Alaska, Part 1

We're here!

Our flight from Seattle to Fairbanks left at 9pm Friday night, just as the sun was disappearing over the horizon.  As we sat on the plane, the sky got progressively brighter.  By the time we arrived in Fairbanks around midnight, it was indeed fully bright outside- still about an hour before "sunset".  There is apparently about 2.5 hours of darkness each night right now, and that increases by a few minutes each day.  For the last two nights we've been staying in a little rental cabin (thanks, Josh's dad) which thankfully has dark, heavy curtains... but I'm very curious to see how, and if, I'll sleep once we're camping.  [I'm not thinking about the fact that I probably wouldn't sleep anyway because I'd be lying awake listening for bears.  Yay.] 

We hung out around Fairbanks yesterday, walked by the river, checked out some stores, visited the University of Alaska's museum.  At one point, near downtown, we drove by a roadside gathering of the Interior Alaska Conservative Coalition.  They had a table at which you could join the Tea Party, and they were selling full body armor suits for $100.  Very creepy.  I debated taking a photo, but didn't feel like pushing my luck.  You don't taunt the grizzly bears when you're in the forest up here, and I wasn't going to push these guys' buttons either.

I've already had delicious halibut, rockfish, and king crab legs.  I plan to eat as much seafood as possible in the next two weeks.  And I know I'm easily excited by lush, green environment... but man, the plants and flowers here are absolutely gorgeous. Can't wait to see more of the wild flowers once we get further away from town.  No good photos yet, but I'll try to post some when I get them.

This afternoon we will head out of town to Josh's dad's cabin, which is about 60 miles away from Fairbanks, in the mountains.  We will probably stay there, tool around the property, play with the dogs, etc. until we come back through town to catch our train to Denali on Wednesday morning.  We're camping at Denali for three nights.  Expect some amazing photos of my feet upon our return.