It’s been a couple of weeks since I posted one of these. The simple reason there hasn’t been one lately: I have been going, going, going non-stop. For essentially 10 days now, life has been a blur. There was:
- The work trip two Fridays ago to Denali, and the cabin I stayed at in Healy that night
- The Saturday morning hike up the Savage Alpine Trail, the drive back to Fairbanks to pick up Elizabeth’s cousin Michael, then drinking with Michael in Fairbanks that night before catching a sliver of aurora
- Checking out the Sandhill Crane Festival last Monday
- Going panning for gold in the Chatanika River (and to be clear, we were actually panning for gold the old-fashioned way) with Michael on Tuesday
- Giving Michael, my parents, and Alex a tour of the NWS Fairbanks office on Tuesday, then kayaking the Chena River through town with them after work
- Gift shopping in North Pole, Alaska on Wednesday before picking up Elizabeth from the airport
- Hiking the Angel Rocks trail with family on Thursday, then heading to Chena Hot Springs afterwards
- Going to the Museum of the North and then picking berries at Murphy Dome on Friday, followed by a trip to Cleary Summit for Elizabeth and me to enjoy dinner, and then some fantastic aurora viewing at the Parks Highway Monument overnight
- A Denali trip on Saturday that included some incredible views AND wildlife.
Yeah, it’s been a whirlwind. The first two weeks here were sort of lonely, but I also enjoyed the vibe of being an Alaskan explorer. But this last week has been one of the best of my life. I’m sad that people are leaving (Elizabeth heads out tomorrow), but also reaching the point where I don’t know how many more days of this frenetic pace I’d be able to manage. There will be a quiet last couple of days (working evening shifts), and then early Friday morning I’ll be heading to the airport to put a wrap on one of the greatest adventures of my life.
I’ll be sad to leave Fairbanks behind. I’ve been so fortunate and so grateful to get to work with some amazing people here. I think this office has a bright future ahead of it. At the same time, there’s no sense in getting wrapped up in nostalgia. There’s a dog back home who has been waiting patiently for my arrival and an even more amazing wife who will be waiting for me to start mowing the lawn again. The sting of leaving gets taken away when it’s compared to the joy of being reunited with family.
Not much time to write (there never is), so I’ll leave off this update with a picture I’m very thrilled to have taken:
