Travels and a Birthday!

We were able to take a trip up to the native village of Circle, which is on the Yukon River, earlier this month. It was a beautiful drive through the mountains and along the Chatanika River valley. There are only two villages on the Steece hiway, they are Central and Circle. This drive is true wilderness...no quick trips or fast food. The only gas available was in Central at the only store(picture below) that was a bar/gas station/laundromat/video store/showering stop/grocery store/and where the locals could get internet access. We were grateful to get dinner for our family there on the way back, even if it was $10 a burger (all part of the adventure!). I'd been wanting to go to Circle for a while and although the condition of the village was sobering, it was great to see some of the locals, visit the general store, and finally see a real fish wheel (used to catch salmon by natives). We were glad to see that the Yukon hadn't done much flood damage there as it had in other villages along it's banks. We'd hoped to have lunch in Circle but there was nothing but the general store. We could have bought a small bag of chips for $8.50 but settled for dusty cheese and crackers. The picture with the airplanes is of the general store. The runway is across the road and up a long narrow lane. Evidentally the airplanes have to taxi over to the general store to get their gas...what a hoot. The last 50 miles of the drive to Circle was a narrow gravel road. We almost turned back but our new line is, "Hey, we're here, so let's go!" We scoped out a few fishing spots along the Chatanika river for Steve and John to return to hopefully soon. We tried to make this drive back in March and had to turn back because 12-Mile Pass was drifting shut. So instead we went to the Chatanika Outhouse race that was on our way back. It was below zero and the wind was blowing, which is rare here in the winter. John got recruited for a team and won second place and a T-shirt! Chatanika Lodge is very old and unique. The outhouse races are to get the locals out of their cabins at the end of a long winter.

We celebrated Miss Maggie's birthday on June 17th. She and Grace are both 11, until Grace's birthday in August. Brei's guy, Seth, joined us for the party. We did the birthday march and reminisced how the Isbells have weeded out a few newcomers with this tradition. Seth was a good sport and wore the candy necklace with the other 'kids'.

We went to the Fairbanks Midnight Sun Festival for summer solstice. It took up a 12 block area downtown. There was every kind of ethnic food available, all kinds of music from comtemporary Christian to Celtic to Middle Eastern and belly dancing. (Fairbanks is quite a melting pot of people. It's not unusual for us to be in the minority sometimes. It's also common to hear conversations around us in other languages.) Many locals were selling their goods such as soap, jewelry, paintings, hand dyed fabric and clothing, sled dogs, and you could even pan for gold! At every event we've been to, summer or winter, at least 25% of the people have their dogs with them. (I might add that at least that percentage of vehicles have dogs in them everywhere we go. It seems everyone has at least one. Must be why our landlord allowed us to have two large indoor dogs).

Speaking of summer solstice, we have enjoyed all the sunshine here! Some of you know what a night owl I can be. With Steve going to bed at 7 or 8 due to his 3:30am rising time, I have been staying up late knitting, watching movies, reading and playing games with the kids, and hanging with Brei. It's very strange to have the sunshine and blue skies at 12:30am. It looks like 7pm in Iowa. I basically don't keep track of time. Right now it's 12:03am and the house is bright, except for those sleeping who've hung up their black curtains. I did notice that the sun is starting to dip behind the dome across from us meaning that we are on the downhill side of summer and winter is on it's way.

The slideshow below is from the January and February archives. Some of what you'll see..The kids at the Pipeline (just down the hill from us) enjoying winter, winter moon, Moriah's catcakes, Mocha Dan's drive-thru coffee hut (otherwise known as 'How Fairbanksans make it through the winter-one of many around town all cleverly named), start of the Junior Yukon Quest, sculpture downtown Fairbanks, our winter cabin, Steve helping with homeschool, 'sourdough' reciting Robert Service at the Alaska 50th birthday celebration, neighborhood moose, finish of Tesoro Iron Dog 2000 mile Snow Machine race (must not call them snow mobiles here!), Sarah Palin at Iron Dog, our Sarah at Iron Dog, Moriah getting ready to take her cat for a walk, sun begins to shine on the dome across from us!!!, a few performers at the Winter Folk Festival, Alaska window treatment (laundry drying), finish of Yukon Quest 1100 mile sled dog race, Sarah drinking cocoa to stay warm at Yukon Quest, sled dogs glad to be done with the race. Keep in mind that the temperature in January and February was usually -20 to -45. It is more bearable here because of the lack of wind and it's a dryer climate so the weather does not keep people inside. Most embrace the winter. There is so much going on here that sometimes it's hard to pick and choose what to do. Speaking of things to do.......we are going to Valdez over the 4th of July!!! Woohoo!!