Snow Day in North Pole

The second snow storm in September started on Sept. 29 and continued through Sept. 30. Weather.com posted this "For the second time in less than a week, Fairbanks, Alaska, was blanketed with heavy snow. This time, it was a record-breaker. Officially, 11.2 inches of snow blanketed Fairbanks International Airport Tuesday, setting an all-time September daily snow record, previously 7.8 inches on Sep. 13, 1992. This also topped the previous record for any 24-hour September snowfall of 9 inches in 1992, according to Rick Thoman from the National Weather Service in Fairbanks. Records in Fairbanks date to 1904.

My car after I had dug it out once the day before.

The heavy wet snow took down tree limbs and power lines.

Golden Valley Electric Agency reported an estimated 7,000-9,000 customers without power as of early Wednesday morning in Fairbanks and in nearby areas. This was down from a peak of about 13,000 customers Tuesday evening, or roughly 30 percent of their total customers."

School was cancelled on Sept. 30 so it was a very low key day in my apartment. I was one of the customers without power. I had a very quiet day reading books and eating cold food. I had just gotten snow tires Tuesday so I tested them out to go to the local Safeway store to get matches. I had candles but no matches.   - Nancy

Yes, Nancy is really in North Pole, AK

And, North Pole, Alaska is quite the place, complete with Santa Claus and street names to match.

We visited "Santa's house" today and wanted to send pictures that would tell you something about North Pole. As you can see from pictures below, we drove on Santa Claus Lane and St. Nicholas Drive as well. We even saw the live reindeer that are supposed to pull Santa's sled. When we walked into the "Santa Claus House" we found all kinds of gifts one could buy for small children. Tour buses were present as well. Obviously the whole enterprise caters to tourists all year-round. In a picture below you can actually see Nancy with Santa himself. (He is "on duty" all day for the benefit of kids and tourists.) It was quite an experience! - rw

Back again to Denali!

On the Sunday of Labor Day week-end I made my second trip to Denali N.P. in a week, with Nancy driving. We arrived at the park before 10:00 a.m. and drove on the park road straight to the short Mountain View Trail where we had great views of Denali. Obviously, many pictures were taken, and we enjoyed perfect weather--with no wind and no clouds in the sky.

After the short hike we drove as far as we could on the park road (the 15 mi. marker, beyond which only tour buses are allowed), and then returned to the Visitors' Center for lunch. We were duly impressed by the fall colors everywhere we drove, and managed to take pictures of several moose right by the side of the road. - rw

Getting Settled in North Pole, Alaska

I arrived in Fairbanks 6 days ago on August 28. During this whirlwind of a week Ron and I have gotten settled into an apartment, bought a car and I started a new job.

I'll start with where we live. It is an apartment in a complex called Beaver Lake Resort. I have a one bedroom place that is very suitable. The arctic entrance (white door) is shared by one other resident and then there is a door into our respective apartments.

The laundry is down a flight of stairs down the the back interior entrance to our place. There is a designated place to park my car that has a plug in for my car in and it is close enough that I can stick my head and hand out of the arctic entrance and the car has a remote start so it is heated and defrosted when I get into it.

Car

The apartment is 600 sq. ft. We have a queen bed in the bedroom, a card table for the kitchen, and yesterday we finally got a used hide-a-bed for the living room.

Kitchen

Living Room

Bedroom

Tomorrow the Internet and Cable company are coming to hook us up to wireless and cable. We have Internet via hard wired but the wireless router is not working so the technician from the Internet company is coming to set us up.

The lake on the property is very lovely. It was 70 degrees here today. Some of the residents have kayaks and enjoy being on the lake. - Nancy