Farewell to Alaska

This isn't one of our photos but
we did see the lights like these
above trees like these - then the
lights just went dancing all
over the sky - fantastic!

Northern Lights really successful viewing 1.  We had resigned ourselves to a blissful all night sleep due to the snow and rain during the day when all of a sudden, at 12.30am, there was a phone call from the front desk to say the lights were showing.  No hesitation, we were up and gone to our near viewing point.  It’s really hard to put into words how amazing the Aurora Borealis is, even harder to capture in a photo without the right gear.  Another night.

After a nice sleep in following the previous nights shenanigans we decided

Candy cane lampposts

to go to North Pole.  North Pole, Alaska where they have candy canes for lampposts and a Christmas store that is open all year round.  We weren’t fooled by the lampposts so didn’t break any teeth and managed to shop just with our eyes (yes, it can be done). 

Even the fire hydrants are in
Christmas colours

We spent the next day at the Chena Hot Springs making use of their facilities.  Naturally our first priority was lunch.  This was followed by a visit to their Ice Museum.  Some amazing pieces on display plus, for the small fee of $600 you can spend the night there – there are 4 rooms decked out for visitors.  Apparently no one has lasted the entire night – it’s too cold and there is no indoor plumbing. 

Life-sized jousting knights - the original piece was 5 times larger

Ice fire place complete with fire

Very cool Aurora Ice Bar - it's cool because it's all made from ice
and serves appletinis

We finished up the tour of the museum with an appletini served in a glass made from ice.  We also got to keep the glass.  Pretty sure these ones won’t survive the flight back to Pennsylvania to join our other souvenir glasses.

With sensible clothes for -5C temperature

Can't stay sensible for long - Cheers!

Also spent some time in the Hot Springs that Chena is famous for.  Bliss!  Have seen lots of photos around the place that show snow piled high on the boulders around the pool – we had to suffer through a gloriously sunny (albeit a bit cool) day.  As the photos tell, we were suffering lots but gritting our teeth and soldiering on.

Northern Lights really successful viewing 2.  Sue hadn’t even got to bed when the call came through from the front desk that the lights were shining bright in the sky.  A rude awakening for Jean when Sue turned the lights on but a quick change into thermals and we were off.  A lot more activity tonight but still not ideal for the luminescent photos.  It really is amazing to watch the lights weave their way across the sky all shimmery and ethereal.

So now it’s time to farewell Alaska.  Our flight is in the wee hours so may get one more viewing of Aurora Borealis before heading back to the Lower 48.