Arizona Trip

Husband had some training that took him away from Alaska for the month of January. There was no way I was going to spend an entire month by myself in the Alaska interior in the middle of winter so I booked a ticket to Arizona under the guise of visiting my brother and sister-in-law. Truth be told, I just wanted warmth, sunshine, and great Mexican food. Just kidding - kind of. I chose the right week to get out of Alaska. While I was gone, temperatures hit -47*F (-44*C). I am already making plans to visit again next winter. My plan is to stay longer, maybe 3 or 4 months longer. 

The one thing I really wanted was a picture of me next to a cactus. We went to a nearby park in order to get the perfect picture. We also did a hike in the park. The trail was rocky and since we hadn't planned on doing any real hiking, we were in our flip-flops. Not the best choice for footwear. The hike was worth it though. We were rewarded with gorgeous views at the top. 

This is what most of the trail looked like. Not very conducive to walking in flip-flops. 

At another location, we were able to pick lemons and oranges. In case you are wondering, you can take 3 pounds of lemons in your carry on suitcase and nobody will bat an eye as you go through security. 

It wasn't quite as warm as I hoped it would be. I wanted it to be in the 80sF (20sC), but it was warmer than Alaska so I was happy. It was even warm enough one day for a bit of swimming.

 

My brother is in his second semester of med school so he had to study most of the week. That meant that my sister-in-law and I got to spend a TON of time together. It's a good thing we get along. We shopped a lot. I am not really a shopper, but since there aren't many stores where we live, I was super excited to go into any store we passed by. I took an almost empty suitcase down with me on the trip just in case. It was about half full when I returned. We ate some wonderful food. They introduced me to the Shake Shack, and I introduced them to Chipotle. I relearned the game Qwirkle and beat my sister-in-law by 2 points (#sorrynotsorry). 

Aurora Ice Museum

We visited some nearby hot springs this week. Near the hot springs is an indoor ice sculpture display. We toured the sculptures before heading into the hot springs. The sculptures were beautiful. The detail on the different sculptures was impressive. I have no pictures of the hot springs because when we got in at 4pm it was already dark. It was 5*F/-15*C. Our heads were very cold! My hair froze almost immediately. We could have waited until spring for the warmer weather, but where's the fun in that? Besides, as much as we would love to spend all winter inside, that just isn't possible.

Our beautiful drive to the hot springs (photo taken around 2pm)

An ice sea horse

A number of ice blocks had flowers or other ice sculptures inside of them. Crazy cool

Twins? 

Jousting knights

Look at that detail

For $600 a night you can stay on this ice bed

Lighted ice

There's always that one guy...

The stars of the Alaska flag were inside this ice ball

I found us a new home

Playing the ice xylophone

Next year we are making ice jack o'lanterns

The outside of the ice museum. They keep it a balmy 20*F/-7*C.

Living in a winter wonderland

We added a few more inches of snow to our winter wonderland over the weekend. One of the crazy things about living here is that the snow stays around. It does not blow because there is no wind (Thank goodness. This prairie girl definitely does not miss the wind!). It does not melt because, well, let's be honest: it's freezing cold here and the sun isn't in the sky long enough to melt anything. The snow stays pretty much where it lands for months. My friend R says we live in a snow globe. I tend to agree. 

These pictures were taken at a waterfowl refuge here in the city.  

Christmas in Ice

Today we ventured out into the cold (-13*F/-25*C) and made our way over to North Pole, where there was an ice sculpture display going on. It is amazing what someone with talent can do with a chainsaw and some ice! The sculptures were pretty incredible.

An Alaskan selfie. Notice my frozen hair and the frost on the top of Husband's toque (hat for my American readers).

Move over, Elsa. There is a new ice queen in town!

 Narnia! Look at the umbrella leaning against the lamp post. This was my favourite.

 An ice maze. It was amazing! Hahaha! I'm hilarious.

 Giant ice slide.

 We also said "hello" to Santa's reindeer, who were busy eating extra calories in preparation for their round the world flight in a couple of weeks.