we had a great soak at chena hot springs today and my parents first moose sighting.
the weather was awesome, on our way we hiked at angel rocks, picnic lunch and back for a river boat dinner cruise. we have had a busy visit already, hitting the alaska coffee roasters, our cabin in the valley and a little shopping at Beaver Sports...

the UAF tour

we took the parents on a tour of UAF today and great hike to smith lake from my building, of course Pella was swimming


the roof of the Geophysical Institute and the Dobson in the background where we take ozone measurements from.

research

started full time on the research this week and it is a great change. I like problem solving and calculations. randy and I both working on the CRDS have fear factor for nerds races to assemble and dissasemble parts, when did I become such a dork?

so excited for the parents to visit this week and we have a ton of stuff planned.

check out the newest blog link on the right Martin, great pics and stories of the arctic island he is working on. ben has been shooting more stock, but that is on his "other" blog.

borrowed from Ben's photo blog....

murphy dome

dea and i went on a hike with julie, matias and the dogs this afternoon. it was 70 degrees in town, and 55up on the murphy dome. there were still patches of snow on the top, but spring is here.


matias ties rainy and pika together, because rainy runs away and pika stays close. they are the abbott and costello of the dog world.


julie throwing a snowball at me- just missed (and dea gettign tooo much enjoyment out of it).


the gang on the rocks at the turn around point.

we also had a chance to see matias' cabin after the hike as well. he built a awesome log cabin up off murphy dome road a few years ago. it's really a perfect spot- unobstructed views of the alaska range, 5 acres all to himself...perfect.

we capped the day with moose pasta at julie's. it was a good day with good friends.

Pella had a great day, swimming at the lake on our hike and here at the Tanana river. we went on a mellow hike today, I was feeling a little under the weather. then of course a stop at local HOT LICKS ice cream...

the current was moving pretty fast and she just kept swimming out to all the big branches that floated by.

we are still planning on riding bikes into Denali National Park tomorrow, but something mellow. The road is open, but the tourist busses do not start until next weekend. It is the only weekend to ride with no one on the road. Julie(great pics on her blog) was there birding this week and said the road is in good shape, they saw bear and lynx too.....

Golden Heart Utilities run was tonight. I stayed home to study, but Ben was out shooting. Like how the ballons outline the tallest smokestack at the utilities plant?
that's my ben:-) cool picture.


ted and dan at the start- eyeing their competition. ben said he saw #465 was winning until dan tripped her at the turn around:-)


matias local running legend (2nd at chena river run), is also a sports editor for the fairbanks news-miner. here he is interviewing Dan,he was 2nd tonight and ted 4th. all the cool kids were out.

for more insight and great photography check out ben's until now, "secret" artsy fartsy blog, it has some way interesting stuff at www.huffphoto.blogspot.com

fun alaska fact tonight

tonight is the last night the sun will set until Augurst 2nd in Barrow and the north slope of Alaska. Stacia's up there now, but the temps are still chilly. the north slope is about 400 miles north of here. we only drove 285 miles north on the Haul road last time we headed that way. there is no road to Barrow though, you have to fly.
dea

riding out in goldstream valley

Ben, Julie and I went out on a great road ride today. Julie just bought a bike and she is climbing really strong! We headed up the "city route" past the trap shooters to Hagelburger lookout and then up the old steese out to goldstream valley.


Ben up ahead on the last desent into Fairbanks, they both kicked my butt!

racing and dogs

we had a great day today. dea raced a 5k this morning, along with Matias, Dan, Ted, and Julie. they all did well and had a blast. today was three months to the day that dea headed to the hospital in seattle. the race was a good day to mark the return to good health for her. there were over 700 people for the race, and it was 60 degrees.

after the race we all went for coffee, and then to the trails at uaf to run the dogs. just a normal day in fairbanks.


dea gettin' her run on!


ted finishing strong


julie protecting young caz


caz & julie

Martin was in for a day, he studies walrus and walrus hunters on a tiny island as close as you can get to Russia, called Svaoonga. you need to get out the Alaska map for that one. it was a quick visit with great stories of the island natives bringing all kinds of guts for him to inspect...what a PhD..we will see him at the gemini birthday bash in June!

the tripod falls!

Holy crap, I can't believe I missed it. I know you all have been sitting on the edge of your seats, but the tripod has fallen. I guess the rivers are going to unfreeze this year.

the ice broke May 2nd at 5:29pm, 7 winning tickets split the jackpot of $270,000. there is however some controversy

because the entire block of ice moved triggering the clock, but the tripod did not actually fall over until today.

last minute fun drive tonight to see the sunset at 10:45pm, in my pajamas we dashed to ballaine lake to see this cool reflection....the lake though, is still frickin' frozen.

BETH: on the music note, we were jammin' to my favorite new tune:
Talk on Idolence by the avett brothers (i AM a litTLE nerVOUS 'bout what you'll think when YOU see ME in my swimmin' trunks..) seriously good tune.

more music snobery...Ben is lovin' the new Collin Herring and Jesse Malin CD's.
-Dea

skaters

i rode over to the skate park today and shot some of the young guys doing their thing. it took them a bit to warm up to the 'old guy', but they ended up really putting on a show. it was a good day- got to almost 60 degrees!







ben

out on the town for a fantastic night at Cafe Alex.


Ben just can't enough of the martini lobster mashed potatoes with capers...yum.

Pella likes our crazy adventures, but her favorite part is cuddling up in the sleeping bags in the back seat.

finally springtime in fairbanks! the ski trails are melted enough for dogs and running, so last night we headed from campus for a run.

a few more pics.....

this is the view at finger mountain, the farther north you go, the lower tree line, until the arctic ocean.


ben had a blast shooting a ton of pictures, the veiws of the brooks range were awesome, no trails or trailheads, you just pull over and hike/ski.


very crappy picture of the map, we are half way up the red line in area 136.

Coldfoot Camp, Alaska

dea, pella, and i made a gorilla vacation of sorts up past the arctic circle this weekend. the arctic circle is about 185 miles north of Fairbanks up the Dalton Highway on the way to Prudhoe Bay. The road is used predominately for semi transport of goods and equipment to the oil fields.



dea and pella checking out the Yukon River, break up is not till late June..from there we headed for a great hike at finger mountain, used by bush pilots to find their way to fairbanks.

dea playing around on the rock tors


(ben was very talented setting the self timer getting up there!)

from the arctic circle we headed to the only spot to get gas as we traveled north- over 200 miles from Fairbanks, coldfoot camp. we spent the night in Coldfoot Camp, known for being the farthest north truck stop in North America. we rolled in to the compound under an 11:00pm sun, and had the biggest plate of french fries we'd ever seen. we scoped out some great tele skiing entering the brooks range, for when we have more time. it was great to get out of town and see a part of the state that we had yet to experience. it's hard to put into words how desolate it is up North. There are no structures, no falling barns or mobile homes, no gas stations, no mailboxes or phone lines- just land. the pipeline zig zags north along the road, and the semis make you feel like a mouse among cats.


the haul road on the way back to fairbanks


the pipeline runs right next to the road
(zig zags are so the pipe can expand and contract)


we also caught Stacia and her goverment issue pick up going to the oil fileds, and stopped to chat for a bit.(we joked about the horror stories we heard about the potholes and how we had no trouble, when we pulled into the condo we had a flat tire!)
all in all a good trip.

last night...stacia and martin's going away dinner at Cafe Alex, very hip restaurant in down town Fairbanks.

arctic circle and beyond..

Hi all, we are headed up the Haul road to the Arctic circle and beyond for some skiing this weekend. ....414 mile remote dirt road that goes thru the brooks rangge to the prudhoe bay oil fields/arctic ocean. Stacia is also headed all the way to prudhoe bay for her research in the oil fields, we hope to rendevous around the arctic circle, how cool is that? We are excited to see the Yukon River, 4th largest in North America, arctic circle, finger rock and we will see how far we get. Here are some great links with information on this road, gates of the arctic, brooks range and much more! http://fairbanks-alaska.com/dalton-highway.htm
We'll be back with photos from our adventure....

ben before his ride yesterday...though there are some riders in fairbanks and strong ones at that, spandex is not in. these purple uniforms stuck out in Boulder, can you imagine in fairbanks? at least he has hairy legs now :-) i thought it was a bit cold for shorts, but not for Ben.
we have both been riding a bit..my ride this morning had awesome views of the Alaska range as I took the long way into school.

Ben is Anchorage for the night..girls night to the pump house for a drink....

most of the road is clear, but here I am hike-a-bike style across a big ice patch...

Finally, I rode my road bike to work today(mtn. biking is great most of the year, but with the snow/ice roads it seems like forever since I have been on road ride). I was around 12F. When is it actually going to warm up? I don't know it is my first spring in Fairbank, AK. Sometimes you just can't wait any longer. Though I had my glove on the tire the whole ride in (still sporting my light, thin, road race tires), it was a great ride. Then I looked and it is 84 in boulder right now!! Randy and Bill from our lab are in Boulder enjoying the great weather....

After a great Easter brunch party at Julies cabin, we just kept cooking and eating.


first course for Easter dinner...some Polish food.


Caz drinking beer


then of course cuddling with Pella, ahhhhhhh!
good alaska conversation about upcoming oil field trips, canoe trips, running races and field surveying...

Ben and I headed out on a chilly 10F run this morning and before gettting our Easter supplies we ate at Paco's Tacos. It is finally open again, it was closed this winter, maybe because it is a shack.

ummmm....good nachos


Ben getting his egg color on, more importantly his new haircut! we are excited for our big Easter dinner party tomorrow, lots of good Polish food.