Dad's Visit - Finally!

I apologize, for it has taken me much too long to post all this stuff on the blog. Dad flew out here on Christmas Day.  His trip got started off with an interesting set of circumstances. Namely, when I went to crank the car to pick him up from the airport my battery died! Awesome, so in the midst of some of the heaviest snow we've had all winter, I finally got a jump from a neighbor, and went to pick him up.  Come to find out, they lost his one checked bag....awesome!  He ended up getting his bag, we got a new car battery, and the nice Christmas snow finally ended.

The rest of the trip was seriously the best weather we've had since I've been here, although with the clear skies came some seriously cold temperatures.  Scuttlebutt is that the alaska cold has been on the news some on the lower 48, so maybe yall have heard about it?  Either way, work was interesting through the cold snap.  Lots of media interviews, lots of principals calling to ask what the temperature was, to figure out if they could have recess.  So, how cold you may ask?  Well, with the exception of about 30 minutes, the NWS office was below zero for something like 7 or 8 days.

It was one of the coldest cold snaps in the city's history.  Like I said, at my apartment it was between 15 and 25 below for about a week.  That kind of cold results in some interesting observation, but that's not what this post is about!

So the first day dad was here we just ran some errands and stuff...since i was coming off a loooong string of midnight shifts I was pretty out of it.

The next morning we went up to this place called Glen Alps to watch the sunrise.  Glen Alps is a little state park area on the hillside (read mountains to any carolina folk) that overlooks the city.  With the sunrise and clear weather you can see pretty much forever.  You can see volcanoes, the Alaska Range, the Talkeetna mountains, Cook Inlet, Kenai Peninsula, and the city of Anchorage laid out before you.  Here's a pic of dad and I before the sunrise, and a look over the city:

The next day we drove down to the Kenai Peninsula.  It was awesome to take that drive this time of year, and I hadn't driven that far since I was down there back in October.  Winter was in full effect down there too, and it was pretty cold when we stopped at the Russian River.

This picture was on the Kenai River at the Russian River Ferry.  It was -11, but with the fog it felt like -1 million.  Even though it's been much colder since, that's the coldest I've ever been in my life.  I was so cold I couldn't think... it was like my brain was rejecting standing there to take a picture.  The river was essentially a slushy.  It's crazy seeing a moving river that wants to freeze so bad, but can't, because the current is so strong.  The fish that are in that river are hardcore.  I hope to meet them this spring and summer.

Moving on, the next day we drove north toward Talkeetna, and beyond, to get a better close-up view of Denali.  It was pretty chilly up there, somewhere around -30.  The wind was blowing like crazy, and the wind chill was below -50.  We got to this overlook at the Chulitna River, and hiked up this little knoll to get a clear view.  I started laughing at the fact that I was crying, and every time I would blink, the tears would freeze my eyes shut.  So every 15 seconds I had to clear the ice off my eyes so I could see.  Dad's face during all of this had a look that I had never seen.  It was like he was internally questioning how ridiculous we were for doing this.  The view was definitely worth it though.  We agreed it is very difficult to comprehend the sheer mass of the mountain.  This is the mountain from about 50 miles away:



The thing that's so crazy is the bottomlands at the base of the mountain is only at about 700' above sea level. The peak is over 20,000 ft. high. The mountains surrounding the immediate peak of Denali appear like babies, but they are themselves 11 to 12 thousand ft peaks. It really is difficult to really comprehend.

Unfortunately I had to work a couple days while Dad was here, so the events were pretty low key after this day. We went up to Glen Alps a few more times. Once during the day to see some brighter views of the city, and once at night in hopes to see some Aurora. No northern lights were seen, but the view was once again beautiful, and we saw some shooting stars.

We ate some delicious food on New Years. Crazy thing about that... the city has an outside party that night. It was like -10 out. I could hardly walk the 4 blocks from the restaurant to the car, forget being outside for a few hours. Those people either really love New Years, or they were sipping on the good(bad) stuff.

Of course, the ice fishing trip has been previously chronicled. So that was about the visit. I was sad to see the old man go, but that's life. I did recently buy a ticket back home at the end of February, so that is my event to look forward to now. I've always been that way. I need something to be excited about at all times. I fully intend to eat nothing but Indian food, Bojangles, Chik-fil-A, and burritos the entire time I'm back. I hope to gain sufficient weight to carry me through the remainder of the winter.

Here is a picture Dad took that I really like.... I'll end this post here. Hope everyone is having a good week!



PS - to Tom and Cameron. The down jacket is the real deal once it gets down below zero. Before that it's a sauna... but the way the weather has been the past 3 weeks, if it werent for that jacket I would either be frozen and dead somewhere, or simply weeping inside with cabin fever. So thanks again brothers.