North to Fairbanks!

Wednesday - September 3, 2014

We start waking up around 7 am Alaskan time as it's about 8 am in Los Angeles and my body doesn't realize yet that I can sleep in a little longer.  But being as I'm in Alaska, I'm excited and get up so we can head down for breakfast.  Today is going to be a long, long, long day.  (And btw, this is going to be a long, long, long post.)

The hotel provided us with a free breakfast - it's not sexy or exciting (no omelet stand like Hyatt House has I'm afraid), though they do have the holy grail of free breakfasts: the waffle maker.  Tada!  We LURVE the waffle thingy.  And they didn't just have it - they were fancy and had both regular and blueberry batter.  Bliss!  (yes, we're easily pleased).  They had some corned beef hash (super salty) and  rubbery scrambled eggs, but they also had hard boiled eggs (it's really hard to mess that up), assorted cereals, breads, muffins, pastries, yogurts, fruit and coffee.  They served pretty good coffee - and they had two different types (not including decaf), juices, milk, and teas.  AND they had little pods of flavored creamer.  I love places that provide that.  Being that I like some coffee with my sweetened creamer, I make do when I only have (sniff) half and half - but get very excited when flavored creamer is provided.  It's such a small thing, but it makes a difference to me when a place thinks of little details like different types of flavored creamer.  While this isn't gourmet (dude, this is free) this is still a decent breakfast and you won't be walking away hungry.

funky waffle courtesy of Ray, who made the rookie mistake of not putting enough batter on the waffle iron.  Oh well, its ugliness did not affects its carbilicious deliciousness

cute little breakfast area (with a stuffed goat in a glass display case)

After breakfast we went back up to our room to pack and to head out since we had a 382 mile drive ahead of us to get to Cleary Summit in Fairbanks where we have lodgings for the next four nights.  But being that we're just a little bit crazy, we decided to go to Costco first.  Because that's always where we head first.  When we went to Maui in 2008, the first place we went to after picking up our rental car was Costco.  Because we're awesome like that.  After we loaded up our cart with assorted snacks, beverages and other random things we decided we couldn't do without in Alaska, we then decided that instead of stopping for food along the way (always suspicious for my parents), we were just going to buy good old dependable Costco food court food to eat in the car since it was almost noon anyway.  So thus began our great road trip.  With Costco polish sausages, pizza, beef brisket sandwich, and berry smoothies.  This, ladies and gentlemen, is how we roll.

ready to head out from our hotel (first family pic of the trip!)

gigantor coffee roaster (from Dietrichs!) inside Anchorage Costco.  We stood there and stared at that thing (and inhaled the scent of roasted coffee) for mucho minutes.

A few notes about the drive from Anchorage to Fairbanks (because even someone as verbose as I am can only talk so long about a 382 mile drive).  The drive is on the George Parks Highway, and honestly, it is one of the prettiest drives we've done.  The scenery was spectacular.  Conveniently, and thoughtfully, there were many pullouts along the way (with warning signs ahead) where you can get out of the car, stretch your legs, let faster cars go by your slow ass, and take photos of the scenery around you.  Because we wanted to make it to Fairbanks as soon as possible, we only stopped a few time to get gas, hunt for the facilities, and grab a few photos.  The Bad Part of the drive?  There were a lot of delays because of road work.  I understand - there are only a few months a year they can fix the roads, and we came during that period of time...when the road wasn't buried under like, 8 feet of snow.  However, there were 3 long stretches of road repairs, and each time we had to pull to the side of the road and wait.  And wait.  And wait.  Then a pilot car would take us over uneven, patchy, for the most part dirt roads for miles and miles.  The longest stretch was just outside of Denali where I kid you not, it took us about 40 minutes to traverse about 2 miles.  Well, we waited for about 25 minutes or so and then it took FOREVER to get through this crazy ass bumpy patch where they had dug up the entire road and were tamping down dirt and rocks.  It was rough driving on our little minivan and no bueno.

roughing it through road repairs

waiting.  Just waiting.  By the time we could go through, we had a line over 30 cars long.

To my everlasting regret, even though we saw Denali peeking through the trees while headed north, by the time we got to the South Viewpoint, it was hidden among the clouds again (sob!).  I really should have asked to pull over and snap some photos when we saw the ever elusive peak, but I just assumed (stupid!  doh!) that we'd be able to see it when we got to an "appropriate" viewpoint.  Oh well.  

Aside from how freaking long it took and all the points we had to stop at because of road repairs, it wasn't a bad drive.  The scenery was freaking amazing.  A word of caution: if you stop off at the little village/strip outside of Denali (along mile marker 238 or so) - there are no. restrooms.  Seriously.  The gas station's restroom is shut down and the stores will happily accept your money but not let you use theirs.  Bastards.  And it was freakishly cold there!  There was a freezing biting wind that tore through our clothes and made us shiver uncontrollably - we figured it was because of the proximity of the glaciers that caused the wind to be so cold, but we could just be talking out of our asses.  

taken from the Denali Viewpoint South.  No Denali sighting :(

Alas, despite us missing the opportunity to photograph Denali, we made our way to our little musher's cabin atop the Cleary Summit in Fairbanks past 7 pm.  Because the sun didn't set until 9 pm, it was still nice and bright when we arrived.  Check in was smooth and we were soon admitted into our little (freezing) cabin.  

I found Mount Aurora Lodge through Tripadvisor after looking for a place to stay on Cleary Summit.  I didn't want to stay in Fairbanks proper since there's too much light pollution to be able to see the lights and we'd have to drive outside the city anyway - and from research online, it seemed the Cleary Summit is the place to be if you want to really see the Northern Lights.  Mt. Aurora Skiland actually sells an aurora package (they're just down the road from our cabin) so aurora hunters could come up here and wait for the aurora in the warmth of Skiland's lodge and run outside when the aurora is active so they don't freeze into ice blocks.  Aurora Borealis Lodge is always booked way ahead of time (as in a year) and they're not so good with the communication.  They tend to cater to Japanese tourists (the owner is Japanese) and you can't book via their website, you have to find a real body and they don't return messages.  But I really didn't want to make the 30 minute drive up the mountain in the dark every single night.  Not just the drive, but where do we go?  You can't just drive up a mountain with no destination in mind.  Where are there the best views?  Where is it safe to park?  Where can I watch the aurora without fear that I will be eaten by some wild Alaskan moose?  The aurora is active from 11 pm on - and people generally stay for a good 4-5 hours. I didn't want to stay on some random mountain for 4-5 hours without facilities and turn into a frozen ice block.  And at $30/pp for Skiland, it would be $120 per night for the four of us.  For four nights it'd be $480.  That's on top of the rental car fee AND the hotel.  :(  No bueno.  So I looked for an alternative and turned to the Source of All Travel Wisdom: Tripadvisor.  And I found Mt. Aurora Lodge.  Can I just say - really good choice.  

Mt. Aurora Lodge is run by Jeff and Lori - two of the nicest people.  It's really a bed and breakfast and the main lodge is a 90 some year old building (creaky as hell, but charming in its own way) that was built to be the dorm/mess hall of gold miners in the early 1900's.  They apparently housed and fed 300 miners at a time, which was only possible because they worked, ate and slept in shifts.  It's honestly not a lot to look at outside, which I was prepared for since I researched the hell out of it, but it's quite nice on the inside.  It has a warm homey vibe with big comfortable couches, beverages and snacks constantly laid out, and a TV with a satellite dish.  I'm pretty sure that's the only TV here since our cabin doesn't have a TV and neither do any of the Lodge's room.  

Now, you have to be prepared for some rough living. We're in the boonies after all - but come on, if you want a posh 4 star hotel with plush beds, deep carpeting and a sunken tub with room service and pampering you'd be in Vegas, not Fairbanks.  You're not going to be ensconced in luxury, but what you will have is a clean, warm and comfortable place to sleep with a kick ass view of the aurora borealis if you're lucky enough to catch it.  We booked the musher's cabin, which is a free standing structure about 500 yards from the main lodge.  It's a little ramshackle cabin (hut/shack) at about 800 square feet that has an upstairs "bedroom" with an attached bath.  Which is really a shower stall (there IS a curtain, but it's open to the bedroom) and a W/C (thankfully with a door) with a toilet and sink.  Downstairs there's a dining table with two dining chairs (we brought camping chairs with us, so it worked) a twin bed, a double recliner as well as a queen futon (which is surprisingly comfortable).  There's also a fully functional small kitchen as well as a stacked washer and dryer.  It's a little...rustic.  But charming.  What I like about it is the privacy factor.  Staying in the main lodge means sharing a living space with strangers.  Which isn't bad, but it's not so good for privacy, especially since most rooms share bathrooms.  Because the bedrooms are just that - bedrooms, the only living space in the Lodge is the main living room where there are long dining tables, couches and the TV.  It's great if you like to meet new people and socialize, but not so great if you crave a restful and private vacation.  The cabin has kitchen facilities so we're not forced to eat out all the time, a living area, and privacy.  It's also quiet.  The walls are thin at the Lodge and you can hear everyone and everything.  Which is great when you're on the lookout for auroral activity and you can jump out of bed when you hear everyone yelling and running outside, but not so great if you're trying to catch up on your sleep because you stayed up all night viewing the aurora.

we're here!  we're here!

our little musher's cabin.  Yay.

view of our cabin from the road

from the entrance.  Kitchen to the right, recliner and futon to the left.  

bed to the right, view of dining table and futon

tiny kitchen.  But with all the essentials

view of downstairs living space from the stairs leading to the upstairs bedroom

shower stall behind the wooden wall

bedroom from the bath area

Aside from the simple exterior and interior, we have to keep water usage in mind since it's delivered.  There's a big ass tank outside the cabin where water is drawn from, and every time we use a significant amount of water (washing dishes, flushing the toilet, showering) you hear a loud hum from the machine (sounds similar to a garbage disposal) that sucks more water into the cabin.  It's a little disconcerting at first, though you get used to it.  It also makes you unusually cognizant of your water usage.  And it's a little jarring when you hear it in the middle of the night after someone has peed.  There's no TV (though there is one at the Lodge so you can always head over if you're suffering from withdrawals) but there IS wifi, so we're already ahead of Yellowstone's pricey facilities.

The cabin was FREEZING when we first entered because the heat's not usually kept on.  It was in the forties inside the cabin so we all put a few more layers on and shivered like crazy.  Once the heat kicked in though, the place warmed up considerably and was nice and toasty by 9 pm.  Because the sun didn't set until after 9, we had a quick dinner of beef noodle soup courtesy of my mama (have I mentioned that she's awesome?  And can perform culinary miracles in extremely trying circumstances?) and then we hiked up the hill across the street from our cabin to catch the sunset and just look around. 

we saw a fox!  Apparently there are a lot of them and they're friendly. He stopped within 5-6 feet from us and just started drinking from a puddle.

we thought this was cold.  And it was.  But this was nothing compared to what it's like at night.

view from the top of the hill

By the time we made it back to our cabin it was around 10 pm.  This is going to be our first night of aurora hunting!

We knew coming to Fairbanks that there was a pretty decent chance that we weren't going to see the Northern Lights.  Even though the Fairbanks' dept of tourism touts a figure of visitors having an 80% chance of seeing the lights if they stay 3-4 nights, locals have commented that it's misleading.  There are multiple factors that go into whether or not the lights show up and you can read about it here (I just don't know enough about science to be able to coherently even sum it up), but the aurora shows up a little over 100 days a year.  But just because it's there doesn't mean it's visible to us.  There are the summer months, where the sky is too light to be able to see the auroral activity.  So you could have a very active aurora going on, but because it doesn't get completely dark, you can't see it.  You can also have auroral activity happening but the cloud cover completely obscures it - which is in the case when there's rain.  So even if there IS auroral activity, it doesn't mean it's visible.  I've read reports from multiple travelers where they didn't see the lights despite staying 4-5 days and picking the right time of year to see it.  It truly is hit and miss.  So in the months leading up to this trip, we stressed about the possibility of getting stiffed by the aurora and prayed about it repeatedly.  Despite constant reminders to ourselves, we can't help but embrace a kernel of hope that it'll happen for us.

Well...it happened for us.  Yay!!!   The Lodge is very good about keeping an eye out for the aurora.  Not only did Lori text us (I left my phone inside and didn't see it because I was over eager and went outside), she called us as well.  When she didn't get an answer, she walked over from the Lodge in FREEZING COLD weather at 1 am to make sure we weren't missing the show.  Now that's service.  But even before we came, I had been obsessively checking out the Geophysical Institute's aurora forecast, as well as logging on to Ronn Murray's aurora cam (refreshes every minute) as well as the aurora webcam run by the Skiland people (subscription required) to check on auroral activity (yes, I am crazy.  How did you know?).  Once I saw streaks of green in the sky from all the cams I can't stop checking, we bundled up (I mean really bundled up.  I guess this is what people who suffer through actual winters do.  Oh, the horror!) and trooped outside.  It wasn't very bright, but we could see the glow and subtle green streaks.  My mama was a little disappointed because all the auroral displays she'd found online had been big huge ones and she thought that's what they were suppose to look like, but I felt lucky just to have seen anything at all after reading about all the people who couldn't catch a glimpse.

Caveat: my photos aren't very good.  I'm not a photographer, not an amateur or even a hobby photographer.  Many, many, many, many moons ago I bought a dslr on sale.  Really, it was because I just can't resist a sale.  It was the simplest possible no frills dslr - a Canon Rebel Xsi.  The baby of all dslr cameras without any bells and whistles.  And well...it was on sale.  And I was a little curious.  And I sure wasn't going to invest thousands of dollars into a camera I didn't know how to use and may not even like using - so when I saw this dslr go on sale for under $400 many moons ago, I had a brain fart and snatched it thinking at the very worst, I could just take photos of my dog with it.  After all, it wasn't that much more than my point and shoot.  Yeah...except for taking some pictures of my dog and the hummingbirds that like to visit our backyard (because sadly, my little point and shoot camera just couldn't capture their wings), I've never really used it.  And it had never been set to anything out of auto.  I only purchased one inexpensive lens for it - the EFS 55mm-250mm - which I think (I know, I'm pathetic) is a zoom lens.  I don't have any of the fancy lenses that everyone else in my family likes - the wide angled, the pancake lens (I'm still not sure what that is, other than it looks kinda stubby) and rarely ever used the camera.  But in coming to Alaska, I figured I'd bring it along anyway, and I started surfing the internets looking for settings I can put the camera on to capture something.  The abundance of information just made me really, really, really confused.  At the end of the day, I did two things - I set the ISO to 800, set the shutter speed anywhere from 15-30 seconds (the first night it was set at 20 seconds only) and the aperture was set at f/4.5 because my stock lens couldn't go any lower.  Now, I can tell you the numbers, but I still don't really know what they all mean.  Whatever.  The point is though, I managed to capture some crappy shots of the lights!  The only accessory I bought in anticipation of the trip was a shutter release remote.  So I traveled to Alaska with my super zoom camera (my Canon SX 500), my little point and shoot (my little Samsung that has a front facing lcd screen) and my neglected dslr that I'd never used out of auto before.  I dug out my old tripod and threw that into my suitcase as well and it came in SOOO handy.

So here's what I captured:

very first picture. I started screaming and jumping up and down so excited that I captured something

Feeling bold at this point, we decided to play around with the camera to see if we could put ourselves into the pictures as well.  This way people will know that we didn't steal these crappy images off the internet - we did it ourselves and we were here!  Yeah...the ones with us didn't turn out very well and we illuminated ourselves with a small lcd flashlight that we covered with a tissue to disperse the light a little bit.  They're unclear and fuzzy, but we know it's us.

I was messing around when I took this.  No one is posed, they really were just watching the lights - when we realized you could actually see people if you shined a little light on them, we went a little crazy.  

After about an hour into watching the lights - the aurora, which had been relatively subdued suddenly burst into life after 1 am.  I couldn't, and still can't, capture just how awesome it was.  I can't convey the scope and the movement and the awe.  It spread over the sky, and the lights were literally dancing.  My brother jumped in front of the camera and wanted a picture during this display, so we all took pictures because we're retarded.  

The awesome part of the display lasted for about 10 minutes, then it slowly faded.  We didn't go in until almost 3 am, and by the time we did, the sky had a faint glow.  It wasn't bright, it wasn't sexy, but the lights literally blanketed the sky in a green glow.  

our little cabin

After I realized that I could actually capture the aurora (though not well), I wanted to try my little point and shoot.  I could put it in semi-manual mode (which I've never done before) and set the ISO to 800, the focus to infinity, and the shutter speed at 15 seconds.  It came out, but it's a lot grainier and not as nice as the dslr photos.

the aurora as seen by my point and shoot

By this time we were totally pooped out.  We had all traveled to Alaska the day before and had driven almost 400 miles that day - we were soooo tired.  So we all trooped back into the cabin, took off all our layers of clothes and fell into bed.   We had to get up the next morning for breakfast (one of the highlights of staying here.  The included breakfasts are fantastic) and our 1 pm Segway tour of Fairbanks.  Yes, Segway.  Again.  We are that family.