Frenchy's Rant

The next day Fiona and I signed up for a ‘flightseeing‘ tour to a little town on the Yukon river called Beaver. There are no roads to this town, the only access is via plane in the winter or boat in the summer.

Dee, our pilot, can be seen peeking her head over the wing of her Cessna 208. Dee told us she is one of two female pilots in Alaska. She took us, along with three other people on a four hour flight tour of the area.

Sunrise over the White Mountain Range. Our trip took us past the Arctic Circle, a first for both of us!

Another sunrise shot from the plane.

The tiny town of Beaver, Alaska. The only building with running water is the laundromat. Everyone in the village showers there, as it has the only hot water. All supplies have to be flown in, as there are no roads. Gasoline for their snowmobiles costs $5 a gallon.

Cliff, our Indian tour guide, displays a moose antler he found while out trapping small game in the nearby woods. Moose evidently rub their antlers against trees in the winter, causing them to fall off. You learn something new every day.

I am the Ninja of Beaver. Fear me!

A few of the homes in Beaver. Cliff said that by April they might have running water in the houses. Yes, we are talking April 2007! He designed and was implementing a scheme to somehow get water to flow without freezing in the -70 degree weather. Cliff owns the gas station as well. Not sure if he is mayor of Beaver or not. Either way he’s an enterprising guy.

During the walking tour, my feet started going numb. Beaver was the first and only time in Alaska that I got VERY cold. It was only -5 at the time, which Cliff said felt like 100 degrees to him. It’s funny to me to even write the words ‘only’ and ‘-5’ together. Cliff said at this time of year it is normally -40, and can get down as low as -70. There is no way -40 could EVER be tolerable!

Cliff invited us into his house to warm up, where we sampled smoked salmon caught from his front yard – the Yukon river – and then some moose. I LOVED the moose, in fact I ate the whole plate of it! More moose, please!

All too soon it was time to go. Thankfully this was not our plane, since there is no deicing equipment in Beaver.

Another of the many excellent views of Alaska.

After cocktail hour ended, it was time for another show.

The sunset was beautiful, and the night was clear. We hoped the Northern Lights would be active. Everyone said the night before was spectacular, the best ever. Doesn’t it figure??

View from our ‘suite’.

Chena Hot Springs resort is famous for Aurora viewing. Far away from city lights, it is perfectly positioned for a great show in the sky. If you ask, the front desk will call at any time of night to tell you the Aurora is active.

At 1:15 AM our phone rang. We rushed out to see the show.

These pictures of the Northern Lights were taken five minutes apart.

The show lasted for about an hour. Curtains of green light shimmered and danced across the sky. At 2AM frozen but happy, we finally turned in for the night.

Dogsledding is thirsty work. Fortunately the Ice Museum at Chena Hot Springs offers Stoli martinis served in a custom-made martini glass made of ice.

The Ice Museum used to be called the Ice Hotel. The Hotel was shut down by the state because they hadn’t installed fire extinguishers and smoke detectors, even though the WHOLE BUILDING was made 100% of non-flammable ice! They let it melt a few summers ago, then built the Ice Museum in it’s place.

C’mon inside!

Jane, one of two full time ice carvers, hard at work making ice martini glasses. The Chena ice carving team will be competing in the Ice Sculpture World Championships in Fairbanks. Good luck guys, the team from the Netherlands will be hard to beat!

Twenty hand carved ice martini glasses, an hour’s work for Jane.

The Ice Bar, with Frozen Fiona in the foreground.

Two perfectly chilled Stoli apple martinis, shaken not stirred.

Chess anyone? Hard to tell in this picture, but the chess pieces are life size.

Joust anyone? Again, life-sized knights.

And yes, a life size ice Christmas tree, complete with ice gifts. You get the point…

Ice Wedding Chapel, the perfect place to get cold feet!

Why thank you! First night in Alaska and it was a balmy -10 degrees out. Who’s idea was this anyway?

Asked for a 4×4, got a Ford Expedition, a 4x4x4x4. This damn thing was huge, almost need a tugboat to turn around. Still smiling in the 2 degree heatwave.

Dogsleds. Everywhere we looked there were dogsleds. Alaskans seem crazy for dogsledding.

Roads conditions were mostly great, and the 4x4x4x4 handled everything I threw at it, including the occasional curb.

More Dogsleds. Mushers all over are training for the Yukon Quest, a 1000 mile dogsled race that preceded the Iditarod. Insane, but it looks like fun.

Makes it easy for the mailman.

Snow was everywhere, even inside the mailboxes.

Dogsledding looked like fun, so we signed up for a little trip. Each green box is a doghouse, there were about 100 dogs in this area.

Sexy bitch!

Don’t be shy.

Eight tiny dogs took us on a romantic drag through the woods. Fantastic time!