Five Nights In Fairbanks!!! Part III of III

I can't tell you the relief I felt as we enjoyed the final dazzling streaks of emerald in the pre-dawn sky. I had pulled the whole crazy plan off. I put a ring on my dream girl in spectacular fashion, having executed my dream proposal. We were now able to scratch the northern lights right off both of our bucket lists. For at least the following 36 hours Carolyn's name became Fiance. For the remainder of our Alaskan adventure I could really relax and enjoy each moment without the sinister whispers of doubt stealing me away. We saw the lights, we were engaged, and we still had two nights in Alaska.
Day 4: Too jazzed up to sleep and too early to call everyone we've ever met we headed to breakfast at "Family Diner" in Fairbanks. We were greeted at the door by a cave-dwelling waitress and the unpleasant odor of cigarette smoke. For the first time in forever we were faced with the very difficult decision of choosing to sit in the smoking section or the second-hand smoking section. Seriously this place had reindeer and moose available in the omelettes. Needless to say we steered clear of the game and that diner the rest of the trip. We napped for an hour before packing our bags and checking out of our hotel, our destination: Chena Hot Springs Resort. 60 miles outside the nearest town this resort was the perfect place to spend the last two days of out trip. It was quiet, rustic, secluded, and forget about cell phone reception. We arrived mid-afternoon and wasted no time wading into the soothing hot springs. After a relaxing soak we had dinner at the resort lodge the was equipped precisely how an Alaskan lodge should be. Moose antlers, iditarod musher jerseys, and antique sporting equipment lined the walls. Dinner, nap, coffee. Again we were geared up for another night of watching for the lights. Could we be so lucky to see them once last time? Yeah we did... Simply amazing. This night we had the benefit of watching and waiting from the "aurorium", a heated, glass-fronted cabin tucked away in the hill just above the resort. A welcome alternative to a freezing and cramped Kia Optima after three nights. Especially wonderful, the place was all ours with not another soul passing through all night. Hot water from the springs would trickle through pipes around the room to provide heat and a tranquil noise not unlike camping next to a mountain stream. Ahhhh, this was relaxation! When the aurora would show we would scramble in the dark to put on our boots, gloves, and jackets before rushing out to take pictures. In the wee hours of the morning we retired to our room with huge smiles on our faces having seen the aurora twice!

Day 5: The next day was, in a word, active. We visited the resident resort goats. We toured the on-site ice museum filled with neat sculptures and novel ice creations. Carolyn and I split an appletini served in an ice glass at a bar made entirely of (you guessed it) ice!

Next we toured the resort's geo-thermal power plant and green house. We learned of the 100 year history of the resort and how the hot springs provide all the heat, electricity, and even some of the food for the resort. Its incredible green house is powered/heated by the springs and can grow our dinner salads ingredients in 60 below weather!

Next we hit the trails hiking through the woods and to the top of Charlie Dome, a nearby peak that promised 360 degree views of the Alaskan wilderness. The hike was intense, gaining in elevation swiftly and without any yield. Already exhausted and unable to tell how far we had left to go in true Matt and Carolyn style we pressed blindly forward. Most people would call it a day and go soak in the springs but not us man we were looking for punishment. Eventually we conquered the peak and were treated to an awesome view as promised.


Hot springs, dinner, nap, coffee, and we snow-suited-up for a chance at one last chance at seeing the lights. Now thoroughly spent, our inner vacation warrior's spirit wavered and at 2 am we made peace with the fact the seeing the lights twice was still twice as many times as we thought we'd see them. We tucked our tired bodies in and passed the heck out. An hour later we were startled awake: BOOM BOOM BOOM, Aurora!.....BOOM BOOM BOOM, Aurora! Everyone in our hall way had been put on the Aurora wake-up call list. This Paul Reevere of the Aurora had us up and out in minutes. Can you believe it? Three nights of lights. Well after the Japanese tourists had turned-in we decided we too should catch some sleep in preparation for our epically long travel day home. Minutes after putting head-to-pillow we were out, just long enough for us to stare at each other and say, "is this all for real?"

Five Nights In Fairbanks!!! Part II of III

The Moment! The third night after making our way back from Denali we decide to try yet another spot. This time we went further north and twenty miles east well away from any light pollution. Slowly we drove further and further pulling over every 3rd mile to scout viewing potential. Each spot didn’t seem good enough for various reasons and sometimes for no reason. I wanted to drive directly to outer space to feel assured. I could feel myself getting increasingly irritated with the situation and the stupid full moon. Why oh why didn’t I think about the moon before booking? Eventually we stopped at a pull-out with slight elevation and good clearance above us. And we waited... and waited... I began to drift to sleep giving up hope of seeing anything that night. Carolyn was awake and squirrely getting in and out of the car often. "Babe, are you asleep?” Of course I am babe its frickin 2:30 in the morning and we’ve sat here for hours!" I shot back grumpily. We decided we didn’t want to sleep the approaching day away and started back to the hotel. I was the throws of panic at this point. After over 10 hours of staking out the light not one shimmer, glint, or flash. I am the biggest fool in the world. Distracted and deprived of sleep I breeze by our exit for the hotel. Thus began slurry of cursing and grumbling. We were so tired and the exits in Alaska were few and far between. I had just absent mindedly delayed sleep by another 20 minutes at least. I was intensely focusing on searching for a sign indicating the next exit when Carolyn startled me with a loud gasp. "Babe look, I think that’s it!”. I looked out my driver's side window and over my left shoulder to see the faintest of faint green hues. How she spotted it behind us and out my side of the car I can’t explain. In fact what she saw was so faint and brief we weren’t even sure if it was just imagination. Delirious and desperate perhaps we were projecting our hopes onto reality. Regardless we agreed it had to be investigated. Not having the stamina or the heart to drive back outside the city we returned to the hill overlooking the city where we sat eagerly the first night. Carolyn kept her eyes wide open peering in every direction her spinal anatomy would allow. At the top of the hill we flew out of the car and were rudely slapped in the face by a brutally cold wind. After just a few seconds my fingers were numb and my face stung. We estimate with the whipping wind the temp was the ballpark of 15 below zero. Moments later the neither the wind nor cold mattered in the slightest because the show had begun. Off to the north, high in the sky the aurora welcomed us to a private viewing. A faint band of what looked like fog would gradually grow in mass and steadily green would fade in. Like a firework in slow motion the color would grow out toward you and peak with a vibrant deep green and then slowly fade. Before one line was done another would begin and soon it was hard to focus on just one. They were to the north, north-west, south, and directly above us raining down. I cannot describe to you the elation of the moment. At last we were privileged enough to see what we came this far to see. In the moment I was faced with a fantastic dilemma. Do you take a second to snap a few once in a life time photos to catalog the moment or do you get right to the business at hand? I decided I needed to do both, but before I did, I needed more clothes on. Violently shivering I dove into the back seat and frantically put on my snow jumpers, another fleece, and large down jacket. Before exiting and pulled the ring box from the very bottom of my backpack. The lights were still in full swing with no signs of leaving so I quickly set-up my tripod and mounted the camera. In order to capture the lights I had to use 30 second exposures. This camera, being digital, needs an additional 30 seconds to process the exposure before being able to take the next. For every picture snapped, a minute went by. (An eternity in this situation.) In between shots Carolyn and I embraced, laughed and danced. I instructed Carolyn to go stand on the snow bank overlooking the northern sky line. I centered and focused the frame on her and set the auto-timer. I pressed the shutter button and scrambled to her side. Flash... timeless. I tell her to stay put to take one more. On the way back to the camera the wind blows over the tripod and I had to catch it. Again I center and focus the frame. I press the shutter and run over to her side once more this time struggling to pull the ring box from my jacket with my frozen double gloved hands. As I reach her the box comes free and I dropped to one knee. Let me tell you in 15 below, whipping winds and a timer going speeches go right out the window. All I muster is "will you marry me?” Comically my first muffled attempt was swallowed up in a gust of frozen wind. "What?!" she says trying to help me to my feet. "Will you marry me?!!"......snap flash. She giggles and says yes, we fall to our knees into the snow bank together kissing through our scarfs. We tore away our scarfs to meet lip to lip and hold each other. After a few minutes we returned to earth to celebrate the moment. We danced and took pictures, hugged and kissed. To our left was the biggest full moon in 24 years, every other direction was the aurora. The show last a full hour or more, plenty of time to give my aforementioned speech and tell Carolyn the whole story of the surprise.Im sure glad I missed the exit that night.

Five Nights In Fairbanks!! Part I of III

I'm not sure where to begin this story. Most people aren’t at all surprised to hear were engaged after 4 and 1/2 years but exactly how we came to be engaged is where the surprises come in. A few people were aware of my super secret plans to whisk Carolyn off on an Alaskan adventure but for the most part I had to keep this one under wraps. I couldn’t risk ruining the surprise and blowing a plan that was years in the dreaming and months in the planning. Now that were back from the trip of a lifetime we can shout it from the roof tops, Were Engaged!!Eventually we'll post all our pictures and tell the story from both sides (check her blog too) but for now heres the beginning. And how it all happened was truly by the book, which is of course if the book is a fairy tale. The Preparation: For years I have had a plan in my head of how it was all supposed to go. Some time ago Carolyn and I had talked about how amazing it would be to see the northern lights. It was after our conversation that I got the idea to purpose to her under the spectacular lights. I had no idea how to get there or even where to go but I was set on the idea. As my time frame developed (after graduation before grad school) I began to save. Finally in January of this year I sat down and started to research. Two days later I had two tickets to Fairbanks Alaska!! The plan was finally set into motion. The main goal, surprise Carolyn and purpose underneath the northern lights. I got Carolyn’s parents blessing and recruited a few others to help pull of the surprise. There were seemingly a million things to be done and I had to think of everything. I booked the flight, hotels, and rental car. I had to organize time off of work for both myself and Carolyn without her knowing. I had gather snow gear to keep us warm in temps well below zero. Ginger needed a dog-sitter and of course I needed a ring! Week by week I meticulously worked out every detail without arising any suspicions. Difficult to do because after four years of dating and daily harassment anything can be suspicious engagement activity! Of all the details to work out the hardest by far was making sure Carolyn didn’t plan something for that special weekend. We all know how Carolyn loves to plan and free-time isn’t really in her vocabulary. In fact I had people on the inside reporting to me on her plans to take me on a secret camping trip the same weekend we were in Alaska. Luckily I was able to keep her schedule free by committing to fake plans as the trip neared. Day 1 The night before we left was my 28th birthday and despite my every attempt to get to bed early we didn’t go to bed until after midnight. We went to dinner and had cupcakes did the whole "birthday thing". My stomach was in knots the whole evening and I had hardly slept in two days. Ha ha she had no idea. Day 1: At 3:30 am Thursday morning my alarm went off and I shot up. I kissed Carolyn awake and once she was coherent (sort of) I asked her if she trusted me. She took and understandably alarmed tone and said yes. "Then I need you to get up and pack, we're going on a trip". Unlike most of us who would immediately ask where are we going or what the hell is wrong with you she only asked if her coworkers knew. I told her it was all taken care of and retrieved a list of items to pack that I had prepared in case packing at 3am was problematic. We were on the road by 5:45am (not bad right) and headed to LAX. Soon she found out where we were headed and any trace of sleepiness or reservation went out the window and there was only excitement. Check out Carolyn’s side of the story on her blog to find out what it was like to find out your going to Alaska two hours before you get on the plane.
Several hours later we arrived in Fairbanks Alaska and check into our hotel. We gathered info from a few locals on where the best places to see the lights were near the city. Almost every one we talked to seemed out right confused when we told them we were on vacation from California. They all wore an expression as if they were waiting for some punch line like we were playful locals having a bit of sarcastic fun. Without fail they all said something to the effect of: "what are guys doing up here now? You should come back in September when it’s nice, not sure if you’re even going to see the lights but good luck anyway." In the beginning I laughed those kinds of comments off. However, as the trip went on my anxiety grew as the lights were more elusive that I thought. We found that out the first night as we waited in the car on a chilly Alaskan night for them to show. After watching and fighting exhaustion for several hours we gave in and left our hilltop perch over looking Fairbanks for our hotel. Tired as I was that night, sleep was still difficult to come by. Day 2: Our first full day in Fairbanks began with an exciting trip to downtown where we happened upon the start of dog-sled race. It was exciting to hear the announcer introduce the mushers and hear the countdown to sending each team off. 3, 2, 1 go and the team of dogs as many as twenty would launch themselves forward and zoom down the street.
After all the teams left the gate we headed north to the town of North Pole Alaska. It will be fun to tell our kids we've been to (the) North Pole to see Santa’s house. Next it was back to Fairbanks to check out the international ice sculpting championships where we took in numerous wonders of ice. Life size horses, slides, mazes, and people all carved by hand painstakingly out of ice. During the day we noticed a sign advertising a hockey game that night so on a whim we decide to go cheer out the Fairbanks Ice dogs as they took on the Kenai River Brown Bears at the not-so-big Big Dipper Ice Arena. The ice dogs killed the bears 3-0 and the game had all the hits, saves, a shoving that makes a hockey game complete. The night continued with us going back to see the ice sculptures again this time beautifully lit up. Where most mere mortals would go to bed after an epic day of activity, Carolyn and I pressed forward. Determined to see the lights we drove twenty-six miles outside of the city on an icy road to find the perfect spot for viewing. We pulled off the highway into a snowed in recreation area and waited. And waited..... And waited..... No sign of the lights. The nearly full moon shined brilliantly in defiance, mocking me and my plans for proposal. Finally at 5:30am we gave up and made the long journey back to the hotel. Disappointed at not seeing the lights but on the plus side we did see a Lynx run across the highway on our way home! Once at the hotel we collapsed. Day 3: We awoke bewildered at 2 pm the next day, the unfortunate side-effect of staying up all night. Within an hour we hit the road in our rental car to drive two hours south to the massive Denali National Park. Denali is the size of Maine but in the winter only the first three miles of the park are open to drive. The drive there was very beautiful with ample photo opts of the majestic mountain ranges. When we arrived we decide to take a hike into the park beyond the point which cars could not pass. Denali was serene and silent, we felt like the only people in the park. Sunset approached so we hiked back to the car and headed back to Fairbanks. Already we could see the largest moon in 24 years rising over the mountains. Statistically speaking March is supposed to be the most active month of the year for the lights. There is ample darkness and the weather is making a transition to spring providing good conditions to see them. This is what my research had revealed and precisely why I booked the trip when I did. The Fairbanks travel bureau says that if you stay in Fairbanks at least three nights you have a 90% chance (weather permitting) of seeing the lights. That is, of course, unless you book your trip during the time in which the moon is bigger and brighter than it’s been in 24 years. In addition to that it just so happened that Aurora activity, which is based on solar storm activity, was forecasted to be a 0(quiet) or 1(low) on a scale up to 9 (head explodes) the entire length of our trip. As many locals told us, "you should've been here two weeks ago probably the best aurora I’ve seen my whole life living in Alaska". My other favorite: “well hey next week is supposed to be active if you guys are still here". No, no we will not, but thanks for the tip Joe Eskimo. This was our chance, these five days. By the third night my nerves were getting the best of me. What if after all the work, carefully planning and money spent, I could not carry out my dream plan? What if I held out all these years for nothing? Yes the trip was and is still going to be amazing but the whole point of everything was for the moment where I propose under the celestial green hue of the Aurora Borealis.