Frrrosssty

Today my friend Kris and I took a little day trip down to Denali.  It was an absolutely beautiful day - clear and sunny but oh sooooo chilly.  We had an awesome view of Mount McKinley - all white and snowy and glacier covered.  I was reminded of how much I love mountains and glacial landscapes.  

    

Awesome braided river - we climbed down there and threw rocks into the river. ahh, simple pleasures.

Mount McKinley - Alaskans call it Denali, but I think that's kinda confusing being that the national park is called Denali. We were super lucky to see it today because it is often hidden up in the clouds.

blehhh

The days are getting shorter and coupled with grey dreary clouds. It's depressing. I've come to resent my lovely windows because the view is so bleak. Occasionally there is a break in the clouds and the sun light spills through. Everything is so beautiful in the sunlight but these moments are fleating and rarely occur on my lunch hour or after 4:30. 

They say that this is the darkest part of the year. As soon as the snow sticks it will reflect the light. It still sounds bleak. 


Did I mention that it's cold.

Trip to Anchorage

A couple of weekends ago I took a road trip down to Anchorage.  On Friday, after work I rushed home to pack up a few things, picked a couple of my new friends and we were off by about 6.  It's a 361 miles from fairbanks so with a few stops along the way, we got to anchorage shortly after midnight. 

Saturday we went to the Temple in Anchorage and in the afternoon we went to see Lion King.  The traveling show came to Alaska and it was AMAZING - seriously I was impressed.  I had heard that it was good but I wasn't all that excited to go.  I don't usually go to shows except when I'm in New York or London, no reason really - just never get arround to it.  But I've decided that's just stupid.  It was totally worth it.  If you ever get I chance, go! 


After the show we piled back into my little car and started back to Fairbanks.  We stopped in Wassilla for dinner where we did not see the Palins - real disapointment.  And after a couple more stops we made it back arround 1:30 am.

first snow

The first snow came in right on cue. The first day of fall here in Alaska was grey and drizzly and snow. It didn't stick but there were flakes floating through the air today.

the days are getting shorter

Over the past month since I arrived in Fairbanks I have witness the days getting shorter and shorter.  The days were still long when I got here and it stayed light untill after 9 and the sun was up before I was. However, as the weeks have gone by it has been darker and darker each morning when I get up. Today is the equinox - which means that we here in Fairbanks, like everyone else on the planet had 12 hours of sunlight. It's all down here from here. I took a walk at lunch time to soak up some much needed sun because its going fast. 

It hasn't gotten to cold yet and I don't think that we've had a frost yet. The flowers are still blooming and strangely enough, the lilacs are still blooming. Its seems that the summers here are so condensed that the plants get kinda confused.  

tundra is beautiful

 

Ahhhhhhh, isn't it lovely. 

A couple of weeks ago, while my parents were still here we drove down to Denali National Park. And while we did not see mount McKinley, we did see lots of beautiful scenery and the tundra was in fine form. I never thought of tundra being so pretty but it is - especially in the fall when the plants change all sorts of pretty colors. 

Here's a close up of the fireweed. 

Meanwhile, fall is here in Fairbanks. The days are getting shorter and the leaves have all turned. I sense that winter is on its way, so I best live up this lovely weather and scenery while it lasts.

cabbages of unusual size

When I lived in Helsinki, my dear friend Gina and I would visit this crazy lady named Sister Tikkanen every other week. She lived in a little apartment and had collected so many things and so much stuff that her living room had the feeling of a storage closet at a museum. She was afraid to leave her apartment and was desperate for visitors, however, she was always angry with us for one reason or another. It seemed as though we could never win with Sister Tikkanen. I was always anxious on such visits as I was walking on eggshells while fighting off a claustrophobia.

On one such visit to Sister Tikkanen excitedly told us about the new cabbages that she had acquired. Confused at first we listened on as she jabbered away. Her English was quite good and our of fear of creating more confusion by our limited Finnish, so our visits were in English. We soon realized that she meant cabinets, not cabbages, but instead of correcting her we stifled out laughs and let her continue on about how much storage they provided. After admiring her cabbages we were on our way and I can't remember if we made it all the way our of her building without busting up.

I don't think that this picture really captures the shear enormity of these cabbages. They are so big that it is hard to think of a comparison - the only thing that comes to mind is a beach ball. Yet a beach ball seems a poor comparison because it fails to convey the mass - I can't even guess how much these suckers weigh. It seems that everything is simply bigger here in Alaska. And to think of all the storage potential.