33.334%

Friday again already! I can’t believe how quickly three months is zipping by. We are already a third of the way through our stay here in Alaska and I feel like we’ve only experienced the tip top of the iceberg (figuratively speaking though Alaska does have many beautiful icebergs to visit).

When we found out we were moving here in the winter the most common reaction was, “Alaska in the winter? Isn’t it going to be dark all the time?” Well, yes and no. When we first arrived the sun was coming up around 8:30ish and going down around 4:30ish so basically if you worked a day job then, yes, it’s dark all the time. But every week we gain another 5 minutes or something like that. Before we leave in March we will have more light than dark. Pretty cool if you ask me.

Today I was super excited to see Scott off to work and notice for the first time it was light outside. The sun hadn’t come up yet at 7:30 but the sky was already light enough to see. This was great! It’s been either over cast or rainy this past week so to see the sun already was super exciting. So, I grabbed my camera and headed down to the docks at the end of our street.

There were a couple of cars parked up on the hill who had the same idea to enjoy the sunrise. But heaven forbid I should ever be normal so, I clambered my way down to the water’s edge for some photo ops. One thing kind of weird about the weather here is when it’s dark and cloudy and rainy, it’s not as cold as when there are no clouds and the sun is out. It’s been in the high 30’s low 40’s most of the week but today was a nippy 28 degrees.

Down by the water was even colder though. Getting down there was somewhat of a trick since the moss covered rocks were frosted over. Extra slippery! But I survived and was able to enjoy the sunrise and from a different perspective. I can’t believe people get to live places like this and to them it is just ‘the usual’. There is nothing usual about watching the sun paint snow covered mountains in vibrant pinks and reds.

Speaking of locals, our land lady came to check on me yesterday. She was asking how we were enjoying the hiking and outdoors and I mentioned that before spring we should probably get bear bells or the like (to make noise when you’re hiking so you don’t startle a bear and have it eat you). She then told me her favorite bear joke—Marma, I recommend you skip this part of the blog…

Q: How can you tell the difference between black bear poop and brown bear poop?

A: Black bear poop has grass and berries, brown bear poop has bells.

Hardy har har. On that note we will wish you all a wonderful weekend. We are hosting our Friday night dinner get together this week so I’m off to start cooking. Tomorrow is supposed to be beautiful so we’ll probably hit the trails!

Until we meet again- All our love,

S/A