My trip to the North Pole

I am not doing a good job of keeping my blog up to date, so in an effort to increase overall activity I am going to let quality slip even more.



I spent 3 weeks in Anchorage, Alaska in August/September this year, and experienced Alaska at its best. I don't remember if I wrote anything about that trip, but I'm not here to tell you about it. I am here to tell you about 2 weeks in December that I spent in Fairbanks, Alaska. That is a different story altogether.

I have pictures somewhere, of varying quality, and I will hopefully remember to add them later. For now, I am just going to hit some highlights:



1. The warmest it got the whole time I was there was -8 F. The coldest it got was -40 F.

2. There are still ravens/blackbirds that live in those temperatures.

3. They don't plow the roads when it snows. It is so cold that the snow doesn't get all that slippery, since it never melts, so their roads are just squished down snow.




4. I drove through North Pole, AK every day, and I stopped by Santa's House several times.

5. It is so cold that frost/ice forms on the inside of doors and windows and can build up quite a bit. It seems to all be based on humidity levels...

6. When you spit in -30 F weather, it does NOT turn to ice before hitting the ground. It hits the ground wet and freezes within seconds.

7. In -30 F, if you toss a cup of boiling water into the air, it WILL turn to snow-like particles and float down.





9. You plug your car in whenever you stop for any material length of time to keep the engine from freezing solid. At grocery stores people just leave their car running with the doors locked rather than turn it off.

10. Alaska is an expensive place to live because everything has to be shipped in.

Like I said, hopefully I will get some pictures to include here as well. (Look, I did!!)