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Published: November 30th 2011
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We started out with a quick stop in North Pole, Alaska. A cute little town where they celebrate Christmas all year ‘round. Even the local Laundromat had a Christmas theme. We of course had to stop at Santa’s house for a visit. We took our time looking around and picking up souvenirs. We pushed down the road a bit further before stopping for lunch. We were so glad we did. We found a lake called Birch Lake with a mirror reflection surface and a parking area. We had it all to ourselves.
I’d like to note here how thoughtful Alaska is. Everywhere I turn there is an out-house. It is fantastic. Sure I made use of Mother Nature but the out houses were available on the Dalton Highway, Richardson Highway and the Glenn Highway. The only highway I don’t remember seeing them on was the Parks Highway. A container of wet wipes in the car and you can go anywhere without dehydrating yourself first.
I took a good 2 hour stretch of the driving so that Dan could relax and enjoy the view. The timing was great. We drove through some of the best views of the trip so far. Purple
mountain majesty gave way to white caped majesty. There were rivers and creeks and lakes galore. This is where Dan was able to get proof that we saw an animal. While slowly following a construction guide vehicle down a 5 mile stretch of road Dan saw what he first thought was a dog. It was a fox. A good sized one to and he caught it on video.
Here is a “Vacation” moment. We pull into the Tolsona Lake resort to an empty lot not a soul to be seen. We look around and I see a sign on the door that says closed Monday and Tuesday. We felt like Clark Grizwald. Fortunately, there was a note on the inner door inviting us to call the hostess who will pop on over and check us in and feed us. She didn’t include the area code though. Since we were prepared with emergency contact numbers we figured it out right quick.
All settled in we grabbed a drink and started exploring our new surroundings. We met a couple of the local residents who had just gotten home from work. Nice folks. Jim rents the apartment and told us about the local
nature sites and animals. Sally who stayed in one of the motel rooms told us about a great restaurant to go to while in Seward.
7:30 rolled around and Sharon returned to make us dinner. Dan had the steak and I had cod. The view was amazing. A crystal clear mirror lake and the setting sun amid a riot of fall color. During dinner we engaged our hostess in conversation while listening to country legends on Dan’s blackberry. Sharon advised us that the local news was calling for a northern lights sighting. Both our eyes lit up. We went all the way to the Arctic Circle for the “light show” and a camp fire. Maybe, just maybe we would be able to see it here; in a town where we thought there would be nothing to do but finally post this journal on the internet. Sharon graciously let us use some of her fire wood and a starter pack. It took Dan and I nearly an entire pack of 26 matches to get it lit. Stupid wind. Boy was it cold. But with our camp fire blazing merrily our only concern was keeping the beer warm.
We waited in the
icy night air for about an hour alternately hugging the fire and figuring out how to take a picture of the night sky. We thought we saw something starting in the sky as there was a weird band of haze forming above the horizon for about 30 min. I was cold and getting tired by the minute. I had gone as long as I could take it with no show. I decided to lie down.
Just as I got comfortable and almost asleep the door to the room opens and Dan says “there is something happening here. You have to see it.” I was not gracious. I was grumpy. I had just gotten warm. When I went outside I had seen that the band had widened and there was a greenish tinge to it. Dan had taken some pictures and said “here look”. The picture showed what my eyes could not see. A bright green band, there were the northern lights. Exhaustion had a lot to do with it but at first I was not so impressed. “Oh”, I thought “this is not what I expected”. I looked for a little bit and scuttled back to the room to get
some much needed sleep. Once again after nearly falling asleep an even more excited Dan pokes his head in the room and says “It’s moving you have to see this”. I put all the layers back on a gain with more care this time. I knew Dan would not have called me out into the cold again if he were not convinced that this was truly what I was hoping to see.
This was it. Shimmering just enough to tell it was moving the lights had nearly filled the night sky. When using the camera with a long shutter speed the results were amazing. I was excited even if Dan couldn’t tell. I was still cold, tired and grumpy. I felt bad for being a party pooper. We finally saw amazing Northern Lights and had a bonus camp fire on a cold clear Alaska night.
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