Way up north (seriously, Arctic Circle north)

Posted in Adventures, Photos by mszerwo

Bettles welcoming committee. Pretty large plane, right?!

Hello, Mr. Co-pilot!

Brandon and I kicked off 2014 adventure-style and flew to Fairbanks, Alaska on January 1. After spending the night in Fairbanks we hopped on another plane – a very small plane in which Brandon rode shotgun/co-pilot – and spent three nights in Bettles. On Sunday it was back on the mini plane (a little bigger this time) and headed back to Fairbanks for another night. From there, it was back to home and work. And… here we are.

Here are some of the things I learned on our Alaskan adventure:

There are some very interesting characters that live in or choose to visit a city (it’s incorporated, there’s a mayor, we met her) with a population of 29 people in the winter.
But, those people are truly very interesting and have some of the best stories I’ve ever heard.
Everyone becomes a weather expert when they’re searching for the Northern Lights. We’ve all done our research and have checked the solar flares coming off of the Sun, the Aurora forecast, the weather forecasts and the thermometer and sky hourly.
Chewing gum is banned in Singapore. We stayed in Bettles with a group of five (two of them on their honeymoon) from Singapore. This made for some great conversation.
Of all the tourists and guests we met, we traveled the least amount of distance to visit the lights. We met northern light fanatics from Brazil, Osaka, Singapore, North Carolina and Texas. The honeymooners and their friends won the award for longest trip to Alaska at 37 hours one way to get here. Yowza. And SeaTac saw all of these visitors on their way north. Go, Seattle!
Sled dogs take Prilosec OTC. Our dog musher was full of information and offered us this interesting tidbit on our two hour dog sled ride. He’s a previous Iditarod competitor/finisher and said that most good mushers give it to their dogs to prevent stomach ulcers during races since they’re eating 12,000 – 16,000 calories EACH DAY when they’re running it. Fascinating stuff.
Amazon ships to Bettles for free. But, it takes 5 weeks for a bag of dog food to arrive.
The North Pole is a real city, about 20 minutes outside of Fairbanks.
Bettles in the summer sounds like a beautiful, horrible place. We visited the Gates of the Arctic National Park visitor’s station and saw a video and photos of the bugs that hatch once the snow melts. Apparently 500-1,000 mosquito bites per day is to be expected. And those mosquitoes appear to be super-sized. Thanks, but no thanks.
Since it’s best to stay up all night to watch the lights, sleeping in late and lots of naps are encouraged. I have to admit that I got used to our 9 a.m. wake ups and after lunch and dinner naps.
The northern lights are fickle and clouds are not your friends. If you’re going on a trip like this, make sure you stay more than one night. Our first night in Fairbanks and Bettles did not include really seeing the lights. Our second night in Bettles we had subdued lights and the third was by far our best! They were spectacular!

Enough of the fun facts. It’s time for some photos!

This is Bettles Lodge. We stayed at a different, more insulated lodge. (Which was fine by me, since this one is supposedly haunted.)

Sunrise in Bettles (about 11:30 a.m.)

Sunset cross-country skiing. Pretty, isn’t it? (That’s Brandon)

Northern lights from the Bettles’ viewing pond

Another shot of the lights.

More lights…

Look! Lights!

Ooooh! Ahhhh!

Green skies

Oh yeah ~ Northern Lights

Modeling the finest winter fashions

Brandon and his benches. He loves ’em

Dog sledding in the Arctic

And… we’re off! (And going about 7 mph)

Mush!

Two hours of sledding

Brrr! Frozen whiskers

We would highly recommend this trip and would love to hear about your adventures if you do go!

21Dec2013

Winter welcome

Posted in Adventures, Holidays by mszerwo

As of 9:11 this morning winter was here. Unofficially winter came a few days early in Seattle.

Yesterday most of the area was blanketed with a few inches of the white stuff: snow! It was very pretty but there wasn’t enough for me to justify skipping work. Instead, Brandon and I walked to the bus (about a mile) to enjoy the winter wonderland. Sadly, the snow had all melted by the time I went back outside for lunch.

I hope you’re snuggled inside enjoying the first weekend of winter!

31Aug2013

Hello, Dawg fans!

Posted in Adventures, Drinky drinky, Exploring Seattle, Holidays by mszerwo

As one of the official (literally– I’ve been on the Homecoming posters for the past three years, banners in the parking lot, web banners and email ads) University of Washington representatives, I hereby wish you a very happy college football opener.

The Huskies play the Boise State Broncos tonight at 7 p.m. and we’re off to celebrate this momentous season opener around noon. While I won’t be physically in the stadium (Brandon will), I’ll be watching and cheering on our Dawgs.

Husky Stadium has been under renovation for the past year and it looks amazing. I haven’t been there “in person” yet, and won’t be for a few months, but there is a certain air about Seattle with all of this “retake Montlake” talk. I think tailgating tomorrow is going to be fantastic. We were a bit disjointed last year, trying to make-do with Qwest Field, so this year is very exciting. So exciting that the Huskies are playing Oregon on my birthday, so I’ve already started planning a huge tailgate to celebrate. More on that as we get closer…

Cheers to you and come back soon for lots and lots of tips on tailgating treats and decorations.

In the meantime, GO DAWGS!!!!

30Aug2013

{Gone Pinning} Our next vacation

Posted in Adventures, Gone Pinning by mszerwo

Brandon and I will be celebrating our second wedding anniversary next month (where did those two years go?!) and to celebrate we booked a vacation. My very first all-inclusive vacation, in fact. You probably think we’re headed to Mexico or the Caribbean, right? Well, nice guess. We’re headed on vacation to a less-warm locale. We’re off to see the northern lights in northern Alaska, in the arctic circle in the dead of winter. We know how to have fun, right?

Thankfully the lodge we’re staying at provides all of our food, drinks and warm clothes. (We’re talking intense parkas, gloves, hats, hand warmers, the whole shebang.) They even have Internet in the middle of nowhere!

Come January, we’re off to Bettles, 35 miles north of the Arctic Circle just south of the Brooks Range. (Thanks, Wikipedia.) According to the tour website, Bettles officially has the most clear weather days in the entire state, which means more cloud free nights of opportunity to see the majestic Lights dance in the sky. Bettles is located directly under the Auroral Band, the highest aurora activity in the Northern hemisphere. And it’s located on the Ice Road. Anyone seen Ice Road Truckers on the History Channel? Neither have we but we’ll watch a few before we go.

Seeing the northern lights has been on Brandon’s bucket list for awhile. I’ve heard about them, but didn’t realize how cool they are until we started researching this trip. The Bettles Lodge website (or tourism bureau? Same thing, right?) claims an 80 percent chance of seeing them. Add this year’s ‘solar maximum’ (a flare up that happens every 12 years) to that and a new moon in the dead of winter and were hoping our rate goes up to 100 percent. We’ll be there several nights to further increase our chances. Fingers crossed! We’re also planning on exploring: cross-country skiing, on a dog sled excursion and maybe snowmobiling.

I picked up some books about the Northern Lights today at the library (of course I did, right?) and I’ll start researching camera lenses and cases so we can adequately capture the views in the potentially -60 degree weather. Brrrrr. More updates to come as we get closer. Until then, enjoy these sweet shots of the Northern Lights that I found on Pinterest. Love Pinterest.