We all have a bucket list, and as we grow older, which I am in the process of doing, we tend to hurry at getting it done. The number one item on my friend Karin’s list was to see the Northern Lights, Aurora Borealis, in person. Although not on the top of my list it was on my list, so we decided to “Just Do It”.

Neither one of us had a lot of time so Karin found a three day excursion to Fairbanks, Alaska to see them. We signed up, and this is a time-line of that trip. Let me make clear, we are glad we took it, because it was truly a different kind of adventure.

Day One January 6^th 2017 …..We drove to the Orange County airport at 5am, in the dark, to catch a 7am flight to Seattle. I flew out, changed planes in Seattle for Anchorage, where I landed in the dark. Karin, due to a glitch, did the same thing, but two hours behind me.

Day Two….. We got up at 5am, in the dark, and were taken to the train station where we waited for about two hours, in the dark, for our train to get underway to Fairbanks.

We were on the train for the first two hours, in the dark, then the sun came up. It is an 11 hour ride and we enjoyed the beautiful scenery. I took pictures for the next six hours, then it got dark again, and three hours later we arrived in Fairbanks, in the dark.

Checking in at the hotel we were told to go to bed and they would call us if the lights showed up. They don’t appear every night. At this point I have to tell you about the temperature. It was -27 degrees. That is 59 degrees below the freezing point of water. Being a biologist I was concerned about my body being composed of 90% water. I didn’t want to fall down and shatter into a 1,000 pieces.

I had on long underwear, insulated pants, a T shirt over the long underwear, a down vest over the T shirt, a long sleeve flannel shirt over the vest, another vest and a jacket. To complete the outfit I also had long wool socks and boots. Karin was dressed in a similar manner.   We took off a couple of the top layers and went to sleep. Two hours later, they called us to hurry down to the lobby – the lights were showing!

We jumped into our top layers and went down to stand on a veranda and look out to where they said the light might show. There were four of us standing out there being careful not to take a deep breath so we wouldn’t freeze our lungs, the lights didn’t show. After 20 minutes the other two left but Karin and I stayed for two hours until we briefly saw a faint glow that came and went. There was a bright moon lighting up the sky. Poor planning on our part, but we did see the Aurora Borealis, and managed to live through it!

We went back to the room and slept for two hours before they took us to the airport, in the dark, it is now day three, to catch our flight to Seattle. We arrived back at John Wayne airport Sunday night, in the dark. We were gone three days and only had six hours of sunlight, if you don’t count the time we were on the plane. It was an adventure.

I would recommend it if you don’t mind sleep deprivation, drink lots of very strong coffee, have extra clothes, and are in possession of a good pair of night goggles. Karin and I will have many a broad smiles in the years to come when it gets dark, remembering our adventure in the dark.