It's been quiet on the blog, because I've been on vacation. I went home to Denmark for a month bringing James with me. He has been there before, both with and without me, but it's been a couple years and it was great to see family and friends under high sun instead of chilly December temperatures. It was wonderful to be in Denmark, but it also brings up a lot of thoughts and feelings like: Why do I live so far away from my family? What is it about Fairbanks, Alaska that makes me stay and plan a future here? Am I insane for doing this? Is Alaska a phase (if so, it's lasted 5 years so far)? How do you know you are suppose to be, live, love somewhere?
Big thoughts, big feelings. I can't answer them, but I generally try to follow my gut feeling and that has consistently been telling me to pursue Alaska. So I do. Is it sometimes difficult? Yes. But life here is special in a way I have never experiences it anywhere else. There is room to breathe: not so much literally (As you will learn when reading this post) but mentally: there is room.
To go to Denmark I fly to Seattle and then to somewhere in mainland Europe, this time Amsterdam and Paris, and then Copenhagen. While I was in Seattle I bought a car and when I returned I drove it home. It's a 3500K (2200 miles) trip mostly through Canada. We planned on having six days on the road, but once we got started we saw nothing but HOME in the far distance and drove straight there in three. Rolling into North Pole, a suburb of Fairbanks, the horizon disappeared and a thick smoke enclosed us. If it wasn't for the excellent air condition in the Green Lightning (read: the new, used Subaru), it would have been hard to breathe. An enormous 84.000 acres (340 km2) wildfire northwest of Fairbanks was causing the smoke. Hundreds of houses have been threatened in communities just north of Fairbanks and some have been asked to evacuate. After four weeks of 35 C (95 F) rain finally came back and the fire is currently kept at bay. Fires are a controversial issue in Alaska because for decades they were put out as soon as they started basically turning the state into one great pile of kindling ready to light on fire. Therefore the fires today are large and sometimes uncontrollable. And they need to burn in order for ecosystems to survive. But should they be allowed to burn down cabins and houses? The decades of putting out fires have perhaps already made that choice on our behalf. It's a difficult debate and being near a wildfire most definitely makes me wish they were put out, but I understand that it might only lead to worse fires in the future.
This weekend has been wonderfully non-smoky. Yesterday was the annual Angry, Young and Poor festival in town. James (and I by association) is part of the self-proclaimed disorganizers behind the festival. It is a wonderful day of music, people and dogs. This year there was a booth for dogs, where they could get spruced up and get pedicures for free as well as locally made treats. There was free food and purchasable food, Chad's coffee bus, arts and crafts and a slipNslide, which is a long piece of plastic stretched out and covered in soap and water. Kids of all ages were slippingNsliding all day long. I performed with Jesse (James' sister) before some very talented heavy metal bands took to the stage. James worked as a maniac all day running professional sound and Delta played so much with all the dogs that she has been continually sleeping all through today. I too will soon go lie down.
More to come on Alaskan summer activities!
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