Christmas Morning

Well, we've survived the holidays as we hope you did too. The shoppers have been annoying as ever but hopefully the parking lot's will recede. It's been a busy week of eating sweets and hanging out with coworkers. One of John's coworkers had a solstice party on Thursday. That is the shortest day of the year. We gathered for a FANTASTIC fireworks display and a bonfire. The fireworks really blew us away. Last night we went over to one of my coworkers homes for a HUGE dinner. I'm not even sure I'm going to cook today because I'm still stuffed. It's bright and early Christmas morning and I'm wide awake because I forgot to turn off the alarm. Hoping to get a nap in later. Santa was good to us this year as he is every year. We are looking forward to a day of rest and skiing and maybe a movie. Hope everyone has a great Christmas! We miss you!

holiday weekend

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! We went over to a co-worker's house and had dinner. It was nice to have people to share the day with. John and I both worked on Friday and now we're relaxing, getting ready to run some errands, and waiting for the next football game to start. I'll update more with some new pics soon!
tracie

Is she smiling or crying?

We added a few more pics to our flickr website. Sorry, no exciting updates.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hutchison/

Yowsers!

It's negative six degrees right now! Doesn't actually feel as cold as you'd think though. Everything is going well here. Looking forward to a three day weekend b/c of Veteran's Day. Thank you Veteran's. John starts playing basketball this week and I started yoga last week so it's good to get out and exercise. I think we're going to join the local health club. We took a tour this past weekend and it's gigantic! Has lot's to offer! We also hit up a garage sale and picked up some board games so that I don't have to get beat at Scrabble all the time! Been reading lot's. Just finished a book called The Three Junes and it was really good. One of those where you are rushing through to see what happens yet not wanting to finish it. I just started a sci fi novel this week. Not really my thing but it's interesting so far. Finally picked up my knitting again and I WILL finish a project this winter. That's all the news for now. I'll try to get out and take some pictures this weekend.

Winter starts in October here!

This past weekend Trace and I moved into a new apartment. It's much more comfortable than the last place! More privacy with a country feeling I suppose. It's a smaller apartment on the first floor of a huge log house. It's up in the foothills off the Farmer's Loop... Our view out the front window overlooks Fairbanks even on a cloudy day and we get an amazing shot of the Alaska Range on a clear day. Our landlords are a truly genuine Fairbanks-grown family. They're a really nice couple with two boys that have totally reminded me of myself running around with my brothers when I was younger. They even brought us pumpkin muffins fresh out of the oven last night after dinner!
We're currently sitting back on the couch winding down from the days events. Tracie's reading her crazy novel 'Haunted' and I'm a bit restless, probably half annoyed that the Tigers game was postponed and half listening to our landlord's kid playing piano up stairs. We're both doing very well and happy. We posted some more pictures on our flickr account. The link is in one of the past blogs. Hope everyone is well these days. We miss you!
Oh yeah, weather... It hasn't been above 22 degrees for the past week and the sun rises at about 9am and sets at about 4:30. There is a definite layer of snow on the ground that supposedly won't melt until next spring.

Name that Athabascan Village

We flew over this village on a detection flight last week. It lies at the latitude/longitude of 66.15N/145.48W. It's first inhabitants were called the Dendu Gwich'in, who were annihilated by scarlet fever in the 1880's. It now has an Athabascan popluation of 28 and relies heavily on its small dirt runway for outside supplies and transportation.

it'snowing

We got our first snowfall friday night, two days before the start of October. It seemed strange as Trace and I both love the fall season and have somehow just caught a piece of it this year. The days are still fairly long, but we're losing about 7 minutes of daylight each day. Yesterday we started driving up the Elliot Hwy with intentions of checking out the bridge over the Yukon River, but 30 minutes into the drive we found ourselves in a heavy snow storm and decided to turn around and explore a little closer to home. We found the local ski resort and also a great spot to do some possible backcountry boarding. Seeing the snow build up on the slopes is getting me excited for the ski season! There are some trails just outside Fairbanks that draw quite a few x-country ski members from the US and Canadian Olympic Teams... They seem to be drawn to the early snow I suppose? Lucky us!! I've been running the trails quite a bit and am anxious to possibly ski next to some of these crazy people.
Last night, we saw a pretty decent display of the Northern Lights. They were mostly green in color and appeared as a series of overlapping arches over the city.

Weather!!

It's been raining all day and now the temperature is starting to drop. It seems to be hovering around 32-34 and the rain keeps getting thick and looking like snow but nothing is sticking to the ground. It's not even October 1st! Things are good here. I started work this week and it seems to be going well, looks like it might turn into a permanent job. There are some Oktoberfest events going on around town this weekend and we'll likely check them out. Other than that, we're still exploring and finding new things to do!
We miss you all!!

link to photos

http://flickr.com/photos/98056093@N00/


Here's the link to photo's from our roadtrip!

We made it to Fairbanks!!

After over 3800 miles of road (mostly paved), Trace and I rambled into Fairbanks yesterday afternoon. It was quite an experience and gave us a pretty decent perspective on just how far away we are now living. The initial drive through the Canadian Providences was a bit trying due to hundreds and hundreds of miles of straight flat highways through the heart of farmland. Although the gas station restrooms were the cleanest we've yet to experience, the coffee was easily the weekest ever. We saw millions of round bales and combines (farm terms for you city folk) through Sask, Manitoba and parts of Alberta. There were surprisingly a small number of trees until we got past the Edmonton area. This is when the scenery truly started to get intense. Northern British Columbia, specifically the Muncho Lake Provincial Park area, is probably the most beautiful area we've had the opportunity to drive. The fall colors were beginning to erupt with explosive yellows and oranges punching their way through the boreal forest. The sun made the colors even more intense as it battled heavy storm clouds for ground coverage. There were countless rivers and lakes that were cutting through the landscape and Tracie swore that they were the color of blue popsicles. Wildlife finally came out of hiding as we started to gain elevation and edge closer to the days stopping point, Liard Hot Springs. We saw several caribou, deer, moose, buffalo, fox, coyotes, eagles and hawks. At one point, we had a bull caribou and a few of his companions running right next to our truck. Of course I had Trace hold the steering wheel as I held the camera out the driver side window to get the craziness recorded... sorry Trish, it was safe I swear! Liard Hot Springs were a much needed stop as we were able to take a nice long dip before we got back on the road the next day. It was our third night in a row in the tent and I think our backs truly needed the heat. The Yukon was intense and probably equally as beautiful as BC. There seemed to be more red colors soon after we crossed the border. The mountain peaks were much larger in the distance and most of them were heavily covered in snow. A few of them had some hanging glaciers resting in large crevasses just below their peak. Kluane National Park was amazingly huge and our drive took us on a long winding drive around Kluane Lake... there were postcard views in every direction. We spent the night in a small shack of a motel in Beaver Creek just east of the US border. We were ahead of schedule and had a minimal 5 hour drive the next day to get to Fairbanks. We had absolutely no trouble at the border into the US and the 5 hour drive was again amazing. We pulled into Fairbanks around 2 and had no problem finding our new winter shack. It's a two bedroom duplex with some retro kitchenware and wood paneling. It'll suit us just fine for the winter and we've already started making plans to paint some of the rooms....
Well, I suppose that's enough rambling for now. I'm excited to start the new job on Monday morning and Trace has her third interview with a hospital just down the road on monday as well. More pics to come soon!!

Almost leaving

We've got the truck packed up and we're leaving first thing in the morning!! Hope to get some pics on soon. We've got cell coverage for the next 2 days only!! Not much extra space in the truck but we've got a goody bag and some books, cd's and each other for entertainment!!

09/05/06

4 days left before we leave! We are tying up all loose ends and getting pretty anxious to get on the road. I'll be posting pics from the road when I can!