know anyone that could give me some tips... now the fly rod is added to my "want list" for summer.

The following morning I slept in and then headed back down to the lake... once again no one was really catching much but it was just nice to sit down at the lake "A bad day fishing is still better than a good day at work" old quote but soooo accurate! haha.

Enjoying the views while tying on a different lure

A few of the guys friends came down too and we ended up back at their campsite that night again playing that ladder golf ball game, which turned very entertaining when they golf ball strings started getting tossed into the trees.

Lots of laughs and fun around the campfire that night... it was fun to be just hanging out with a group of guys again, totally brought me back to the summer I worked on the assembly line at Graco building paintsprayers with 7 guys on a nightshift. The humor, farts, and jokes... lol... so different than hanging out with the ladies.. haha.

Sunday morning I packed up right away so I could get back to town to house/dog sit for one of my professors. Once again a great weekend get away... these trips are exhausting because I don't have the downtime/catch up on sleep time that I did when I stayed home on weekends during the winter... but they're totally refreshing to my mind and outdoorsy side. I'm not the kinda girl that likes to stay home or mope around... I need to be out there doing things, and that's exactly what this summer's plan is all about!

Trip #2: Fishing for Rainbow Trout (May 14-16)

2010-06-04T00:50:00.000-08:00

Destination: Quartz Lake, Alaska
Miles roundtrip: 172 miles
Driving time roundtrip: 3 hours 30 minutes
Weekend: May 14th to 16th

The adventures continue with Roadtrip #2!!!

I have been meaning to get out fishing ever since I moved up here to Alaska... Dad even put a fishing rod and tackle box in my trunk when I first moved up here, but I wasn't home much last summer, and working in the field that I do not many people enjoy hunting and fishing like I do so I didn't know where the hot spots were... **sidenote here ** for the record, just because I study climate does not mean I am a "tree-hugger"... lol... I'm so tired of being called that... haha. They don't go hand in hand... I do believe that climate change is a real concern, but that doesn't have anything to do with the fact that I absolutely love fishing and hunting... I'm a 100% country/outdoor loving gal and proud of it!!

Okay back to the blog now that I'm done with that rant...

Anyways I overheard our accountant/travel guy in IARC talking about fishing with Volodya, one of the russian researchers in the department and I caught him in the afternoon when I was turning in some paperwork to see if he knew of any good local fishing holes and he filled me in! His family has a cabin on the lake and since the ice had just gone out on the lake he said the Rainbow Trout were in the shallows... good news for me since I was planning on fishing from shore.

So I packed up the car Thursday night with all of my camping gear and left right from work on Friday afternoon. I fished from about 7 PM to 11 PM and then went to pick out a campsite in the state park for the night.

Campsite at the State Park

What a gorgeous night!... still light out through the entire night being it's summer in Alaska but it was still nice to sit around the campfire and roast marshmallows...

Night Sky at 1 AM

The next morning I slept in until 9, made some breakfast and headed back down to the lake. Just as I pulled in I ran into a guy who said his buddy had just caught one...

First thought through my head... I'm following this guy to see where he goes! hahaha... so I did and it turned out to be a smart decision... not because we caught many that entire afternoon, but because of all of the BS'ing and fishing jokes we kept coming all day. I felt like I was back home in Minnesota hanging out with family or my guy friends.

Shoreline in the afternoon after the morning crowd left

One of the funniest moments happened when his buddy decided he wanted to sit down and relax... he put his folding chair in the shallows of the water... set his beer down in the water to keep in cool... and then proceeded to miss... not 1, not 2, not 3... not 4... but 5 fish in a row!!! I was laughing my ass off as was his buddy... it was priceless! After miss #5 he tossed his chair back up on shore... haha.

Over the course of the afternoon the 2 of them brought in 4 nice Rainbows, and eventually... with the assistance of one of the guys offering me a new lure to tie on after nothing in my tackle box was working... I managed to bring in this puuuurdy 20 inch Rainbow... I was so freaking proud and excited that I practically ran backwards dragging the fish out of the water to make sure I didn't lose it.

My 20 inch Rainbow Trout

Filleting the fish... yes I can clean my own fish... lol

Dinner that night was DEEEELISH!!! Yummmmo! Nothing beats fresh caught Rainbow Trout on the grill... potatoes.... sooooo good!

Dinner! Trout...

And... Potatoes!!!

In the morning I got up and spent a few more hours fishing after packing up the campsite. Saw more fish than you would imagine... beautiful to watch but they weren't hungry so I headed back home...

And that's the end of roadtrip #2!!

Trip #1: Valdez Fly-In (May 7-9)

2010-06-04T00:10:00.000-08:00

Destination: Valdez, Alaska
Miles roundtrip: 726 miles
Driving time roundtrip: 15 hours 30 minutes
Similar trip distance/time in lower 48: Minneapolis, MN to Chicago, IL
Weekend: May 7th to 9th

So the beginning of this crazy summer of adventures all started out with a last minute decision to check out the bush plane competition I had heard about, officially known as the Valdez May Day Fly-In. I debated for the last few days of the week and then decided what the heck, why not. So Friday at 4:30 PM I hit the road going east to Delta Junction, and then south to Valdez.

The drive was simply Spectacular!!! Mountains everywhere... rain showers with beautiful double rainbows... moose, caribou, eagles, bunnies, and lots of ducks...

Double Rainbow

Friday night I crashed in the backseat of my car at a pullout along the highway just outside of Valdez. It was just a wee bit chilly that night, temperatures got down to 31 degrees so I was happy to start the car and let her warm up in the morning before driving into town. On the way in I pulled over next to Horsetail waterfalls just outside of town... so pretty!!

Horsetail Waterfalls

[Video of the roadtrip]

Upon arriving in Valdez I was once again in awe of the beauty of yet another Alaska coastal city snug in between the towering snowcapped mountains and the sea. I pulled into the small airport and parked next to the terminal before walking out onto the runway to set down my chair and get a front seat spot for the STOL competition.

The staging area was packed with rows upon rows of bush planes all tied down, some with tents tied down right next to the planes. Cessna's, Maul's, and Beaver's.... I had walked directly into Bush Plane Heaven!! And the view for the competition was a runway right next to and surrounded by mountains!

View from my seat as the morning Era flight was leaving Valdez for Anchorage

Soon after I settled in I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned around to find none other than my favorite crazy bush pilot friend from Fairbanks that I refer to as "Crazy Steve" haha. This guy is exactly what you would imagine as the classic bush pilot... about early 40's... slightly crazy but always there for a good laugh or smart ass comment... divorced a couple times and still looking for a lady to settle with...

If any of you have ever been up to Fairbanks on a tour or vacation trip... you've probably been on the Riverboat Discovery cruise down the Chena River to the Tanana and watched the bush pilot demo... the pilot that you watched was none other than... yup you guessed it... "Crazy Steve".

Sidestory about "Crazy Steve"...
So I met "Crazy Steve" during one of my first few weeks in Alaska. I had gone out that night to "The Pumphouse", a nice local restaurant and bar, with some of the other graduate students for Wednesday night karaoke. Being very shy at the time and not knowing anyone in Alaska I was pretty quiet at first, but he happened to be at our table... every one squished together in the bar area on Wednesday nights because karaoke is very popular. Anyways we started chatting along with the others too and he jokingly offered to take me up in his bush plane if I happened to visit on karaoke nights... and eventually I made it back to a karaoke night or 2 and he recognized me. He hung out there so often the Pumphouse asked him to watch the door and check ID's... I feel like a local now when I walk in and he doesn't ask for my ID.... haha. For the record he did uphold his end of the deal and we went up flying last summer, taking off from the Chena River in front of the restaurant in his SuperCub. :)

In this competition the best and most daring/talented/crazy bush pilots in all of Alaska show up to take part in contests such as the flour bombing for accuracy, shortest takeoff and landing (STOL), and a poker run (all participants fly to a bunch of bush airports or landing locations ie. sandbars and beaches to draw a card at each location... at the end of the competition the pilot with the best poker hand wins). Everyone shows up to watch the short takeoffs and landings though... these are simply incredible!!

Back to the competition... the best and most daring/talented/crazy bush pilots in all of Alaska show up to take part in contests such as the flour bombing for accuracy, shortest takeoff and landing (STOL), and a poker run (all participants fly to a bunch of bush airports or landing locations ie. sandbars and beaches to draw a card at each location... at the end of the competition the pilot with the best poker hand wins). Everyone shows up to watch the short takeoffs and landings though... these are simply incredible!!Here's a sampling of highlights from the Short Takeoff and Landing Competition... it was absolutely insane to see how insane these guys were! Shortest takeoff was around 60 feet!! These pilots are the guys you see in all of those insane YouTube video email forwards you get from friends and seeing it in person was so neat!!

[Video from the Valdez Fly-In Competition]

In addition to watching the competition I also was able to go up flying over the city and nearby Shoup Glacier!! Here are some of my favorite photos while up in the air...

Valdez from the air... between the mountains and sea

Beautiful calm day...

Shoup Glacier calving

I felt so lucky to have this opportunity!! I absolutely love flying!

So after the competition was over for the day I drove into town to find a spot to set up my tent for the night. Unfortunately the only real camping places in town that were opened seemed to be RV parks, but that was alright. I found the Bear Paw RV park and picked out a spot for the night... cooked up some dinner and started a campfire. Not long after someone stopped over to visit and invited me over to their campsite to visit. Turned out to be a very entertaining evening... haha.

I'm simply amazed by the people I meet in this state!! One of the reasons I actually really enjoy roadtrips and camping alone is that I get to meet and talk with lots of random people... on this particular night I sat around a campfire with the following group of new friends from Anchorage:

a) An engineering student, early 30's, divorced, not working the entire summer and living off of savings to spend a summer making memories while camping with his son he doesn't see often

b) the engineering students's 8 year old son up for the summer visiting his dad

c) the crazy black lab of the engineering student

d) one of the group's friends... this guy seemed normal and nice until he shocked me by saying he was out on bail and would probably be going Back to jail for a few years... he didn't do it of course... lol

e) the relatively normal guy in the bunch... i think he was a construction worker

f) normal guy's girlfriend... such a nice friendly gal

g) normal guy's girlfriend's little chiuaua... with a broken leg in a cast .. the result of falling down a set of stairs

Being raised in a small town in central Minnesota I was never exposed to such a broad variety of people! And the oddest thing is just hearing people's life stories around a campfire over a couple beers. Some of you may sound shocked but I was never uncomfortable or scared.. as a matter of fact, hearing their stories of hardship and success actually made me even more greatful for my own life, family, and experiences.

Sunday morning I jumped back in the car for the drive back to Fairbanks... the drive back was nearly 8 hours with only gas stops, but the views are breathtaking... and I actually enjoy just listening to music and driving on long roadtrips by myself... I call it my "thinking time"...

Moose on the side of the road on the return trip

And so concludes the first of many summer adventures... I'd be amazed if anyone actually read this whole post... haha... thanks for reading :)

The Summer of Roadtrips and Adventures!

2010-06-03T14:25:00.000-08:00

And so the adventure begins... For the past 4 years I have not been around for the summer in the same place I've lived during the rest of the year.

The summer of 2006 I was living downtown Minneapolis and working at the Army High Performance Computing Research Center (AHPCRC)...
The summer of 2007 I was working in Hilo, Hawaii at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Mauna Loa Observatory...
The summer of 2008 I was living in Newport News, Virginia working at NASA's Langley Research Center...
And the summer of 2009 I was technically living in Fairbanks, but I was gone most of the summer with 3 weeks in Longyearbyen, Svalbard (between the North Pole and tip of Norway) at the IPY International Polar Field School ... 2 weeks on the north slope of Alaska for a field school... and about a month in the Arctic Ocean above Europe and Russia on a russian icebreaker ship for the NABOS research expedition.

That leaves this summer wide open for ADVENTURES!! I've decided to make it the summer of roadtrips! Beginning with the weekend of May 7th to 9th I will be spending the weekend out of the house. I will be taking photos and making videos of the trips along the way... sharing stories from the journey, talking about the interesting people I met... and documenting what I hope will be one of the best summers yet! I hope to look back and reflect on this someday when I'm old and grey to say... wow... that was an incredible summer. It's so easy to sit and home and waste the summer away and I know I've been guilty of that at times but this is a goal I really hope to keep up!

Thus far I've made it 4 weekends in a row and will be blogging about those in the near future. There has been one snaffoo so far... that's this weekend. I was asked to dog/house sit for a professor of mine and there is one weekend that falls during the time that she's gone... thus I will be improvising this weekend...

I still won't be at home so that won't break my official goal... and I plan on sleeping in my tent in the backyard on Friday and Saturday night to still be "camping". I'm hoping to pick up a new fly fishing rod yet this week with a friend I met fishing and try it out this weekend at a local stream north of town. That way I'll have a couple day trips fishing and still be camping.

I hope those of you that are far away back home in the lower 48 will enjoy this summer's adventures with me :) Feel free to post comments or suggest other adventures for me to try out!

My message for you guys: Life's too short... Make the most of every moment you have... cherish close friendships and family... and tell those you care about you love them as often as possible...

It's time to get caught up... December to May in 1 post!

2010-05-28T12:55:00.000-08:00

Well I have had 3 people ask me about my blog lately and I've been feeling guilty about not updating it in so long so here goes... December to April in 1 post!

December:

I was finally able to return back to Minnesota to see the family after wrapping up final's week at UAF. We celebrated one of my very favorite Legatt family traditions with a few Aunts and Uncles together at our house. We butchered 3 hogs from family friends, the Gundersons, and made the traditional Legatt family smoked pork sausage. Delish! Here's a video of the gathering :)

Over Christmas my amazing parents booked us a week vacation in Cozumel, Mexico at El Cozumeleno. It was a graduation from college present to my brother and me. Words cannot express how amazing it was to just sit out and nap in the sun on a sand beach after a freezing cold start to winter in Alaska. Destressing... not thinking about research... and quality time with the family! I love 'em!!

First family photo in who knows how long

Enjoying the gorgeous warm weather and the sunset

El Cozumeleno from our balcony

January:

Quick roadtrip to South Dakota to visit a friend... then returned back to Fairbanks to start the semester. Only 1 class, Cloud Physics, the rest of the time I work on research. Pretty inversions and slowly gaining sunlight... still at only about 5 1/2 hours of daylight.

Sunrise and Sun Pillar forming... viewed around 11 AM sunrise from work

work... haha... this is what I do all day :)

February:

Yukon Quest Sled Dog Race starts downtown Fairbanks on the river. Everyone in town shows up to cheer on the mushers as they start the race to Whitehorse, Yukon Territories, Canada. It's a 1,000 mile race along the old gold rush and mail delivery trails.

Here's me (in the camo of course, third from the right) and Lance Mackey (4 time Iditarod and 4 time Yukon Quest winner)

Here's the start

Here's a couple dogs

The Northern lights also gave us a couple awesome shows in February...

February 2nd... midnight showing of the northern lights with an encore show at 2 am
February 10th... clear skies, northern lights appeared around 9:30 PM

March:
I was able to attend the State of the Arctic Meeting in downtown Miami, Florida to present work I did last summer in Longyearbyen, Svalbard. The research I presented was about the impact polynyas have on Storfjorden, Svalbard. Here are a couple shots of Miami. Nice place to visit but you couldn't pay me a million dollars to live here!! LOL... I'm a country girl and dislike big cities :)

I was also able to stop in and visit the folks and a friend while I was passing through Minneapolis over the St. Patty's Day weekend. I love it when I can stop in to see them :)

April:
Another month of spectacular northern lights shows... I think we've finally began to emerge from solar minimum people... woohoo!

******* Time lapse Photography taken by another researcher at IARC where I work ******

I also bought my first handgun! A Taurus .44 Magnum to be used while camping and fishing this summer. You have to remember that in Alaska you are no longer at the top of the food chain! haha... And with all of the roadtrips I have planned going solo, it's a good idea to have one :)

May:
End of the semester... my last class... EVER! For my master's degree... ended up with an overall 4.0 GPA for all of my graduate coursework!!! I couldn't do it in high school... I couldn't do it in undergrad... but I somehow managed to pull it off in graduate school... go figure! Here are some randoms from May...

Yellowjackets in the Outhouse... Awesome band name.. haha... playing at the Pub (the campus bar)

Will Steger... Arctic and Antarctic explorer giving lecture at UAF

Taking measurements of the clouds with a lidar in my cloud physics class

Girls night out with Ashley tasting beer at Silver Gultch Brewery

Billy Currington in concert

Growing Ice crystals in my cloud physics class

St. Nicholas Day... a family tradition

2009-12-07T19:30:00.000-09:00

So growing up in a family with a part German heritage we had a pretty fun tradition passed down through the years, and that was the celebration of St. Nicholas Day. In Germany this holiday is celebrated on the night of Dec. 5th when children leave their boots or shoes outside, and St. Nicholas fills them with small toys and sweets while checking up to make sure the kiddos are being good. When my parents were younger they celebrated this as well leaving their shoes outside and finding candy in them come morning... so my parents continued the tradition with us. Now that both Kid and I are all grown up we get a small care package in the mail instead since we're so far apart. It's a really fun surprise! This year I found homemade Chex mix, venison jerky, candy, and a few other things in my goodie box! It's a wonderful surprise from home.

I also received another surprise in the mail this past week from my brother... a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree!! It's soooo cute! I think I may have to put it up in my office! I continued the fun by sending my mom some flowers at work while dad was out deer hunting with the guys.

Now I can't wait to get back home! Less than 2 weeks left! Now i just need to get focused, finish up a couple projects, and crank out a few more pages on my thesis before flying back to the lower 48...

Moose in the Backyard...

2009-11-29T22:01:00.007-09:00

So living up here in Alaska you experience quite the variety of wildlife... black bears... Grizzley's.. caribou.. muskoxen... but one of the largest happened into my professor's backyard over the past couple of days... the Moose.

Photo I took of the bull moose in the backyard munching on berries...

his shoulders are about my height (5'6")

Now as a "lower 48"'er you may not be aware of the precautions that you have to take around these massive animals. They are beautiful creatures that usually keep to themselves... but if they get alarmed they can charge and cause serious damage. This adds to additional challenges when for instance walking your professor's dog... haha. The first moose I spotted while coming back in from a walk with Oook... the bull moose was waiting at the far end of the driveway when I spotted it and quickly made a beeline for the door of the house before Oook could start barking at it. If provoked they can and will charge... not good! Thankfully the dog didn't notice the moose until we were safely inside.

Then this morning Oook and I went out for his morning walk up the hill and were met by another moose on the side of the road so I did a quick 180 and quickly headed back for the house again. Oook was really mad at me because he wanted to continue on his walk but I was more worried about the moose. Over the course of the past couple days I've seen the one bull moose in the driveway and munching on berries in the backyard tree. There's also been a cow moose with a small calf near the road. Those are almost more dangerous because the mama moose are very protective of their young. I've also heard that there's another cow moose with triplets in the area... that sure would have been neat to see!

So for you Lower 48'ers... here are a few snipets about moose in Alaska direct from the AK dept of fish and game:

How do you know when a moose might attack?

The long hairs on its hump are raised, ears laid back (much like a dog or cat), and it may lick its lips (if you can see this, you are way too close). A moose that sees you and walks slowly towards you is not trying to be your friend; it may be looking for a handout or warning you to keep away. All of these are dangerous situations. Back off. Look for the nearest tree, fence, building, car, or other obstruction to duck behind.

What if a moose is standing next to your house or car door?

Is there another door or a way around the moose? If not, be patient. The moose will often move away on its own. It may take half an hour or more, but it's usually worth waiting. Sometimes a loud noise or movement will startle them into moving, but moose that are used to people are usually not easily chased away. If you have to get by, try to keep a large tree, snow berm, vehicle, building, or fence between you and the moose. Don't get near a moose if its only escape route is in your direction, and always leave yourself one or more escape routes. As a last resort, a large squirt of pepper spray will often move them, or at least provide you with some protection if they charge.

What if a moose charges?

Many charges are “bluff” charges, warning you to get back. However, you need to take them all seriously. Even a calf, which weighs 300 or 400 pounds by its first winter, can injure you. When a moose charges it often kicks forward with its front hooves. Unlike with bears or even dogs, it's usually a good idea to run from a moose because they won't chase you very far. Get behind something solid; you can run around a tree faster than a moose can. If it knocks you down, a moose may continue running or start stomping and kicking with all four feet. Curl up in a ball, protect your head with your hands, and hold still. Don't move or try to get up until the moose moves a safe distance away or it may renew its attack.

Wonderful Thanksgiving with a couple other Grad Students

2009-11-29T21:40:00.000-09:00

So this is the time of year when you're reminded just how far away you are from your family. I'll admit that it was much easier to be away from home this Thanksgiving than last year, but it was still a challenge. My parents live in central Minnesota, and it just isn't financially possible for me to fly home from Alaska for a 4 day weekend, especially when 2 of those would be spend traveling. So instead I spent the break house and dog sitting at my professor's home.

I love the balloons! Ashley did her best to keep me watching the parade while I was running around fixing things for our feast... haha

I still had a Wonderful Thanksgiving though! I had 2 fellow "homeless on the holidays" graduate students over and we baked up a Feast! Ashley came over in the morning and we enjoyed the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (I just found out one of my classmates that I graduated with from UND was actually at the parade... so jealous!)... Ashley and I worked on preparing the meal... and then we went to go pick up Austin.

Turkey after step 1...

Goofing around watching Christmas movies on TV and letting our tummies settle after the feast...

I cooked up a turkey (my best yet I think)... we make a ton of mashed potatoes... stuffing... Ashley brought veggies galore! ... we had biscuits... rolls... cranberry sauce... Austin's amazing green bean casserole... and 3 pies! Way too much food... and way too much fun! We all paced ourselves ... each with a set gameplan to eat our favorites from our own families traditions back home.

Ashley working on the veggies

Just part of our Thanksgiving feast!

We spent the rest of the afternoon watching Christmas movies... playing with Oook (the cute dog i'm sitting for)... and laughing harder than I've laughed in quite some time! I love you guys!!

Oook... isn't he cute! He kept stealing Ashley's boot... and I laughed a lot!

So it still turned out to be a wonderful holiday... and being away from home really makes you appreciate your family so much more. Being up here in Alaska I know I've learned that I may have taken some things for granted when I was closer to home. I've grown so much as a person in the past year and a half!

And in tradition of Thanksgiving... here are a few things I am thankful for:

A loving and supportive family that always supports me
Amazing new friends in Alaska
Wonderful friends I've meet at UND, back home, through internships, and all around the world
Employment at the International Arctic Research Center, and a full ride for my master's studies
The incredible traveling opportunities and life experiences I've had this past year

Sunrise: 10:05 AM
Sunset: 3:11 PM
Total Sun: 5 hrs 12 min

Countdown to Minnesota: 23 Days!

Surprise Northern Lights Show on Thanksgiving Eve

2009-11-27T19:14:00.002-09:00

Around midnight, after thawing out the turkey and getting things ready for the big feast tomorrow morning, I heard Oook (the adorable dog I'm sitting for) barking in my bedroom. I walked over to see why and looked up to see the northern sky filled with the familiar bright green glow of the northern lights! So I quickly ran back to grab my camera, shoes, and a sweatshirt before running out on their deck. I didn't have my tripod with me so I had to improvise by tossing one of my sweatshirts over the snow-covered railing on the deck.

It was the first big northern lights show I have seen this winter. We have been at a solar minimum for a couple of years now, which prevents us from seeing too many major aurora events. That makes nights like this even more incredible. The lights looked like curtains of green rippling back and forth across the northern horizon... even with occasional red fringes. The lights are caused when excited molecules, like oxygen and nitrogen in the earth's atmosphere, become excited and go to a higher energy state, and then fall back to a lower energy, emitting light as they do so.

Here are a few of my favorite photos from the evening... with the peak in the show around midnight and 1:20 AM.

This one is of the constellation Orion (the hunter)... you can see the 3 stars that make up his belt, and the fainter 3 stars that are his sword... and then his body is the 4 bright corner stars. The 2nd photo below outlines it. The sky is pink here because of the light pollution from downtown Fairbanks.

Here's the big dipper with part of the aurora...

And one last Northern Lights photo...

I'm Back To Blogging... So Sorry for the Long Break!

2009-11-25T20:52:00.002-09:00

To all of those out there that were dedicated or even occasional readers of this blog... I owe you a sincere apology. You see my blog started off on the right foot, and I had good intentions to continue to blog through all of my summer adventured... but I became overwhelmed with everything that was going on, and somewhere along the way the blogging stopped.

But now I would like to let you know that the blog is back and will be better than ever. I will start up again with the present day, and if anyone has any special requests for stories from this past summer send me a message and I'll write something up. I will also be posting a copy of the lengthly Christmas letter that I will be sending out this year once that is complete. I'm planning on summarizing the highlights of this past year including the amazing summer I had with photos and links to the videos I have created.

So other than that things are going pretty well up here in Fairbanks, Alaska. The countdown to flying back to Minnesota currently stands at 23 days... I cannot wait to see my family again!!

I'm currently house/dog sitting for one of my professors. She has the sweetest dog named Oook! So he and I will be chilling out at their house through the end of this weekend. Tomorrow I'm having 2 other graduate students over... Ashley and Austin... for Thanksgiving dinner. It wouldn't be Thanksgiving if I wasn't in the kitchen cooking. So tomorrow I'll start off bright and early with a walk with Oook... followed by picking up Ashley and watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (hey you're never too old for a parade...)

Sunrise today: 10:05 AM
Sunset today: 3:11 PM
Total hours of sun: 5 hours and 6 minutes
with the sun peaking at an angle of 4.3 degrees above the horizon

Geology... Glaciology... and Avalanches... Oh My!! (June 17)

2009-06-20T15:29:00.008-08:00

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Today's theme was Geology and Glaciology. Today we were greeted with beautiful sunny day... the winds calmed down after our adventurous night with the barracks shaking in the wind... haha. Our day at UNIS started out with an introduction to geology - specifically the unique geology of Svalbard. The lecture was given by Dr. Hanne Christiansen. We learned that the oldest rocks on Svalbard have been dated to be from 1.27 Billion to 410 million years ago... that's just insane! We also were made aware that the island of Svalbard has traveled quite a lot around the globe during the rearrangements of the earth's plates through the past billion years. 450 million years ago Svalbard was located near teh equator (Alaska too)... the mountains here were formed when the coast collided with Greenland. During the "Age of the Dinosaurs" Svalbard moved from 45 degrees N latitude to 60 degrees N latitude... as a matter of fact there are many many fossils of plant life here in the arctic confirming it used to be in a much more tropical environment. Dinosaur fossils have been found here as well in the past few decades, and the coal that is now mined here was the result of the compression of vegitation and plant life during the Jurassic Period... How Cool is that?! During the past 2-3 million years Svalbard has moved to it's current location and been through ab out 30-50 major glaciations. Now Svalbard is 60% covered by glaciers.

The second set of lectures during the day covered Glaciology and they were presented by Monica Sund. I learned So much about glaciers... SOOOoooo interesting! WE covered the parts of glaciers and how they move and act... On Svalbard the fastest moving glacier is Kronebreen (moving approximately 600 meters a year... that's almost 2 meters a day!), and the slowest which is more typical (4 meters per year). Another really interesting topic we covered was glacial surges... I had no clue what these were previous to today! [Taken as a quote from Dr. Sund's webpage here is a definition of a glacial surge]
"Glacier surges are characterized by cyclical advances related to internal changes in the glacier system, and occur in both terrestrial and tide-water glaciers. The surges are short-lived periods of rapid movement and usually advancing terminus, usually lasting 2 - 10 years." Basically a glacial surge involves a large mass from the glacial moving down to a lower part of the glaciar suddenly (well relatively suddenly...we're talking over the course of a couple years) in which case the glacier may calve if on a body of water or advance...

Check out Dr. Monica Sund's website to see time-lapse video of glaciers actually moving over the course of a year! It's amazing!
http://www.unis.no/35_STAFF/staff_webpages/geology/monica_sund/web/New/monica_sund_homepage.htm

Now it's also important to note that all those images you see on tv of glaciers calving (when huge pieces fall into the ocean) aren't necessarily images of the so called "global warming". It is clear that throughout the past decades glaciers constantly advance and retreat... it's just a process. In many cases calving will occur simply because the shelf is unstable. There is still a lot to be researched on this topic to see how future changes in climate patterns may effect glaciers... it's all a very complicated scientific puzzle that is very difficult to solve.

After lecture we hiked back up to Nybyen and had a short talk about the Longyearbyen glacier right behind our baracks. The original plan was to hike up to it, but as we had just received snowfall the day before we decided against it and had a new field activity helping with an avalanche study.

We learned about the different avalanches they get here in Svalbard and saw examples of the snow cornices on the mountains right beside our baracks in the valley... then we learned about the plan for the day. We split into two groups... for this project we were to measure out a 4x4 area on top of the snow surface where an avalanche had fallen earlier in the season... depositing snow and rocks from the mountain. The goal was to then gather all of the rocks in this area, weigh them, and record the location and angle of the study region. The data we collected was going to be used in a research project to prove that these avalanches really do move a lot of rock down the mountainside. I headed up in the first group... quite the vertical hike up the side of the mountain as you can see here. We started working and after finishing up our first "square" we heard this crack sound and rumbling.. hard to describe... then we looked up and saw some snow falling and a few rocks... we looked over to the project instructor and he was like "Move Move!!" haha... we were so intrigued by what was going on none of us had decided to shift over out of the way of the tumbling debris! haha... Anyways after that we decided it would be wiser to work on the lower portion of the mountain... so after a few photos at the top we hiked carefully back down and helped the group at the bottom. It was a pretty fun afternoon on the mountainside!

Survival suits in Arctic Waters, Rifle Training, and a twist from Mother Nature (June 15-16)

2009-06-16T09:35:00.014-08:00

Monday, June 15, 2009

Today was Amazing!!! One I won't soon forget! The day started off pretty early, I was only able to get about 3 hours of sleep. It's kinda difficult adjusting to a 10 hour time difference but being here is 100% worth it! We started the day down at UNIS with a 1 hour lecture on different safety issues to keep in mind while out and about on Svalbard. We learned about the local glaciers and the challenges they provided. You have to be very careful so you don't fall into crevases while walking, and you also have to be careful now that it's spring when crossing over partially frozen meltwater streams. There are also of course the Polar Bears... haha. Yes they're a very real threat up here!! Everyone that walks beyond the limits of town is 100% advised to carry a rifle and a flare gun... which we learned how to use later that afternoon! They actually have this equiptment available for students to check out... just like you would a library book... at any other institution. They rifles are so common in town that they have places outside most businesses to leave your rifle while you shop, and we even have gun locks in our baracks!

So back to the day... after the safety lecture we broke into two groups. My group started out with the survival suit training! I was soooo excited!! If you've ever seen deadliest catch, the equiptment they have is pretty much the same. Here's a view of their insane collection of arctic survival gear... they literally have a whole warehouse of this gear! It's insane...

Here we are trying on the survival suits in the warehouse and learning how they work. They have clips attached to them so you can clip on with others in a rescue situation so you stick together and no one drifts off. They also have neoprene gloves attached to wear... however we later found out that they are NOT waterproof... lol. After trying them out we piled into a couple vans and headed out the the harbor.... off of the Arctic Ocean!! What an interesting drive it was!! The poor guy driving the car was one of the students, and the car was of course pretty old and was very difficult to shift gears. It made for a very interesting and bumpy drive! But we made it to the Ocean!

So after arriving we walked down onto the dock and zipped up our suits. Not to many pictures as no one wanted to get their cameras wet. We were instructed to "walk the plank" and jump in. Let me tell you... that first hit of freezing cold water to your face is a HUGE SHOCK! WOWZA! Of course your face is open to the water, and the gloves are not water proof... they filled with water pretty quickly, but at least they provided a little bit of insulation from the water. The crazy part of these suits is that they're very very bouyant! We were instructed to float around our our backs and kind of backstroke to move about. They we had to try to get back up onto the dock... Holy Crap that's hard with the suit on!! It's really weird too when you try to get vertical in the water to get out... all of the air rushes to the top of the suit, and your boots kind of suction in because of the increased water pressure!

After that exercise we all had to jump in again. This time we had to gather the group in the water and try connecting everyone together in a circle. One that was done we unclipped and headed for the dock again and jumped out of the survival suits. What an Insane experience!!! I can tell you I have a new respect for the guys on Deadliest Catch! I can't imagine doing that in 25 foot seas!!! We piled our stuff back into the vans and drove back to UNIS for lunch. Over lunch we chatted with the other group and heard about all of their fun and shared the fun we had... and then after lunch we switched.

This time we were on our way to the Rifle Range.... Hellls YEAH! I'd been waiting for this moment since the day I found out we'd have rifle training to defend against polar bear attacks!!! And the need for training is very important! Here's a link to a newspaper article on a guy that I actually know that goes to UAF. He was up here in Svalbard on research not too long ago and was actually attacked!

Okay back to the fun stuff! So up at the range the instructor first gave a brief presentation on the dangers of Svalbard, and the rifles we would be using, the .30-06 rifle ("thirty-aught-six"). Then we headed out and everyone was able to first practice loading and unloading the rifle and the shooting positions. After that the fun began!

We each shot 8 rounds from a lying down position, then checked the targets, and then shot 8 rounds from a kneeling position and checked the targets. I was pretty proud of my shots! I had a pretty nice pattern, although not on the bulls-eye... the sights were outta wack so as long as the pattern was tight I was doing great. [Here's my pattern from lying down]

Kneeling was a little more difficult but it still went pretty well. Here are my results and some of the others in the group.

After everyone had a chance to fire 16 rounds we had a short lecture on what to do in the case of a polar bear encounter. You're first supposed to gather the group together and make a bunch of noise and wave your arms and walk away... not run!!! If the bear continues to follow, you should start a snowmachine or fire off a shot or flare from the flare gun to try to spook the bear. If that still doesn't work you should stop and maintain your ground... you need to continue making noise and determine a line... that if crossed... you will shoot the bear. Simple as that... haha... yeah right! If i were in that situation I'd be pretty darn freaked out!! Haha.

After that we had a quick demonstration of the flare and noise shots for the flare gun before packing up. Here are a few pictures of the view from the range before we headed back down to UNIS.

Such an AMAZING day! I had a Blast! After our adventures we had dinner up at "Huset" which is Norwegian for "The House" It's one of the oldest buildings in Longyearbyen and was the community hall for the old miners. Now they have an auditorium, store, and cafe in the building. The food is practically gormet and soooo tastey! Dinner tonight was roasted lamb with ratatoui and mashed potatoes...mmmmm good!!! And dessert was homemade vanilla icecream with cinnamon and carmel flan. Delish!!

It was also kinda neat that one of our instructors, Dr. Liz Thomas from the British Antarctica Survey ran into an old colleague while we were there! It turns out that a large group from the UK had just completed a 10 week research expedition in Svalbard and were enjoying a nice warm meal in the other room while screening pictures from their adventure! So we all were able to stop by and chat with them, find out about their research, and see some crazy pictures from their adventures.

Overall an amazing day! I'm loving it here!!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Overnight and on through this morning, Mother Nature decided to throw us a curveball. I think she thought we all needed to see what Svalbard is like in the winter months... haha. I awoke in the middle of the night to the building shaking... the wind was very very strong... with gusts up to 50 mph. Outside my window I noticed that the mountain outside my window had a white coating on most of the face and there was still sleet/snow/ice pellets falling horizontal in the wind.

So after packing my lunch and grabbing a hot beverage I bundled up and headed out on the 1.5 mile walk down to UNIS for the day. What an Adventure! I felt like I was back home in North Dakota!! haha. There were times that the wind would shove you forwards... stop you in your tracks... blow you sideways... all due to the turbulence in between the mountains. It was very entertaining to feel like a kite! haha. The trek down took a few extra minutes but eventually I made it inside and found a spot in the auditorium (Lassegrotta).

Today was our first day of lectures, and the theme was weather and climate. We heard a total of 5 lectures. The first two were by Dr. Ole Humlum on "Climate of the Arctic: past and present". Then we had lunch in the canteen followed by 2 lectures on Paleoclimatology. Dr. Elizabeth Thomas gave these lectures. She works at the British Antarctic Survey and is also one of the organizers for this field school. Her first lecture was on Ice cores.... how they work, the advantages and disadvantages to their use, and what information can be obtained from them. The second lecture concerned "Rapid Climate Change". She discussed an event ~ 8,200 years ago that had a sort of "Day After Tomorrow" scenario... it's possible that when Lake Agasi drained in Canada that it offset the thermohaline circulation in the Atlantic Ocean, resulting in a temporary global cooling. Very interesting stuff!

The final lecture of the day was by Dr. Ole Humlum once again... this time on the "Meteorology of the Arctic, with special emphasis on Svalbard". It was interesting to hear about the local weather patterns up here. The terrain truly offers many unique and hard to preduct weather patterns and conditions.

After our last lecture we had a brief question and answer session and a few other notes about the rest of the field school. Then we walked back up to Nyben... thankfully the walk back up wasn't quite as windy (very nice since it's uphill... haha) but we still caught a really neat mixture of frozen precip on the walk. Started out as mist/sleet... then sleet/ice pellets... then heavier and larger ice pellets.

Dinner tonight was at "Huset" ... and it was once again Amazing! We had salmon with veggies and boiled potatoes, and dessert was some sort of chocolate custard tart with berries...mmmm good! Now I'm back at Barack 1 unwinding from the day and enjoying the evening. The winds have calmed down so the room is no longer shaking... haha... and it seems like the snow has come to an end for the time being.

Tomorrow we continue our lectures with Geology and Glaciology... and some sort of avalanche demonstration!

Flight to Svalbard and First Day in Svalbard (June 12 - June 14, 2009)

2009-06-14T13:55:00.021-08:00

Friday, June 12 , 2009

9:20 AM (Alaska Time)
Started the adventure! About 5 ½ hour flight from Fairbanks, AK to Minneapolis, MN (arrived 5:40 PM Minnesota time). Only one small blip when checking in because I have 4 individual flights, and the last one’s to a kinda “no-name” airport… so I had to fix some things at with the airline attendant to make sure my bags made it all the way to Norway. Fingers crossed they make it to my final destination! I lucked out because the flight was only about half full… lots of super nice older “lower 48” tourists flying home from their Alaskan adventures. It was pretty fun talking with them about all of the fun they had, but it also made me that much more greatful to be living in such an amazing state that most people are lucky to visit once in their life. Talking with some of the older crowd made me realize a couple of other things too. 1) They reminded me how short life really is and how fast time flies by. We all really need to make the most of every day we have here. There are adventures around every corner, whether it’s in your hometown or across the world. 2) Seeing those that were having difficulties even walking around on the plane made me realize how lucky I am to have opportunities to travel while I’m still young. I’m So Very Greatful!! And I want to document all of my travel so I can share stories with my own kids one day. 3) Finally, a conversation with an elderly couple across the isle made me realize how important it is to keep you parents close as they get older. This couple talked about how much they love their kids and grandkids, but they never come to visit… they always have to go to them… which is extremely difficult in their old age. This just reinforced my plans already to take care of my own parents as they get older (I’ll build a cabin for them next door to my own)…

5:40 PM (Minnesota Time)
I land in the Great State of Minnesota!!! It was very bittersweet to be passing through the state though because I felt like I was home, however I wasn’t able to see any family, just a brief 1 ½ hour layover. I my last few phone calls while I was still in “the states” with cell phone service, talking with mom and dad and a couple of friends. The flight was overbooked and I debated taking the offer to give up my seat and spend a night with my parents, but I was afraid that it would lead to big problems in my connection flights to make it to Svalbard.

7:30 PM (Minnesota Time)
After cramming everyone on board we left the Land of 10,000 lakes for Amsterdam. My first ever trip overseas! It was a pretty good flight aside from being a little long (about 8 ½ hours). A couple glasses of wine and on-board movies (“He’s Just Not That Into You” and “Gran Torino”) made the time pass quicker. I was also really weird to see the sunset completely and have darkness as we flew over the Atlantic Ocean… no darkness in Fairbanks, Alaska in the summertime.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

10:50 AM (Amsterdam Time)
We land in Amsterdam! I can officially say I have set foot in Europe now. I only had a couple hours of sleep on the plane, but I’m not too worried. My internal time clock is all messed up right now anyways… haha… and it will be 24 hour light once I arrive in Svalbard so the plan is to sleep it off after I arrive. As soon as I set foot in the airport I switched to my “Amazing Race” mode… haha… For those of you that haven’t heard this story…
It started when I had my first flight out to Hawaii 2 summers ago. I was pretty nervous to have to travel on my own and switch flights and go through the process of renting a car and finding a hotel in an unfamiliar area…. So the way I got rid of my nerves was pretending I was on the show “The Amazing Race” Hahaha… a little weird I know, but it really did help!!
The main thing I’ll remember about this airport was all of the fancy shops and the smell of perfume! Smelled soooo good! At the airport I had to go through another security check point to get to my gate… another nerve wracking moment when the main language is not English and their procedures vary a little, but with a smile on my face I made it through pretty quickly and found my gate. I had to ditch my diet pepsi at the checkpoint and I was super thirsty so I found a lil stand and picked up a “Light Coke” … haha… that made me giggle a little! Now I’m waiting for our plane to arrive to fly to Oslo, Norway… it’s weird being the odd one at the airport! I usually make new acquaintances while I’m waiting at the gates but it’s a little more intimidating when no one’s speaking English… haha. I’ve decided I’m going to do my very best to leave all of those I meet these coming 3 weeks with a good impression of Americans by showing them my “Minnesota/North Dakota Nice”.

12:35 PM (Amsterdam Time)
Started boarding for the Amsterdam flight and it was really different. At the gate where you’d usually walk down or walk out and board the plane, we instead walked through one of those spinning doors and then boarded a bus… haha. It was just like a regular city bus… they packed us in… and then drove us about 5 minutes out on the tarmack to our plane. The flight itself wasn’t too eventful… talked with a nice older guy coming back home from work in Africa. He was from northern Norway. Enjoyed a hot cup of coffee and got a little shut eye. Landing in Oslo it was neat to see the landscape since I had a window seat… lots and lots of rolling hills with farmland. I asked the guy next to me what they farm and he said it was mainly hay and other grains for cattle and other animals. It was really pretty!

Oslo, Norway

2:30 PM (Oslo, Norway Time)
Landed and the confusion began… haha. The airport was kinda confusing to me. We had to exit the terminals and then wait to pick up our baggage… thankfully I stopped and asked someone otherwise my luggage would have been SOL when I arrived in Longyearbyen without my luggage! So I picked that up and then had to completely exit the airport and go back in up to the 2nd floor. There I had to print off my boarding pass and the luggage stickers… another difference from the US… then drop off my luggage (which was too heavy, so I had to pay 500 some Krone… not sure how much that is yet… haha… just put it on the credit card [just did a rough calculation… 6 Krone ~ 1 US Dollar… thus the luggage cost me approximately $83.33) and have my fingerprint taken. After that it was back through security once again… pretty fast thank goodness… and then finally had to find the gate. And now I can finally relax a little again… Woohoo! Time logged in airports/flights so far: 20 hours.

Thoughts thus far on international travel:
1) You’ve really got to be patient… in some ways it’s nice that I’m traveling alone, I have a feeling that there would be a lot of arguing and added stress if I were traveling with a group.
2) Kinda goes off of point 1, when traveling alone I’ve learned that you really need to just stay calm, read whatever signs you can read (or look for pictures…haha) and ask for help when needed. The minute you panic things go downhill… I even talk to myself sometimes… (haha… a few of you will get a kick outta that statement since you know me so well!)
3) It’s really odd and occasionally intimidating sitting around when you can’t understand a word of what others around you are saying. It’s kinda humbling, and I know I’ll keep this in the back of my mind when we have new grad students coming in to UAF in the fall.

4:00 PM Oslo, Norway Time
Time to board the plane for my last set of flights!!!!!!!! YAYYYYYY! I’m tired! This flight has two legs, we fly from Oslo, Norway to Tromso for a quick stop and then FINALLY to Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway! It’s very odd waiting to board a plane when they call out which rows can board and other instructions and announcements on board in a language other than English. You really take that for granted when traveling in the states!

Alright the first leg of this last flight was pretty uneventful. Unfortunately I had a middle seat between 2 individuals that didn’t speak engligh. There was an older European guy on the isle that seemed pretty quiet, and the gal in the window seat was going to some conference. I picked up on that from her broken English. Flying out of Oslo I did get to see the beautiful landscape once again. I think it would be great to visit sometime. I ended up napping for most of this short flight.. about 2 hours before we came in to land in Tromse’. That town is Beautiful! A lot like the Kenai peninsula of Alaska. After landing in Tromse’ about 2/3 of the plane got off, and then about 25 people boarded as we got ready to leave for the final destination, Longyearbyen.

7:00 PM Tromse’, Norway Time
This turned out to be quite the entertaining flight!!! A very entertaining group of young men came onboard laughing… just “piss” drunk (as they say here). I could literally taste the vodka in the air besides smelling it… and when one of them took the seat next to me I knew it was going to be a wild flight! After listening to them go on in Norwegain for a while and realizing I was the subject of part of the material with the guys behind our row smacking the guy next to me… haha… I turned to the guy next to me and said “Vodka?” while raising my pretend glass… and he just laughed and nodded. He then proceeded to tell me that his buddy… (wearing the coal miner’s hat behind me)… was getting married soon and they goofballs had decided to kidnap him and bring him to Svalbard for the bachelor’s party. There was lots of drunken Norwegian banter the whole time and it was hard not to laugh at them. I think each ordered an additional 2 or 3 drinks on the short flight, which concluded with a guy in the back of their group taking his guitar out and singing “Hey Hey Hey Hey what’s going on” in Norwegian.
Here’s part of the song with the views outside as we started flying over Svalbard!

I was practically glued to the window as we caught views of the mountains and glacier below. It was just breathtaking! Eventually we came around in for our landing and caught a view of the town I’ll be living in for the next 3 weeks, Longyearbyen. I live in Nyben ( I guess it’s another town but only about a mile walk straight in from Longyearbyen.) It’s at the very back of this picture.

This is the furthest north location that still has daily arrivals from a major airline. Here’s a view as we stepped off of the plane.

After walking into the terminal I met up with a bunch of the other IPY field school students and we happily gathered our luggage. Thankfully no one’s was lost! Then we tossed our bags into a couple vans and drove to our barracks for the next 3 weeks. I’m staying in Barack #1… the new one… Yay! They’re actually really nice! We each have our own room with a bed, closet, 2 tables, and a bookshelf… and we share a bathroom with one other person. The view is also Amazing! The base of the mountain is only like 100 feet from the building. [View from my window]

After getting settled in and chatting with a few other students I made it an early night and crashed. The time difference and jet lag had caught up with me!

Sunday, June 14, 2009

2:30 PM Longyearbyen time (4:30 AM Alaska Time)
I eventually woke up… it was nice to have a good night’s sleep! I jumped in the shower and got ready to walk down to UNIS (The University Centre in Svalbard) where we’ll be having classes. It’s about a 20 minute walk, about a mile and a half to get there. We were able to meet all of the students from all over the world… Norway, England, South Africa, Denmark, Sweden, Canada… We had about an hour of welcome type presentations. We found out a little about the classes we’ll be taking and also about all of the “big wig smart guys” that will be attending our final presentations… a little intimidating!! Then we also had a short tour of the building, followed by a pizza dinner where we got to know each other some more.
[UNIS and a Svalbard reindeer... kinda look like stubby miniature reindeer compared to those on the mainland and Alaska]

Then we walked back up to the barracks for the evening… pretty low key again. Everyone’s still trying to get used to various time changes but the 24 hour daylight is helping. Tomorrow we have safety training that includes shooting rifles in the case of a polar bear attack, and jumping into the Arctic Ocean (in a survival suit of course). Should be a crazy adventure-filled day! I’ll write all about it in the morning, but tonight I need to get some sleep… 8:30 AM (10:00 PM Alaska Time) will be coming quick!

Solo roadtrip to Seward to go fishing for Halibut

2009-06-10T23:43:00.019-08:00

So call me crazy... a few people up here and back home seem to think it's odd that I enjoy the occasional roadtrip on my own... however I find them Amazing! I enjoyed a lot of solo weekend roadtrips in Hawaii and I figured I was due for another. I get to rock out to my favorite music, call family and friends... and get in a lot of "good thinking time". Anyways there aren't too many people at the office that enjoy the fishing and hunting scene nearly as much as I do, so I thought what better way to enjoy the weekend and I booked a Halibut charter down in Seward, Alaska.

Now if you look at a map it doesn't seem like it's too far of a drive down to the Kenai peninsula... but looks can be deceiving in Alaska... haha. Up here distance isn't usually measured in miles... it's usually measured in time. And the time required to drive from Fairbanks to Seward... "cruising" a little with minimal stops for gas... was 9 hours! And that's covering a distance of about 500 miles... to put that into perspective it's like driving from St. Cloud, MN to Chicago, IL is only 480 miles... haha. So I left work at 4:20 PM and pulled into Seward after 1 AM. Check-in time for the fishing trip the next morning was 6 AM so I just pulled over along one of the many roadside pullouts pretty close to Seward and crawled into the backseat of my lil corolla for a few hours of shut eye.

The next morning was a lil chilly... about 40 degrees when I woke up so I tossed on a few layers and my camo rain gear... and then drove into town to check in... and jump on the boat! I went through "The Fish House" charters... with captain Jimmy on the boat Perseverance along with about 11 other people. The drive out to the fishing spot was about 50 miles out and a 2 hour boat ride. It was funny watching all of the "out-of-towners" freezing their butts off on the ride out... they kept telling me to come inside and stay warm... and my response was... "I'm an Alaska girl! It's beautiful outside!" haha... very entertaining.

Once we arrived at the spot we got the lines out... capt. jimmy explained how to drop the lines down about to the bottom (~100-150 feet)... we were fishing about a foot or two off of the bottom with plain hooks and herring. Anywho... he dropped it and realize he had a fish on... and handed the rod over to me... haha. And with that I reeled in the first fish... a yelloweyed rockfish. They're soooo bright! Look like a blownup goldfish! As soon as that one was off I dropped the line again and within a couple minutes I had another rockfish on. Great start to the day. A few others caught rockfish but the halibut weren't biting to hard at that location so we moved to another spot.

This spot was Amazing! Everyone caught their limit of halibut (2 each) and we even had a couple guys reel in some pretty big ones around 100 lbs. No huge monsters this time... maybe next time :) While we were fishing fog rolled in so we couldn't see to far off the boat, but a group of humpback whales came in!!! We saw them for a short period of time jumping out of the water and splashing and rolling over slapping their fins... Amazing! No pictures though... I was fishing and holding onto the rod and taking pictures is pretty difficult. They stayed around for about 2 hours and we were all just listening to them calling and slapping around... just awesome!!

I met a ton of awesome people on the boat... one guy was on their "lifetime trip to alaska" with his wife... she stayed in the harbor and sent him out on the boat... really nice guy. There was also a couple from Anchorage that came out with a couple friends.... the wife was soooo sweet. Her and I chatted for quite a while. Let's see...there was a cute young couple... the guy had fishing in his blood... while the gal got sea sick every 20 minutes... poor thing! I felt bad for the guy he kept going in to check on her to make sure she was alright and then ran back to check his line. As a matter of fact at one point or another over half of the boat was sea sick... luckily this time I wasn't one of them. The seas were really rough though so it was understandable.

We headed back in around 4 pm after everyone had caught their limit. I took home a bunch of fish that I'm looking forward to enjoy back in Fairbanks this summer/winter. After making it back I found a spot at one of the local campground right off the harbor on the ocean... $10/night can't beat it! It was a little windy setting up the tent but I love a challenge :D. Once that was up a guy walked by and was chatting about the salmon he caught that morning.. he found out I was camping by myself and invited me over to his site to enjoy salmon over the fire with his crew... So I took him up on it and I'm so glad I did. It turned into a hilarious night! I brought over some potatoes and stuff for smores and met his girlfriend (her name was Becky too!) and an older friend the couple had met when they first moved to Alaska that now lived in Seward.

It was so much fun hearing about all of their adventures and life in Alaska... the older guy actually used to captain charter trips out in Seward. I love meeting new random people up here... everyone has so many stories! I gave them my contact info and they may come visit up here in fairbanks sometime... they also took some pictures so when I get those I"ll put em up.

I ended up crashing that night around midnight with the sun just setting. A perfect end to another Amazing Alaska day!!! The next morning I got up around 8:30 and packed up the tent... walked around the harbor for a little while and then jumped back in the corolla to hit the road again. The drive back was Beautiful... seriously words can't describe how breathtaking this part of Alaska is!!! Mountains... coastal waters... bush planes... I love it all!!! Here's one picture from my favorite stop on the way back... I also stopped at my favorite pullout between fairbanks and ancorage, the south viewpoint of Denali. It was a perfectly clear day and the mountain was so pretty! I got in a lot of good thinking and relaxing time... I actually enjoy the feeling of the open road... so concludes another alaskan adventure!

Eeeek... Earthquakes!

2009-06-04T00:04:00.003-08:00

It's been a fairly "shaky" last couple of weeks here in Alaska. No major earthquakes... but many more than normal. The latest one was a 3.1 magnitude, and happened tonight around midnight. I heard the usual loud rumbling.. kinda like thunder, but not quite as loud... and the recliner I was sitting in started to shake, and objects on my desk and such started shaking, and building stronger up to about 10 seconds later when it stopped. The earthquakes haven't done any damage or anything because they've been fairly small... hopefully they stay small... haha.

Earthquakes from this past week in Alaska

Old Blog - Chatanika Days from a couple months ago

2009-05-30T08:58:00.004-08:00

Back in March I had been hearing things around town about the interesting celebration in Chatanika, a "town" if you can call it that... haha... about an hour's drive north of Fairbanks. The celebration I'm talking about is "Outhouse Races"... now the name right there peaked my interest and I knew I had to check it out. So as the weekend quickly approached I talked with a few grad students in the department, and Ashley was game to join me on this crazy adventure in Chatanika. First of all when you pulled in there was a mini parking lot for snowmachines... yes snowmachines... not snowmobiles... you've got to use the proper terminology when you're up here or you'll be considered one of those "crazy lower 48'ers..... haha. And yes "lower 48" is another term you'll hear used quite freqently up heree.

Back to the races now... they're held at the Chatanika Lodge which is basically just a cafe with about 10 small guest bedrooms attached to a wing of the building that sits just off of the main freeway to the north slope of Alaska. The inside walls are covered with old antiques you'd find in your grandma's house, and the bar area has dollar bills with signatures and messages stappled to the ceiling. The walls are also filled with countless wall mounts of bear, moose, deer, caribou aka reindeer and more. It's the perfect "Alaskan Lodge"

The video and article below show a lot of the fun that was had during the day in Chatanika... human bowling, the bucksaw contest, snowmachine tug-o-war, and of course outhouse racing. I'm hoping to get the grad students together to build and enter our own outhouse in the race next spring. Enjoy!!

FAIRBANKS — In Alaska, nothing is off limits when looking for a new way to have a good time. The annual outhouse races held at Chatanika Lodge are a perfect example of what many say “could only happen in Alaska.”

“It started as a birthday party for about nine people, one of whom was my wife. After a few adult beverages someone said, ‘I saw some outhouse races on TV. We should do that,’ and we’ve been doing them ever since,” said founder of the 30-year tradition, Gene Hansen. “It was really just a joke at first, and it just boomeranged.”

Hansen could hardly contain his chuckling while discussing the races which have brought mushers, tourists, construction workers, even the occasional scientist, to Chatanika Lodge to compete in the now infamous event. The only rules, he explained, are that each five-person team puts one on the seat, which must have a hole, and four “pushing, pulling, steering or otherwise moving” the contraption; the outhouse must be at least 5 feet tall and no wider than 6 feet. And the rider has to wear hard hat. Everyone has their own strategies, Hansen said, and he’s seen some pretty interesting approaches in the last three decades.

“We had one team that won six years in a row. They built their outhouse on a bicycle frame with a single ski to steer and a canvas siding,” he said, again laughing at the memory. “One year we had a group of MIT engineers who were up at Poker Flats doing rocket shoots come down and designed one out of an aircraft fuel tank.”

One of the strangest outhouses he recalled used a 6-foot step ladder set up on skis with canvas surrounding it.

In the past, the annual gathering included an all-day picnic, skydiver demonstrations and helicopter rides. Because of insurance costs, activities have been scaled down a bit but the main gathering — the races — still draw a crowd.

“On a bad day, we get 500 people out there. We usually get close to 1,000,” Hansen said.

While races have been as long as one eighth of a mile, this year the course will be a 150-yard sprint ran in timed events. Awards will be presented for first, second and third place winners, as well as the prettiest outhouse, voted on by the public.

“Yup, we’re even having an Outhouse Beauty Contest,” Hansen said, again laughing. “Only in Alaska.”

Things have changed some since that first race in 1978, when five houses entered the race. Now the competition draws about 10-12 teams, and has had as many as 22. The event has even garnered international and mainstream attention.

“We’ve been on TV twice on the ‘North To Alaska’ program. This year, we will be filmed by the History Channel,” Hansen said proudly, adding Japanese film crews also have shown up periodically over the years.

Asked why the tradition has maintained such a following for long, Hansen said, “stupidity is a good part of it!” But he noted it is all just good old fashioned fun.

“We’ve tried to quit a few times, but people tell us we can’t. They look forward to it,” Hansen said.

Hansen and his wife, Mebble, have become the honorary “race marshals” because of their continual planning of the event. Chatanika Lodge also has become the home for the races, which will be held Saturday and Sunday beginning at 2 p.m. There will be live entertainment from Girls with Guitars and Larry “Raindog” Raines, as well as games, food and contests.

2 Earthquakes in less than a week!

2009-05-29T21:19:00.004-08:00

The 3.7 Magnitude Earthquake about a half hour ago

So as was mentioned in the previous blog post... I awoke to a 3.8 magnitude earthquake to start off our Memorial Day roadtrip. Now sitting in my chair watching a movie tonight shortly after 9 PM we had another earthquake! This time 3.7 magnitude. It was enough to shake everything in the room... picture frames, my desk, my bed, the chair I was sitting in. It's a really weird feeling because it starts with this really low rumbling and then gets more intense. It only lasted like 10-15 seconds, but it's a weird feeling... haha... Anywhoooo... hopefully things settle down for a while now, or at least stay less than a magnitude 4. Haha...

The 3.8 Magnitude earthquake last Saturday morning at 5:30 AM

Memorial Day Weekend Roadtrip

2009-05-28T20:33:00.010-08:00

So the week before Memorial Day Ashley and I were talking over lunch and we realized that neither of us had plans to enjoy the long weekend other than possibly going into work... which sounded pretty lame... and we had both been doing work over the recent weekends. This brought us to the idea of a weekend camping at a local spot. A couple days later this turned into a full blown weekend road trip adventure to Anchorage, Alaska (about 7 hours south of Fairbanks).

The weekend roadtrip started on Saturday morning with a wakeup from mother nature... haha... in the form of a 3.8 magnitude earthquake originating about 7 miles from my house!! Okay... so it really wasn't that big... but it was enough to wake me from a sound sleep at 5:30 in the morning with my bed shaking and objects on my desk shaking! A very interesting way to start the day for sure!

Ashley and I at the Park Entrance

Me at the South viewpoint... Denali behind me...

After that fun I drove over to campus to pick up Ash and we got on the road by 6:30.... very very early for me on a weekend.. haha... but I'm very glad we did. It was a Beautiful day and the mountain range was breathtaking along the entire drive!! And we made lots and lots of stops along the way to Anchorage taking our time to stop at interesting viewpoints along the way including a half-hour stop at Denali National Park, and lunch in Talkeetna. We pulled into Anchorage in the evening and set up my tent at the campground before checking out town. It was while walking around downtown that we came up with the brilliant idea to go on a glacial tour the next morning! So we got some info and went back to make dinner over the campfire at the campsite. Dinner included roasted corn on the cob, my special sliced potatoes cooked in tin foil, and hotdogs over the fire.... dinner was served with wine and cheese "Alaska Style" aka wine in styrofoam cups and string cheese... haha..... And to conclude an amazing 1st day we enjoyed Smores before climbing into the tent for the night.... (well twilight anyways... the sun doesn't really set up here)

Ashley Cooking up her Hot Dog dinner... Yummo!

The next morning we woke up without an alarm clock around 5:30 am again... haha... We made a very tasty breakfast that included bacon and eggs fries in a pan over the campfire and then packed up for the day and drove along the turnagain arm of the Gulf of Alaska from Anchorage to Whittier.... even more breath-taking views the entire way! We stopped quite a few times for views of mountain ranges, moose, grizzley bear, and more. Eventually we made it to the tunnel to Whittier... it's a 2.5 one-way tunnel that was blasted through a mountain to get to the town... they switch the direction that's allowed to pass through about once an hour.

Lenticular Clouds!!!! Woohoo!

Ashley and I in a glacial bay outside of Whittier

So now onto Whittier.... what an Amazing little town!!! It was picture postcard perfect! Exactly what you would imagine from seeing Alaskan movies or pictures of small fishing towns! Lots and lots of local fishermen were running around backing up their sea boats for Halibut fishing... and not a cruise ship in sight! Thank goodness! So we headed over and booked our trip...at 20% off... Woohoo... because it was really early in the season and the cruise ship crazzies weren't in town yet. We lucked out as the boat only had about 30 passengers of a possible 140! Before jumping on the boat we wandered around the port and checked out the little shops. Ashley and I enjoyed lunch at a local cafe. I had fresh Halibut... and it was Sooooooo Good! Yummo!

Welcome to Whittier, Alaska!! My new favorite town!

Picture Perfect!

So then came time to board the small ship.... we had an amazing and very entertaining captain, conservation officer that explained the sights, and fun crew. It was the perfect day to see glaciers! 2 out of 3 days it rains in Whittier and we had nearly clear skies... all of the rain had fallen the day before... which was actually great because it made the glaciers produce an Amazing show! One of the glaciers we visited was calving off Huge chuncks of ice because of all of that rain!! It sounded like thunder as the huge ice pieces came crashing into the ocean below... followed by waves 20-30 feet high! One of the most amazing sights I've seen in my life! We were also able to see sea otters and sea lions on the trip... and on the way back to port... another amazing and rare sight so far in the Prince William Sound... 2 humpback whales!!! It was truly an incredible day and I'd love to return sometime yet this summer or next.

Video from the Glacier Trip

That night we returned back to Anchorage and had a wonderful dinner downtown at Glacier Brewery. I was able to try out Alaskan King Crab for the first time and boy is it ever tasty! That night we ended up crashing early because we were so exhausted! We woke the next morning and joked about how tasty a smore would be since we hadn't had one the night before and decided to start with one for breakfast... haha... then we also made up the rest of the breakfast food we had packed before breaking camp and heading back north to the interior.

On the way home we were cruising and made one brief stop at the south viewpoint for Denali. It was so funny because while we were there I hear "Becki!" and I was confused! I was like who knows me in Alaska?!? haha It turned out that one of my colleagues was heading south to Anchorage and just happened to be pulling over to stop at the exact same time in the exact same spot along this 350 mile stretch.... haha. Anyways I decided that was a sign that I'm now a "local" in Alaska... :)

We pulled back into Fairbanks around 6 pm... making the trip from Anchorage in about 5 1/2 to 6 hours... not too shabby... and the Corolla did just fine with only 1 minor problem as a stupid car kicked up a rock and put another spider crack into my poor windsheild.... oh well... it's Alaska... now my car fits in better in the parking lots... haha.

And so that concludes another Amazing Alaskan Adventure!!! The countdown to Svalbard is now on!!! I fly out on June 12th... so the countdown is 15 Days!!! Woohoo! Stay tuned!

Update on Summer Plans

2009-04-29T22:26:00.006-08:00

Hello Again,

So I figured it's time for an update so those of you viewing this blog have an idea of what adventures I will going on this coming summer. The current summer schedule is setting up:

June 12 - July 3

I will be participating in the International Polar Year 2009 Summer Field School in Svalbard. This will be my first trip overseas! Svalbard is a group of islands just east of Greenland and about midway between the tip of Norway and the North Pole. It's actually under the government of Norway. I'm very excited and honored that I was selected to participate! There were approximately 20-30 graduate students worldwide selected to take part in this program from a wide variety of polar science fields. I will post more information on this adventure as I learn more about what I'll be up to. If you're curious to see where Svalbard is on the map here's a link to a website with more information: http://wikitravel.org/en/Svalbard

July 4

I'll be flying out of Svalbard on July 3, and my plane actually stops in Minneapolis on the way back to Fairbanks, Alaska. So I'm hoping to actually spend the 4th of July this year with my mom and dad in Annandale, Minnesota! That would be the first time I've celebrated the 4th in Minnesota in 3 years! This past summer I was interning at NASA Langley Research Center in Virginia, and the summer before that I was interning at NOAA's Mauna Loa Observatory in Hilo, Hawaii. Fingers crossed it works out and my flights aren't delayed, I know it would be wonderful to see the family again! I haven't been home now since the first week in January, and my next opportunity to see them will be in October or December.

July 7 - July 19

Soon after I return to Fairbanks, Alaska I will be participating in the RAP/IARC Summer Field course concerning Global-to-Local Interactions: Assessing Social-Ecological Resilience in a Rapidly Changing North. I am also so thankful and honored to have been selected to participate! There were ~15 graduate students selected from worldwide applicants to participate. During this time we will be meeting to share our own research, and then going out into the field in Northern Alaska. The itinerary so far includes stops in Northern Alaska at:

- Bonanza Creek - Long-term Research Program (1 day)

working on moose and fire ecology

- Dalton Highway and Wiseman/Coldfoot, Alaska

plant ecology with climate change

Issues facing a village on the road system

National Park management and ecological monitoring

-Toolik Lake Field Station (1 day)

Global processes (flux; watershed ecology, thermokarst)

-Deadhorse/Prudhoe Bay (1 day)

Oil field facilities

Fish and wildlife of the North Slope, Alaska

-Village... aka "bush" Alaska (location of visit TBA) (3 days)

Local observations and adaption to change

Energy, climate change, and human migraiton

Local observations and adaptation to change

Policy issues affecting village sustainability

August 13 - Septemper 10

This is my most recent summer opportunity. My thesis advisor, Dr. Igor Polyakov, has invited me to tag along on the NABOS (Nansen and Amundsen Basins Observational System) research cruise in the Arctic Ocean north of Scandinavia and Russia. The cruise takes place on a russian icebreaker ship that checks ocean moorings and buoys in the Arctic Ocean that monitor ocean and climate. These measurements play a key role in documenting changes in the Atlantic Water Layer in the Arctic Ocean, that may be impacting the changes we are seeing in sea-ice cover over the Arctic. More information can be found at: http://nabos.iarc.uaf.edu/objectives.php

I'm very very excited about this opportunity! More information will also be posted on this adventure soon. I'm currently working on a publication with Dr. Ron Kwok of NASA JPL and my advisor, Dr. Igor Polyakov, utilizing data from past cruises to study some of these changes that we're seeing in Arctic ice cover. I'm turning into a work-a-holic, but it will be so wonderful to look back on this when I'm older to see how I was at the leading edge of scientific research in the Arctic!

So I'm very very excited for the adventures that await me this summer. I'm a little sad that I will be missing out on a large part of the beautiful and all too short Alaskan summer, but these are opportunities of a lifetime and they're impossible to pass up! I promise to take lots and lots of pictures, I've been saving up to buy a nice new digital SLR camera to help me document the sights. I'm also going to try to put together a big collage with any friends and family that would like to "join" me on my adventure. My thoughts are to take this with me and take photos of all of my friends on the ice up in the Arctic with me so you can all share and tell your friends that you were in the Arctic too... haha! If you'd like to have your picture included send me a picture of yourself and I'll add it to the collage. I'll try to write up another blog just on this subject in the near future so no one will miss out.

That's it for tonight up in Alaska. It got up to 70 degrees F today! Most of the snow is now gone, aside from the shaded areas on my driveway and in the backyard, as well the wooded areas around town. People are happy as can be now that the sun has returned. As I write this it is 11:05 PM and the sun set within the last 45 minutes. It will remain twilight past midnight and the sun will rise tomorrow before 5 AM. We're approaching nearly 24 hour sunlight! It really messes with your head and you loose track of time!

Take care! I miss you all and send warm happy wishes your way!

The Road Trip of a Lifetime!

2009-04-21T18:58:00.005-08:00

Here's a blog post I wrote for another site back in October of 2008. The post is about my move to Alaska back in mid August of 2008. Approximately 4,000 miles from my parents' home in Maple Lake, Minnesota to Fairbanks, Alaska. Enjoy!

Hmmm... where to start...

I guess first of all some reflections on Alaska.... It's Beautiful! I love the landscape! The drive up here on the Al-Can was nothing short of the road trip of a lifetime. I love my dad sooooo much! We had a lot of really interesting and deep conversations on the drive, I am so greatful for that time we had together now that we're so far apart. We drove around 1,000 miles a day for 4 days to get from my parents house in Maple Lake, Minnesota to Fairbanks, Alaska. That's like 10-12+ hours a day... haha... so lots and lots of time together in my lil Corolla.

The first part of the trip was through western North Dakota... which I was shocked to learn had a lot of oil drilling going on... we saw lots and lots and lots of fields.... and the same landscape of oil drilling and fields continued well on into Canada. We made it about 3-4 hours into Canada on our first day and found a campground to spend the night at. Both of us in my lil 2 man tent that I had just bought at Cabela's. We had cots that barely fit into the tent so it was a very very tight fit... haha... but all that more entertaining when dad started snoring... haha. I actually didn't mind the snoring though... it was just normal for me to hear it because growing up we'd always here dad snoring at night.... haha... kinda reminded me of those good ol days.

Towards the end of the 2nd day of our trip we started to get to the pretty landscape... some of the beginnings of the mountains... there was a TON of driving the 2nd day because we wanted to get further along so we're have time for sightseeing in alaska before dad had to fly home. Did you know that gas is Sky High in canada... like seriously... we were paying (converted to US dollars) any where from 5.50.... to 7.50 a gallon... lol... it was insane... The second night we stayed at a hotel... Dad said we had earned it for all of the miles we had put on... and it was nice to have a hot shower.

Come morning we were back on the road again now into the Alaska Range... SOOOOoooo beautiful! Around every bend whoever happened to be in the passenger seat at the time just kept clicking away with the digital camera.... lol.... We also made it to the official start of the Al-Can (Alaska-Canada Highway) and the whole time during this trip we were following along with "The Milepost" magazine/book. They have lil tidbits about every 10 miles or so about a steep road ahead or watch for wildlife... or beware of Bison on the road... yes Bison... crazy enough there are a lot of them wandering along the roads in canada. So the end of that night we made it to a nice sized town and headed in to find this awesome place for dinner that we had read about in the book. We waited outside on the street for about an hour before we were seated... haha... but it was well worth the wait. We had the Bison Steak and Moose Stew...and of course some Alaska Beer....mmmmmmmmm sooooo good! After dinner the sun was starting to set so we hurried to try to find a place to camp for the night... the one we had staked out was really really weird... Nothing but crazy Hippies!!! I SWEAR!!! Oh my gosh it was insane I don't know how else to describe it.... dad was like lets just find a spot here but i was tooo weirded out... lol... so we drove around and eventually found another campground with a spot open. When we tried to set up the tent the ground was rock hard and the stakes wouldn't go in and dad was getting very very frustrated... which never happens... i think the hours on the road were getting to him... so i tried to make light of the situation... haha... we ended up moving the tent into the woods... haha.. kinda funny... guess you had to be there.

Next morning ... up bright and early again... and started as always with our morning stop at the gas station to fill up the tank.... debug the windsheild... lol... and fill up on Coffee... MMmmmmm I love my coffee!!! This leg of the trip was amazing too! We started to see more hitchhikers which i guess is a common scene... kinda weird to me though... We eventually crossed into Alaska and made the treck up to Fairbanks... at this point I was starting to get that nervous feeling... I was extremely anxious to arrive and a lil sad too. We eventually made it into town and found my new house. We pulled up to the house and met Steve my landlord/owner of the house. Then after lots of akwardness we headed to Sourdough Sam's for something to eat. After some interesting dinner chat about Steve and fairbanks we stopped at the store for some local beer and went back to my new place.

Dad and I had a few beers on the deck and watched the sunset and made plans to go to Denali Park the next morning. The next day we got up early and drove down about 3 1/2 hours to Denali Park. We ended up getting on a bus into the park... it was about 9 hours round trip. The park is BREATHTAKING! A must see at some point in your lifetime! We really lucked out because we had a clear morning and were able to clearly see Mount McKinley aka Denali... aka highest mountain in North America. We also saw Tons of wildlife... and dad... being the hunter he is... was able to spot Tons! We saw over a dozen grizzley bears... they're Massive! We even saw 2 of them fighting... and a few mama bears with cubs. We saw caribou aka reindeer, moose, and doll sheep. It was a Great Day! One that I'll never ever forget!!! On the drive back at the end of the day Dad told me how nice it was to go on the trip with me... mom would have never been able to sit for that long... and dad also said it was the first trip he's been on in a long time where the passenger wasn't sleeping or reading or something while he was driving... I'm so glad he was able to come with me!!!

So the next morning was a lil bittersweet... we slept in and it was the last day he was here with me. In the morning we drove up to see campus... which was kinda neat. I'm glad he was able to see where I work. It makes it a lot easier to talk about people and work when he know's what and who I'm talking about... haha... After that we drove around and explored town a lil before coming back to the house to grab his things. We were both really sad but trying to hide it. Dad went out on the deck for a long time facing away and just looking at the landscape... Eventually I went out there too and we were both trying to choke bad the tears and be strong. That only lasted so long.... he came over to my side of the deck and put his arms around my shoulders and said... "I'm so proud of you Becki".... I lost it. We stood there hugging and I was crying so hard I was shaking and he was crying too. I've only seen my dad cry 1 time in my life and that was when his mom (my grandma) died.... we stood there talking and crying and hugging for like a half hour. He told me he was so proud I had the guts to come up here and try this and reach for my goals... and he also said that no matter what happened I always had "home" in minnesota. Before you know it ... it was time for him to get to the airport...

That was the hardest drive ever.... dropping him off and giving him that one last hug.... man I swear it killed me.... we were both sobbing once again as we let go of each other... him heading into the terminal.... and me driving away alone.... I cried and cried and cried the whole drive back to the house...

I tried to distract myself but it didn't work... That night and the next few nights I cried myself to sleep... It was so weird to get so close again and share such an amazing trip with my dad and then have to say goodbye for 4+ months. I was also coming to the realization that I really was Alone.... and I really needed to get out and meet some new people... which leads me to my next section...

Man sorry this is crazy long... but it's been a long time since I've blogged so I guess it's due....

I'm alone up here... it's insane... I slowly started to meet people in the department I work in but people up here aren't like the people in Minnesota and North Dakota. Everyone pretty much keeps to themselves and/or has a really tight group of friends to stick with... which has made fitting in up here really really difficult for me.

I've started to learn to just kinda do my own thing. I spent my birthday alone at home in my room with a bottle of wine and a few good disney movies... nothing close to the fun last year out with my Amazing friends in North Dakota... but I guess it's time to grow up and move on too... i dunno. Sometimes I just get kinda bummed out up here... it's hard but hopefully things will get better...

I know I CAN'T WAIT for Christmas break.... I miss home and my family... and my friends... more than I ever thought I would... Sigh... I'm all talked out for now... write more later...

So that's the roadtrip in a nutshell... sorry about the sad part at the end. I didn't want to edit this though because it's something I want to be able to look back and reflect on in the future. My first semester here was pretty hard... it's breathtakingly beautiful up here but it took me some time to "find my feet" up here. Now all is well so no need to worry ;) Happier posts to come soon!

Update and gameplan for the blog

2009-04-21T18:31:00.002-08:00

Alright so here's the gameplan.... I'm going to start by sharing experiences I've had since I moved to Alaska to update everyone. I may slip in posts about new adventures that come up in the process as well. Once I'm caught up on my Alaska adventures I may also go back and share more about this past summer living in Virginia and working at NASA Langley Research Center... as well as the summer of 2007 living in Hilo, Hawaii and working for NOAA at the Mauna Loa Observatory. So here goes nothing.... the post you'll see above this will include the road trip I took with my Dad up the Al-Can highway moving to Alaska. I wrote it for another blog site this past fall. Enjoy!

A place to look back on past adventures...

2009-04-15T22:45:00.002-08:00

Welcome to my new blog!

So I've been trying finally get around to starting a blog for like a year now, so this is finally it! I was just talking with Julie the other day about how nice it would be to have an online journal to look back at one day, and read up on all of the adventures life had thrown at me throughout the years... so here it is!!!

Julie your blog was my inspiration.. haha! You always have such neat adventure stories so it's about time I finally start this! So here goes nothing! Check back whenever you like, I'll try to post a few pictures and short updates about where life leads me in my day to day life. I love comments too so feel free to let me know what you think. This could be a great way for my family and friends in the lower 48 to see what I'm up to. I love you and miss you all!