Auroravukku aroogaraa!!!

It has been a little over 2 months since I turned 50. After my 35th birthday, a bunch of people reminded me of my "mid life" point. Basic math then suggested that they expected me to live to 70 or thereabouts. A few months ago, was told that it is time to start doing things on the "bucket list" as this is a mid life point. On the one hand was happy to see that the logic of midlife had extended the 70 to past 70, but was also sad to see this bucket business. 

I am just happy on a 6 feet by 2 feet yoga mat (with at least an extra 3 feet on either side where my hands are, just to do a few yoga asanas that require stretching my hands out like an airplane). The idea of trying to list just a few things to go see or do, within a time frame seems to extend the rat race to outside of work and on to retired life and that did not sit well with me. All that said, I love to travel and will gladly experience new places. 

One thing that both me and San have wanted to see together in this lifetime is the Northern lights (Aurora Borealis). Our past plans were fails. Our friend in Iceland sees this from her window and has been asking us to visit, but we couldn't make a plan to go yet given other things that keep coming up. So we jumped at a chance to do a weekend trip to Alaska to see the lights. 

Going to the arctic circle in Feb to see the lights and back over a weekend, especially where you get two chances over two days (in case day 1 was a dud) was a good plan. We just had to take a Friday afternoon and Monday off. So far so good..

For the second time within a year we heard this statement "there is no bad weather, only bad gear!" and this time it was even more apt. We booked tours through Viator and the Alaska Wildlife guide for the two days. 

The weather in Fairbanks when we landed was -4 F. We did dress up in layers using the "32 degrees" brand we get in Costco which goes for thermals in "Northern California Winter".. ha ha ha.. The joke was on us! Northern California Winter is an oxymoron. It isn't really winter. 32 degrees doesnt work in -4 degrees. Regular new balance shoes with double socks... what were we thinking?

We landed, were picked up by the Best Western in a taxi and shortly after reaching the hotel and putting things in our room, were picked up within an hour to go 45 minutes north to more desolation. There was a heated shack where all the folks on the tour had a chair and were huddled around tables. There was hot cocoa for everyone. A TV on the wall which showed the lights from a point 20 miles north (kind of a one minute heads up) and some very passionate locals who gave us tips on how to take photos, how be safe outside etc. 

Aurora Pointe lodge does not have any living space. It is a warm room with two doors to run out take pictures and come back to warm yourself before running out again. There was also a restroom there, which was a blessing. 

The outside temp by 11:30PM when we reached the point was -9 to -10 F. Once there, one of the folks who work at the place runs in and says "It's happening" and also tells us "look at parking lot side" or "back of cabin side".. and all the photographers and models run out in a straight line to try and find a vantage point on the snow to take a few pictures and run back. You are lucky if you get even a few pictures. Nothing to do with the aurora.. it does its thing. Your face, fingers all freeze once you are out for more than 4-5 minutes. At that point, cannot find the button to click the photo. Forget trying to change any shutter speed or ISO settings.. You have to set it up inside the room, run out, click, run back in. If you walked further into the snow with New balance walking shoes and double socks which are already wet, good luck to you!

We did maybe 10 such runs in and out between 11:45 and 2 AM and got a bunch of shots. Here is another thing. You can get great shots of the Aurora, as it is pitch dark outside. The timer is usually set to 4 to 6 seconds to get these shots. The lights keep dancing around. It gets interesting if you have to be in the picture also! We literally have to "light paint" ourselves. I did this for the most part by using my iphone flashlight and taking it out of my pocket and shining it in our face towards the end of the 4 seconds, or if lucky asking another photographer to shine it on us just in time. Depening on their experience and how much their hands are shaking, it becomes an interesting photograph where you can see others folks in the background getting lit up as well. 

All said and done, wear snow boots if you go. Then you can wade further in the snow. Have double gloves where the inner one can still be used to touch screen controls (capacitive gloves apparently). Wear the right puffy jackets. If you have a camera with touch screen controls, even better! My camera is 12 plus years old and it was a challenge to use the set button to go to different parameters to adjust! 

One day to fly in, see the lights. If no lights, see them second day. That was the plan! We got lucky and were treated to an amazing light show by mother nature, the same night we landed. Once the moon came up at 2PM the shack closed. 15 minutes before that the lights were almost too faint and the buses and vans started leaving one by one. We were the last ones out of the place and we got to see the moon rise over the Aurora Pointe.

The highlight pictures are here.. 

We did not see any kids on this trip! Some teens who worked at the hotel but that was it. Mostly bearded men.. and a few women! Interesting demographic in this place!

this was the view inside the Aurora Pointe.. photo of me and my valentine... grow a beard they said..it will come in useful in Alaska they said... my beard wasn't Alaska grade.. my face still froze!

This was what we drove through to get to Aurora pointe..it was a very black and white world we were driving through till we entered the room..

The rest of the pictures are in this slideshow gallery!

It was a long day for us and we were happy to reach the hotel room by 3AM and just crash.. we used hand and leg warmers but still couldn't feel our toes and fingers and we woke up at 9AM and the sun was not out yet!

Finally a short video of our experience...

Our next day was equally adventurous and will write about it soon..

Technology challenges..

It has been an interesting two days. 

The last few days, there has been a problem at work where a duct spews out bursts of cold air directly above my head. My office has been trying to figure out the root cause and come up with fixes for it by blocking the vent with cardboard, building paper dampers to direct it away from my head etc.. In the meantime, I got a nice cold, thanks to that and the highly changing bay area weather. 

As most of you know, my solution to all ailments is to try doing Yoga in the hot room first before going to the doctor or resorting to any pills. So after scheduling a bunch of late night calls post 11PM, I decided to go do Yoga at 8:30 in the night. It was mildly drizzing when I went into the class and things were, lets say "pleasant".

When the class ended and we came out, there was cold winds and water coming down in intervals in sheets! I am guessing these were more than the 20 mph gusts. This was way stronger. At several points on the way home thought the Leaf was going to fly off the road. There was also a lot of palm leaves falling off the trees and flying around. 

In all of this I did not realize that there was no power in the neighborhood. I drive to the garage and the thing is not opening. I called my wife and she goes "there is no power in the house and the entire area". 

So there I am in my yoga shorts, all sweaty, with cold rain and winds trying to manually open the garage door and park my car inside.. and a gust of wind litterally sends a wave of water into the garage! 

Finally I parked the car and closed the garage door. By now any residual body heat from the yoga class is gone and I am shivering. Then I tell my dear wife "I will go take a quick shower and eat what you have made. good thing we have the flashlights". 

A few minutes later, I realize that the flashlights are the least of the problems. Turns out that the water heater we have installed as part of the new construction which is tankless, energy efficient, reduces our gas bills etc. etc. doesn't work when there is no electricity! It didn't matter anyway. It was not going to be worse than the rain. So that was the shortest coldest shower I have taken after a hot yoga class. 

Then came the dinner part. Wife says "I made stuff for you, but it is all cold. Maybe you can reheat it on the stove because you cannot microwave?"

By now I am conditioned to try everything manual have a low expectation for any gadget. So I know the pilot lamp won't work (it didn't) and use a matchstick to try and light this stove. Turns out that only the back burner turns on without a pilot. These guys have some interlock on the other stoves! 

Finally managed to reheat some stuff and eat with the flashlight and look at my phone... it has <20% charge! 

Went to the battery pack that was given as a company souvenier which is always in my travel bag and that had no charge! 

We both drive a Nissan Leaf. That means if you don't have power all night, we have to fight for the car with the most charge left.. It is a new interesting dynamic in our house.

It was a hard lesson on how dependent we are and how much we take for granted! I managed to muddle through the day and keep my thoughts going. Deifnitely feel better now, thanks to another yoga class, no manual door openings, a nice hot shower, hot tea.. and more importantly a house that is back to 68F instead of 56F!

This afternoon I was thinking about the folks in war zones. People in first world countries have no clue what those folks are going through. We are making it all worse for them by our every day thoughts and actions and what we support knowingly or unknowingly. We also take a lot for granted. The biggest rights we seem to cherish are our rights to stupidity and our right to be irresponsible when it comes to the rest of the world and the planet. At least that is my feeling right now.

A bad vent, a storm for a few hours and an all night power cut are able to make a dent in my life. That is just sad.

Time to spend more time with nature and improve my immunity to cold weather. Also time to do something about all this guilt for everything that is happening in the world!