It keeps on raining

Rain has been a daily visitor for weeks now.  Our deck looks very sad in the rain.  And it just keeps on pouring. I hate to even say it, but it is July and we have the heat on.  Oh summer, where art thou?  

Santa is kicking back: Summer in North Pole

The inside scoop on Santa: we paid him a visit in North Pole (check out my previous post for more info on Santa's town) to see what he is up to during the summer season.  We were practically his only visitors, so he paid us lots of attention.  We found out that he loves to travel; in fact Mrs. Santa is dreaming about a European tour and riding the Orient Express sometime soon.  Mosquitoes are not bothering him (well of course not, no naughty 'squito dares to mess with the Big Nick) and he loves forty below.  Now you know.

Santa was casual and funny.  Small Moose and Big Moose had tons of fun with him.  And no, he is not strangling Small Moose despite appearances....it's just a little move of his called Polar Headlock :)

Santa Claus House.  North Pole, Alaska

Rose hips were in full bloom in Santa's garden

Summer Kick-off 2011

The birch trees are gracefully turning vivid green with new leaves:

The sun is still out at 11 pm:

 

We are once again able to marvel at the beauty of our valley without the need for heavy protective gear:

Tomorrow we are heading South to Homer on the Kenai Peninsula for a one-week RV road trip.  

View Larger Map

I am busy cleaning and packing, and feeling a little bit behind.  Small Moose's name day yesterday, and the cake he requested for the occasion set me back many hours -seriously.  This gelatin-laden, 5 layer cake took me 5 hours to achieve, during which time I swore silently that I would never, ever let my kids choose some random cake off the cover of a cook book.  But then, once done, I was ready to do it all over again when I saw the smile on Small Moose's face:

 

 

 So we're off on our trip, ready to see Awesome Alaska (Big Moose is thrilled that we will be driving past 4 volcanoes: Mt. Spurr, Mt. Redoubt, Mt. Iliamna, and Mt. St. Augustine).  We'll be back with lots of pictures.  Until then: Happy Summer to you all!

Ice-pocalyps 2010

Fairbanks is iced in. The roads are, quite literally, ice skating rinks. This is not an overstatement: yesterday the whole town came to a halt. Many drivers very optimistically thought their driving skills were solid enough to overcome the challenge, but soon realized there is no driving on this stuff when cars began to slide down backwards on hills, sideways into ditches, and 5 school buses ended up off road. A gravel truck did a 360. Fire trucks slid into fellow drivers. You get the picture.

Things started Monday morning around 7 am, when freezing rain started to drizzle. We were forewarned by the National Weather Service, so when I got up at 6, I obsessively began to look outside at our street. By 8 the street looked as if a Zamboni had licked it into a fine sheen. Overall at least an inch of ice had accumulated in town, more outside. I stopped J from going to work when he was already backing out of the garage, unaware of the quickly deteriorating conditions. When we checked local news and websites we realized that this is the worst ice this town has ever experienced.  These are unseasonably warm temperatures, too but not for long as the temps will drop by a cool 60 degrees by this weekend, and we'll be in -20F -or so say the weather watchers.

School and work are canceled for the rest of the week. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Winter Colors

Sunrise

Winter Eyes

Summer Good Byes

From Green to Bare, From 60 to 30: Fall in Fairbanks

Oh, no, don't you blink, or you might miss it! "What?", you ask? Autumn in Fairbanks, of course! It lasts precisely 4 weeks sometime between the end of August and the end of September.

So the story goes like this: sometime during the last week of August you notice that birch leaves are starting to turn yellow. The next day you wake up and realize that many more have done just that, and a few even have given up and fallen to the ground. Two weeks later you realize the birch trees are half bare, and your yard is blanketed with what was shed. Two weeks after that, the birch tree in front of your house looks positively winter-ready. Also, you go from temperatures in the mid-sixties (18 C for you Europeans) one week to mid-thirties and below the next ( 2C).

Kids went from shorts to coats and hats / gloves virtually overnight. Winter is here. The slide show above chronicles this process via the annual death of our birch tree at the end of the driveway. The first photo was taken on August 28 (very few yellow leaves) and the last on September 25 (bare branches).

And now the harvest moon can no longer hide behind the veil of foliage. Brrr...

"I want to lick it!"

Location: North Pole, Alaska, 16 mi South of Fairbanks. Population 2200. Home of world famous Santa Claus House, and 44 candy cane light poles.

(and a McDonald's, a Wendy's, a Subway, a Taco Bell, and a Pizza Hut. I guess even elves need to eat...fast!)

It is a place of wonderment for all. Small Moose can hardly take the sight of the huge candy cane light poles. "I want to lick it!" he exclaims, reaching for one. Cute.

OK, so this happened years ago, when he was two. But we always think of him when we drive through town. Like we did the other day, following a fun filled trip to Birch Lake. To us, North Pole will always be the place of lick-able light poles.


(Winter scence. Source: oregonlive.com)

Alaskan Wildlife

I know what most people think at the mention of wildlife in Alaska: moose, bears, wolves, arctic fox, ptarmigans....well, this last week has been a little different. First we ran into a thieving, hot-dog eating squirrel, then met "Lucky Bird," the talking, laughing cockatoo in downtown Fairbanks taking a walk on her owner's arm. So...

Last weekend we attended an outdoor picnic at the University. It was a beautiful day, and we had lots of fun especially when we noticed that a thieving squirrel took Small Moose's hot dog right off his plate, then ran into the woods. (That's for the best in my opinion, since I don't condone hot dog eating in my family anyway. I even felt sorry for the squirrel I have so much disdain for hot dogs: )



Then just a few days ago while visiting friends downtown, we met "Lucky Bird" the cockatoo. Lucky repeats "Hello Lucky Bird!" over and over again, and she pulls her owner's zipper down on her sweater, but the funniest thing is her laughter. She laughs just like her owner... The children had a blast with Lucky Bird, and the more the children laughed, the more the bird laughed back. Her owner has had her for 15 years, so I asked how many times she's heard "Hello Lucky Bird!" by now. She gave a long-suffering smile and said "Too many to count."

Lucky also does a mean Darth Vader. Her owner thinks it's the sound of a group of people talking together but I beg to differ. Anyway, it's caught on video right as it starts, so judge for yourselves. Lucky seemed camera shy at first, but then started with her laughing routine, and closed the show with the zipper-pulling trick.

May Snow

If you've ever lived through rough, long, dark winters, then you know the elation and exuberance one feels when spring arrives. In Fairbanks this happens to us all, every year, and often some of us over-zealous and sun-deprived Fairbanksans start gardens and put out hanging plants the first few days of May.... Then it freezes and snows again.. I took this picture of my -actual- backyard on May 5th. Yep, it snowed and of course it did so on the very same day I allowed Small Moose to wear shorts to school for the first time this season. Up until this day, we saw warm temperatures and lots of sun during the week. It hadn't snowed in weeks.....for that matter we hardly had any snow all winter, it's been unusually dry.

Then, the next morning we woke up, and it was so warm that all the rooftops were evaporating the accumulated moisture. It was very pretty, and very warm that day.

"Sad Meal"

In our town we have a certain fast food restaurant (let's call it the McPlace that sells McHappy Meals) whose unhappy neighbor hung an effigy of it's beloved mascot McClown in protest. We avoid eating at McPlace at nearly all cost, less as a political statement and more to avoid suffering from a McStomach (you know the McBurps and McGurgles) but last week, coming home after a backyard BBQ with friends, and unable to resist the siren call of a McHot Fudge Sundae we pulled into the drive-through of this certain McPlace. McClown could be seen dangling high atop the fence as always. Gotta love Fairbanks.

After settling for fruity parfaits, because the McIce Cream Machine was McBroken, Small Moose asked: "What's in a Sad Meal?"

Oh, I love my children so much!

Maybe a Sad Meal is McClown's last before he is lynched. I'm not sure if this had anything to do with Small Moose being in a dark mood, nevertheless his question was priceless. Here is a picture of our Sad McClown. It was taken in the winter, and is harder to see due to his snow cap. But there he is in his yellow jacket, just over the fence.