Saturday, March 17, 2012

"I remember, in the winter of our first experiments, ... looking on snow with new eyes." - Edward M. Purcell

It's all too easy to be of two minds about the winter in Alaska.

On one hand, we can't wait to see the green mountains, the lush forests, and all of the beautiful waters and wild life.

On the other hand, we will be sad to see the ice and the snow go.  Those who only come to Alaska in the summer truly miss out on the majesty of the mountains and the austere beauty of the frozen lakes and tundra.  However, there are a number of things that I'm sure most people would be glad to miss out on, such as the two inches of solid ice that forms on the roads, forcing you to actually become used to sliding around on the road while driving 50 MPH.  And of course, then when it begins to warm up and it rains on the road, you get pot-holes IN THE ICE.  Awesome!  Now that is definitely fun!  The long nights weren't too bad, but we're definitely glad to have some sunshine back (and really pumped about 24 hours of daylight in a couple of months)!


We've done really well finding the silver lining this winter, and have been out snowshoeing, nordic ice skating, and cross-country skiing as much as possible.  Hardly a weekend has gone by that we haven't been outside having fun!  That being said, we'll just say that we were out on Kenai Lake, it was beautiful, the sun was shining, the dogs exhausted themselves, we covered at least 5 miles, and we had the whole lake to ourselves!




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