Or “…everybody thinks I’ve lost my mind…”
I landed in Fairbanks, AK, on June 20, 2025. But if you told me it was 6 years ago I wouldn’t flinch. Feels like I was born and raised here, then spent 59 years as a visitor in the Lower 48.
I initially came to Alaska to visit my friend Meredith McGee here in December 2024, to celebrate my birthday. Spent like five days. Went dog sledding. Tromped around town in -26 degree air that felt like icy knife blades on my face. There were two hours of real daylight, but mostly shadows and silence. The streets were empty, but glistened with newfallen snow. In a word: enchanting.
Stopped at a bar called the Hidden Mine, met a National Geographic reporter doing a story on Arctic yoga camps or something. She’d been to Alaska many times. I told her I was feeling…well, weird. She asked, “How so?” I replied, “I don’t know. Giddy. Like I have a crush.” She smiled and said, “Yeah, that’s the first symptom.”
On December 16th, my 59th birthday, Meredith and I had a ridiculous prime rib dinner and drove to Chena Hot Springs with a water bottle full of cheap red wine. We soaked in the sulphur pond, 8 degrees below zero, icicles in our hair and eyelashes. Driving back, we saw the Aurora Borealis swim across the night sky on a moonlit stretch of snowy road lined with white spruce.
Yeah, I cried a little. Happy tears…happy birthday to me.
The day I came back to the lovely Pennsylvania community I’d called “home” for 35 years, I applied for my Alaska nursing license. I knew where I needed to be.
It was crazy. But not crazy. And now I’m here. In the 49th. The latest adventure in a long line for me. Those of you who know me were not terribly surprised.
I decided to do this blog because, as most of you probably know, I was a newspaper reporter in my previous life. At my core, I’m a writer, but I’d like to think of myself as a storyteller. And while most of you probably won’t ever get up here, I’m here now. And I’m eager to share my experiences with you, through words and pictures.
I’ve only been in Alaska a couple of weeks. But I already have my Fred Meyer rewards card. I bought a “beater with a heater” with a classic “Alaska windshield” (cracked all the way across, in multiple veins), and a block heater. And unfortunately, I am very familiar with the smoky haze of a smoldering forest fire. Summers are popular here, but my heart and mind are already yearning for winter…
I’m ready for this adventure. I feel like I’ve come home.
Hope you can join me.
“Alaska is a land of lost summers, a land of frozen dreams, a land where life goes to sleep under blankets of white, and wakes to find a half-year’s day.”
Jack London