This is a joint blog of Robin McDuff and Leslie Karst. As most of our friends know, we are in Fairbanks, Alaska until mid-June. Since the same friends are well aware of the fact that we both dislike cold, this has led everyone to think we are either crazy or uninformed. It is most assuredly the former, as we know that Fairbanks is frigging freezing. It is the coldest city in the United Sates of America, by far. (There are colder small towns in Alaska, of course, but it wins for any place with a significant population.) So, how cold? Here's a handy-dandy chart:
Month | Record low | Record high | Average daily low | Average daily high |
February | -58 | 47 | -14 | 7 |
March | -49 | 53 | -1 | 24 |
April | -24 | 74 | 20 | 41 |
May | -1 | 89 | 38 | 59 |
June | 31 | 96 | 49 | 70 |
Check out that warming trend! OK, there is a chance for a freeze every day we are here, but by June it is really rare (what with the midnight sun and all, it better be). We are looking forward, in our four months here, to at least three really nice, warm weeks!
Now, it is true that I don't even like winters in Santa Cruz, which has a fairly temperate climate. I prefer the consistent warmth of Hilo, where the lowest temperature ever recorded was 53 degrees. (And the highest was 94.) Hilo has an average year-round temperature in the 70s. I want to live in Hilo and visit Santa Cruz. (Leslie wants 50/50.)
So, yes we are crazy. But we know what we are getting into. We have been to Fairbanks before—for a few days in early March many years ago—and vowed to come back for a longer stay. In terms of nature, we will get an opportunity to see more of the aurora borealis. Believe me, it is worth -50F. We get to revisit the ice sculpture competition, which is just awesome. We get to hang out with the people, who we found to be among the most friendly folks in America. (I have visited 48 states so I say this with lots of experience.)
What will be new to us is really experiencing winter and the bizarrely fast change of seasons, and the culture that comes with that. And, of course, the midnight sun. Right now, we get about 9 hours of sun a day, so only a little less than Santa Cruz. By the time we leave, we will get 21 hours and 48 minutes of sun. Impressive.
Beyond that, Leslie and I have been talking for years about doing a dream journal and paying more attention to our dreamlife. And learning to lucid dream (controlling our actions in our dreams.) Since our sleep will be disrupted here because of the aurora search—we will be waking to check the aurora activity level frequently—we thought this was a great place to initiate our dream project. We will blog on this a lot. Yes, we will be putting our dreams into the blog. Most of this will be very tedious to you, our readers, as other people's dreams are boring! But we will have a format where you will see if YOU are featured! Then it might be more interesting. We haven't started our dream journals—that will be tonight—but I will follow this blog with another quickie of what I remember from my dream last night to show the general format (which might change as we go, of course.)
The things we will blog about are going to be squeezed into one of four categories:
- Dreams: If you are interested in our attempt to lucid dream and what goes on in our dreamlife.
- Nature: If you just want to see pretty photos of Alaska including the aurora.
- Dogs: If you want to follow the adventures of mushers, skijorers, and Ziggy and her friends.
- Culture: If you want to know what culture emerges out of this unique northern setting.
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