Chasing the Aurora Borealis

"Let's go."

I was in a deep sleep.  I was back in Texas and the sun was shining.  I was dreaming in technicolor and it was so hot I could feel the sun's rays penetrating my clothes, warm upon my back.  I was planting a rose garden and the smell of the roses, fresh dirt, and fertilizer was intertwined into a perfume only gardeners understand.  It was heaven and I didn't want to leave.

"Bill called. Wake up.  They're dancing!"

My horticultural heaven was quickly replaced with the glare of the bedroom light as Joe was racing around as only my Type A+ husband can do.  I grabbed my glasses, pulled on my Walmart knock-off Uggs to compliment the Oklahoma sweatshirt I had thrown over my pajamas and grabbed my parka.  I looked like a true Alaskan.  My camera bag is always handy so I grabbed it, too, telling myself "just in case."

I threw the dog in the backseat of the car and strapped myself in next to Joe who was anxious to head out before we missed our window of opportunity.

We have been chasing the Northern Lights since we came to Alaska. Our area is on the southern edge of the activity so viewing them is a gamble at best.  All the locals have provided us with their hints for experiencing this natural phenomenon.  According the them, the best time to see the lights is on the way home from an all night party.   After several middle of the night and early morning attempts,  I had begun to believe the aurora was the Alaska version of a good old Texas snipe hunt.

Honestly believing we were being used as fodder for the local coffee shop gossip, I subscribed to an "Aurora Alert" service.  Some scientist sitting in an office in Anchorage sends you an e-mail if the activity in your area was deemed to be "high".  I had received one alert several days ago for the following 12 hour period and after using the formula provided and carefully calculating to determine the optimal viewing time for our location, I was now convinced it was a state-wide conspiracy.  I'm not a scientist but even I know that the best viewing of the aurora borealis is not at 1:27 p.m.

Using the less scientific method, Joe had asked some of the men at the plant to call him if the lights appear over Kenai.  This is why Joe was interrupting my dream and dashing around like a mad man at 3:30 a.m.  He had received a call and had been told "they are really dancing."

We had been told that the best viewing would be on the beach looking to the north towards the town of Kenai.  We raced to the beach to secure our spot.  Of course, we were the only people on the beach at that time of the morning so we had a prime viewing spot.

We shut off all the lights, even covering the interior lights with a jacket and looked up.  We could see a white band of what looked like fog stretching across the horizon.  We watched for about 15 minutes waiting to see it move or change colors.  There wasn't a lot of activity.

We thought perhaps it was the tinting on the car windows that was hampering our experience so we stepped out of the car into the 4 degree weather.  Only in Alaska would I find myself standing on a snow-covered beach at 3:45 a.m. in my pajamas.  The band of "fog" didn't look any different outside the car.  "Snipe hunt" once again came to mind.

Because we were both freezing at this point, we decided we should return home.  I was still unclear whether what we had seen was the Aurora Borealis or just some fog high above the Inlet.  We pulled into the garage and I went inside to warm up.  Joe said he was going to walk to the end of the driveway to see if he could see anything different.  I was pulling off my parka when my phone rang.  "Hurry!  You've got to come out here!"

Repeating my earlier dash to bundle up sufficiently, I shuffled down the icy driveway towards my husband.  Joe was standing transfixed on the sky above him.  I looked up and directly above us, across the entire sky as far as you could see, were dancing lights.  We had found the Aurora Borealis!  It was amazing!   We stood out there as long as the single-digit temperature would allow.  As we came back inside to warm up and to make coffee I off-handedly laughed, "I'm going to be upset if we are able to see these from our bedroom."

As I was returning my camera bag, I glanced out our bedroom window.  Framed by the picture window, the northern skies were alive. It was as if God had decided to light a fire in Heaven. Had we simply turned off our bedroom lights and looked up instead of dashing around like crazy people, we would have been able to enjoy the aurora from the comfort of a warm house.  We sat on the floor mesmerized by what we were witnessing.  We sat there until the lights played out as dawn approached.

I took pictures but I'm not able to post them so I'll provide an illustration of what my photography captured.  If you'll close you eyes and imagine complete darkness, you will see exactly what my pictures of this morning look like.  My plan today is to research the best settings for photographing the "dancers" and hopefully one day I'll be able to share.

For now, though, I think I'm going to pull the covers over my head and see if I can't recreate that rose garden and sunshine......