Sunday at Six Mile Lake

This is shaping up to be a fantastic Spring! Jess and I took a little drive out to Six Mile Lake on the back side of Elmendorf AFB this afternoon. Only a light dusting of snow is left on the Chugach Mountains, and trees are bursting with color. I know I shouldn't be playing hooky from the whole packing/cleaning thing, but it's just so hard to stay indoors on such a beautiful day! Just a little gee wiz information: Did you know that Alaska has the highest number of pilots per capita of any U.S. state: out of the estimated 663,661 residents, 8,550 are pilots, or about one in every 78. It makes perfect sense when you consider that a large number of smaller communities in Alaska can only be reached by air. Another unusual fact is that Alaska has the longest runway in the world, as the entire length of the Richardson Highway is designated an emergency landing strip.

Not only are we having the best weather, but our hours of sunlight are letting us enjoy each day a lot longer now. The sun is rising around 5:30 in the morning, and doesn't set until around 11:00 at night. The kids love the longer days. (It makes it a lot harder to keep track of bedtimes on school nights when it's still bright and sunny at 9:30 pm.) It won't be long until the Summer Solstice on June 21. They don't call this The Land of the Midnight Sun for nothing! We still get a few hours of darkness here in Anchorage, but just north of Fairbanks, the sun never really sets at this time. There are lots of festivities to help you enjoy Summer Solstice here. These include the Midnight Sun Baseball Game, the Zoolstice (celebration at the Zoo), and the AWAIC Summer Solstice Festival ...just to name a few. We'll be "on the other side of the pond" at that time, but there's no reason you can't hop on a plane and come up to enjoy the fun. Fur pelts are optional.