Final exams finished for the fall semester, new mission: dash off to the airport to make my flight to Fairbanks, Alaska.
Having grown up in Hawai‘i my whole life, I haven’t always been one who is accustomed to cold weather. Still, I was excited to start getting ready for this trip. After all, a lot of money had been saved up during the year for this.
Although, winter trips to the East Coast have given me the chance to experience wearing winter clothes, snow filled days, as well as temperatures in the tens and single digits.
This was almost nothing compared to the sheer cold that I’d heard about in Fairbanks. I thought I had winter clothes, but when I found out that temperatures could possibly reach 60 degrees below zero, I had to adjust my wardrobe.
Thankfully I had some input from my boyfriend who grew up in Alaska, on what to wear – thus our trip to visit his family.
So I ordered base layer clothing with thermal heating, a down coat and more. It was well worth the money spent on the clothing, it pays off to be warm when it’s freezing out.
Flying about five hours to the great state of Alaska and worth the wait. Stepping foot outside in the snow covered state was beautiful. Snow banks, cars with piles of snow on the roof, trees with snow glistening off the bare branches, it was magical.
Immediately I realized that the sun had not risen yet, and didn’t until about 10:45 a.m. and set at 3:15 p.m. Not to get tired at 4 p.m. took some getting used to.
Driving through Fairbanks really showed me how small Hawai‘i is and even the United States. Hawai‘i can fit in Alaska 60 time;, not only did that blow my mind, but Alaska is bigger than Texas, California and Montana combined, according to alaska.org.
The scenery was beautiful, and vast. The land stretches for miles and miles. My boyfriend’s mom picked us up and we headed to the outskirts of Fairbanks, travelling on Elliott Highway, to their house. This highway is the farthest north in the U.S. and ends in Prudhoe Bay.
Participating in snow related activities like snowboarding or heading to the hot springs, I highly recommend.
Among the days spent in icy Alaska, everything was memorable and more than I imagined, but going to Chena Hot Springs, was not something that I thought would be fun. The mere thought of getting into a swimsuit and walking outside in temperatures that could possibly reach 60 below stunned me.
I was in for a pleasant surprise. Walking out into the weather that reached about 10 below that night and hopping into the boiling hot water was so relaxing. It ended up getting to the point where I wanted to sit on the snow-covered rocks that enclosed the hot springs.
I would tell anybody who decided to visit Fairbanks to drive on the scenic Chena Hot Springs road and experience what I think was the epitome of relaxation.
After a day of relaxation, comes the excitement of visiting an ice park, in North Pole, which consisted of ice slides and intricate ice sculptures.
Keep in mind that this is all new to me, I had no idea, again, what to expect or how to slide down an ice slide. It was simple, grab a sled if you want to and slide on down. I learned after a while to have a scarf covering to keep snow from shooting up onto my face and making it cold.
The ice sculptures in the park were beautiful works of art, a lot of them bigger than life size. It was intriguing to envision the talent and time that went into creating such a piece of work.
North Pole is also home to the Santa Claus house, on St. Nicholas Drive. This is a place where it’s Christmas all year. Visitors can find what I would call the worlds best fudge, souvenirs, Christmas items and of course, Santa.
The last thing on the winter to do list was to take a snow machine out. A snow machine as referred to in Alaska, is not something that blows out snow, but more commonly know as a snow mobile. Thankfully the handles had hand warmers and kept my hands from getting frostbite.
Anybody who is interested in seeing beautiful scenery, experiencing extreme cold and immersing themselves in snow activities, get those winter clothes and plan that trip to Alaska.