Super Anniversary

I feel this summer we have been major tourists of our little town, I just hope we didn't already do ALL the things that are to be done already in our first summer.

Anyway, it's always good to have friends in high places so we scored ourselves two free tickets to the Arctic Circle...by air. Perfect timing too, cause our anniversary was a few days away and it was the best present.

The trip was set to leave at noon and arrive home around midnight, so a great couple in our ward said they would watch Charlie...even have her spend the night so we wouldn't have to worry about waking her up. The day before, we got a call from the tour company and they had changed it to 6am-6pm instead. Blerg! Luckily, our friends were super nice and they took Charlie anyway. We have a great kid. She took her naps when she needed to and never made a fuss or anything ALL day. It's always nerve racking to leave your child with someone else, hoping they are behaving. But I wasn't worried the entire day. I love that about Charlie, so carefree and easy going.

Anyway, we start off in a very small plane.

It was about an hour flight. The sunrise was awesome to see from that perspective

and I got to ride shotgun

This photo is totally not taken on purpose. I just wanted to get a shot of the pilot and it just so happened that it was while he was blinking. In no way was he asleep or not focused. I didn't notice how it looked until we got home. Funny.

I felt bad after I volunteered myself to ride up there cause there were 2 kids in our party from Indonesia. I'm sure they would have loved it. But then mid ride I noticed one kid was asleep...I didn't feel bad after that. I was totally nervous in such a small plane, so I specifically made note on how the pilot was communicating with air traffic control..you know, just in case. It was funny, cause Jim was having the same thoughts and was mentally trying to figure out how he would get the pilot out of his seat if necessary.

What was so great about the flight was seeing these remote cities where you only have access via plane. I can't remember the name of this town, but I think it would be kinda neat to live there. I couldn't get over how cool the place looked from the air. There's probably only 30 people there or something, but the waterways just looked so interesting.

Another fun thing was landing on the tiniest dirt air strip. The city of Coldfoot has a population of like 4 people. Very remote. Anyway, once we get there we start our tour via bus back to Fairbanks...with a few stops along the way.

Our tour guide, Michelle was incredible. I almost wanted to ask her a question just to see if she knew the answer. She new EVERYTHING. What an amazing wealth of Alaska knowledge, who I can't wait to hang out with. Such a cool cat.

In the group was a couple from Australia, Peter and Janet and a family from Indonesia...there were I think 14 of them. Fun family. They didn't speak a lot of English, but they must have understood a lot more cause the old lady sitting behind me would throw out random words for me to ask Michelle like, "tundra?". Yes, old lady from Indonesia...that would be considered a tundra. Out of all the words in the American language to know?

We had the best time talking to Peter and Janet. We talked about politics, the different animals our two countries have and the similarities and differences between us. It was very fun. BTW, when will we start implementing 4 week vacations? Come on America.

We stopped off to see the countryside...

This baby is not only for sale, but they had two of them.

the pipeline...

dug a hole to touch the permafrost...

Alaska tip #1: The wise man built his house upon a rock. There are places in Alaska where the ground a few feet down is permafrost. The ice underneath just never gets a chance to melt. If you do built a house on it, you have to jack your house up every year because it will start to sink. So we walked on the permafrost, it was all squishy...like those soft play mats at fancy parks. You'll drive along the road and see houses sinking due to the permafrost. The land is cheep...but there are consequences.

Stopped at Finger Rock...Jim made the comment "I wonder why they didn't call it Middle Finger Rock" This gave me an idea...

Finger mountain was more like finger little stack of rocks. I think we're a hard up for attractions here.

Gobblers Knob...

And of course crossed the Arctic Circle...

The ever cool Michelle.

Peter and Janet.

Well, there you go. And in case you didn't know (i didn't) the Arctic Circle is according to Wikipedia...

The Arctic Circle marks the southern extremity of the polar day (24-hour sunlit day, often referred to as the "midnight sun") and polar night (24-hour sunless night). North of the Arctic Circle, the sun is above the horizon for 24 continuous hours at least once per year and below the horizon for 24 continuous hours at least once per year. On the Arctic Circle those events occur, in principle, exactly once per year, at the June and Decembersolstices, respectively.

Class Dismissed.