I don't think I can complain about this winter...

after seeing this

http://www.wimp.com/antarcticaweather/

I love how they say at the end "Travel outside is not permitted in Level 1 weather."

LOL, I can't possibly imagine why.

I can't wrap my brain around it .. like she said .. its like opening a door to another world!

LOL. I've been skiing in sub-zero degrees and in fairly high winds but never both at the same time. Normally the two don't go together, cold days or nights usually have a crystal clear sky with no wind. Usually warmer when the wind blows but that's relative. I was skiing in Lake Placid where they closed the top of the mountain about 30 minutes after we headed up. That was up around 40-50 mile an hour winds and it was not enjoyable, temp at the top was around 5 if I remember right. I can tell you that you need good equipment and know how to make it work as intended. Gortex, thinsulated and double snitching is well worth the price. Better not have any skin showing. Ear tip will fall off without you even knowing, LOL.

Gave me a whole new appreciation for my youthful insight to get south as fast as I could! I was WAY smarter than I had any right to be at that age!

I wonder if my elephant ears would overwinter in the ground up there.



LOL kidding of course! I can't imagine living there. I almost moved to central Alaska for 4 years (military) ... luckily, I didn't after seeing that. I know it wouldn't be as bad, but I don't know that I could handle all the darkness and not having the seasons like we have in the mid-atlantic.

Had a friend stationed up in Alaska and he has nothing but bad things to say about that place. On the other hand my wife went hiking in Alaska for a couple weeks years ago and she loved it. She has pictures of her in a full bee keepers hat to keep the bugs out and she had to bury her "waste" so the bears didn't track her down. Can't say that it looked like fun to me.

Alaska is gorgeous, and I definitely want to go back... but between the giant mosquitoes (they call it them their state bird for a reason) and the diverse wildlife that might eat you, I can't say I'd want to live there. The roads are also constantly in repair all summer, plus there's permafrost to deal with. And the sun being up until 3am got old within a few days during the summer. In winter I couldn't handle the 3 months of darkness either - I shudder to even think about not seeing the sun that long. It is rather amazing though that Juneau is actually zone 8 if I remember correctly.

This message was edited Mar 21, 2010 11:34 PM

I went to alaska many many years ago (in summer) .. it's very easy to get "beautiful scenery burnout". After awhile you get numb to it all.

X

Sounds like resort I went to in Jamaica. LOL.

LOL, I think you can get scenery burnout almost anywhere. Even in Hawai`i I often find that by the second week the waterfalls and beautiful scenery isn't quite as impressive as it was the first week. Not that I'm complaining about any trip there, but I have noticed it, especially when island hopping.

I'm glad I am not the only one who felt that way about HI. Guess I am so fortunate to live near water and palm trees and while very different, it is still beautiful around here. One of the strangest things was to have this local politician on Kauai tell me I HAD to see this certain road that was like driving through a cathedral because the branches of the eucalyptus trees met over the road. We drove back and forth looking for this special place and finally realized we were there; it just was not as majestic as some of the cathedral like roads in the lowcountry. LOL

Don't get me wrong I would still love to spend about a month over there just exploring, but it sure made me appreciate what I have here.

Ah, you must be talking about Tree Tunnel above Po`ipu? Yeah I never much got it either - we have roads like that through SC. Now if we could just get a Na Pali coastline and Waimea Canyon somewhere in SC, I'd be a happy camper.

That is the one! I have been to Sedona and red rocks were familiar but the part of Waimea I liked was all those rivers; it was fascinating to me.

We also stopped at the Waimea Cottages, a pricey resort owned by the friend of a friend. The rooms are old sugar worker's cottages as the place was once a sugar plantation. Their beach was close enough to the north side of the island that the water was really rough.