A long time ago in a beach town far far away......

A young jedi must learn to conquer his own fears, doubts, and the use of computers, to overcome the tyranny of the advancing Empire. Though powerful the darkside may be, neither the strength nor determination of a young jedi should be underestimated.



Friday, March 25, 2011

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.

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