What an incredible weekend!  With sunny days in the 60s and eighteen-odd hours of daylight to play with, Josh and I have returned to a favorite pastime: driving around Fairbanks with the camera.  I really cannot wait for you to see these...

This weekend also marks the end of my 55+ hour workweeks and a return to more serious blogging.  I'll be focusing on packing and moving while Josh completes his thesis and teaches summer school at the university.  I am looking forward to rediscovering some of my favorite things in and around Fairbanks and I'm hoping to uncover a few new things to love in the process.  In June I'm going on a three-day canoe trip on the Chatinika River with friends and of course Josh and I are both itching to blog the entire three week cross-continental road trip we're about to take.  The Yukon, Alberta, British Columbia, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota...stay tuned.

Back to the sightseeing!  Even though I work eleven hour shifts on Friday and Saturday there is still plenty of sunlight left when I get out at 9:30 PM.  Last night Josh and I headed out the Parks Highway to see if we could get a good look at the Alaska Range, since it was very clearly visible from our usual campus vantage point.  We were rewarded with a rare - and breathtaking - view of Denali (Mt. McKinley).  To see Denali - which is so large that it creates its own weather and is usually obscured by clouds - this clearly was very exciting.  Josh and I have been so lucky in this regard - we've gotten some spectacular looks at this very fickle mountain.

Sundays are my early days so after getting home around 6:30 PM Josh and I headed back out with the camera, this time in search of moose.  We decided to drive the Steese Highway.  We were lucky again - Denali was out as clearly as the night before.  I'm wondering now as I post this if Alaska isn't saying, "Stay here, Christina!  I am awesome!  Plus, what are you going to call your blog once you move to Houston, TX?"  But I digress...

Behold, moose!  A cow and her calf:

The calf was beyond adorable.  Truly.

The mamma was pretty chill considering we were stalking her and her calf for about ten minutes.

All told we saw seven moose, in addition to a fox, a rabbit, and ducks.  Oh, speaking of ducks:

Buffleheads:

No, I didn't forget the moosebutt!

One moose I shot seemed pretty hungry to me.  I saw a side of a moose I never thought I'd see.

Is it just me or is that a lot of nostril?

Check out this old guy:

Heading home at 10 PM, Alaska still had plenty of sunlight left to throw on the Alaska Range as we drove back into Fairbanks on Ballaine Road.

What am I going to call the blog when I'm in Texas?