Chilly Alaska

I arrived home last night from Alaska.  It was an amazing, exhausting, very cold week! We crammed in as many activities as possible!  But it was so worth it in all the ways.

We spent a day in Anchorage doing Acts of Kindness around town.  The project I loved most was going in to laundromats and handing people baggies of quarters to help with their laundry.  I didn't realize how much a laundry is! What we gave them might have covered one load in one machine.  I guess the reason I liked doing that so much is because anyone who is doing their laundry at a laundromat has a roof over their heads, but they're probably just getting by with what little money they have and don't have the machines at home.   

Everyone asks if I saw the Northern Lights. I did!  It wasn't like I expected.  I've done a little reading today to find out why the lights appeared white/gray as opposed to green. Here's a kindergarten explanation, why that happens.  

Very often, the lights will appear green and can be seen by the naked eye, especially the closer you are to the Arctic poles.  Fairbanks is in a great spot to see lights, but it's not uncommon to see them farther south when the conditions are right.   White-ish lights are a "weaker" version of the green (my guess?).  The more colorful the lights, the more energy there is with solar wind, solar flares, and all the other things that have to come together to make them colorful.  What we saw was more like the picture above.  The lights definitely moved around, morphing into crazy bands and shapes, "dancing" too.  A DSLR camera and long exposures would pick up the green and other colors, because they "see" better than we do.

We followed a FB page that allows people to post in real time where they see the lights. Tuesday we went to Poker Flats where we saw some lights, a great introduction for me.  Wednesday night, we went to Murphy Dome where the lights were on full display.  On top of the dome is a big clearing, so the lights were visible from horizon to horizon, above us and on both sides of us, continually morphing and moving, bands splitting or merging, sometimes "curtains" (vertical displays).  It was truly amazing.

We also went dog sledding.  The tour guide had run Iditarod three times (1000 MILES) and countless other dog races.  We went to his ranch where he keeps and trains the dogs. They are all husky mixes, and all 40 come from the same parents. Every musher uses their own commands to tell the dogs whether to turn right or left -  with all the dogs he trains.  It was a really fun experience, definitely not something that should be missed in the Alaska winter!

We stayed with the Christiansen's in Fairbanks, friends of Annette from working in the Anchorage Temple.  They are in the temple presidency so spend a lot of time in Anchorage -- except not at this moment, during the pandemic.  Workers from farther out will come to Anchorage for a week to do their shifts.  After a 3 week break, they come back to do another week.  There isn't a lot going on at the temple right now, as you know.  Presidency meetings are held over Zoom, occasionally there's a missionary going out or a sealing.  I'm told its beautiful inside, but small!  I'm grateful temples spread over  much of the world, making those blessing available for so many people.

I joked with Annette that next time I come to Alaska, it will be in the summer!  I have fulfilled all the Alaskan winter adventures I hoped to do in my life!