I just completed my first day of PolarTrec orientation; met lots of great people and had a fantastic learning experience. I’m thinking a bit about where I was yesterday … I left my warm one bedroom apartment in Arlington, Virginia around 6:30 AM for Reagan National Airport in Washington DC, boarded a nonstop flight to Seattle, then on to Anchorage, and then north to Fairbanks, Alaska. Just some seven months earlier I had been in Fairbanks visiting one of NSF’s GK-12 STEM Fellows programs at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. It was 70 F and I don’t recall it getting dark until well after midnight. But summertime in Alaska was quite different. From the air flying into Anchorage yesterday all I could see was rugged terrain blanketed by crisp white snow and ice. And by the time I landed in Fairbanks (around 4:30 PM) the sun had nearly set.
This is the view I had flying into Anchorage.
On my way from Anchorage to Fairbanks I had a spectacular view of Denali National Park.
I made my way to the baggage claim area at the Fairbanks International Airport, then to the National car rental counter, and then walked out the terminal doors to the parking area. Wow … that blast of cold air penetrates like a knife. It was -1 F outside thanks to a recent warming trend here in interior Alaska where just a few days earlier temperatures had dipped below -50 F. But -1 F compared to the mild winter we’ve been having back East is a shock to the system. I quickly made my way to the car and unplugged it. And … No … it wasn’t an electric car. Up here in Alaska cars have an engine block heater that helps keep the engine from getting too cold to start. Without the heater your car doesn’t stand a chance during the harsh winter. The car reluctantly started, but it was “cold”! I finally put on gloves and a hat and headed to the hotel. I couldn’t park just anywhere in the hotel parking lot either … I needed to find a spot that was close enough to a power source I could plug the engine block heater into.
After I checked into the hotel I ran into a few of the other PolarTREC teachers (Nick, Lisa, and Mark) and ventured back out into the cold for some Thai food. Although Fairbanks isn’t that big (population just over 30,000) there are seven Thai restaurants; not what I expected here in Alaska. But I guess being so close to the Asian Continent it shouldn’t be that surprising. The food was great and let’s just say my seafood curry was in stark contrast to the cold temperatures outside. I returned to the Westmark Hotel and crashed around 11:00 PM (3:00 AM East coast time).