Land of the Midnight Sun

We had a wonderful Solstice weekend! The weather was superb & there were tons of activities happening around town. Because of the calendar, 2 of our favorite events took place at the same time. The Midnight Sun Run, a 10K run/walk from the university to Alaskaland (known to tourists as Pioneer Park...) starts at 10 pm. Many people run in costume & the route snakes thru several neighborhoods, past many festive parties. The Midnight Sun Baseball Game, in it's 103rd year, is a well known tradition - the game starts at 10:30 pm and is always played without lights. The Goldpanners won a great game to the approval of a packed house. And, we always sing the Alaska Flag Song at midnight! 

The Summer Solstice is always a big deal here in the far north where we greatly feel the effects of the pull between the earth & the sun. The Midnight Sun is an amazing & wonderful thing! Do you understand how it works? Here are the basics: Everyone knows the sun rises in the east & sets in the west, and that happens here at the Vernal & Autumnal Equinox, when day & night are of equal length. Then, as winter comes on, the days get shorter & shorter as the sun starts to rise & set farther & farther to the south. At the Winter Solstice, the sun is a blip of light on the horizon to the south that rises in the late morning & sets in the early afternoon, giving us here in Fairbanks about 2 hours & 45 mins of daylight...  Then, we start to gain several minutes of light each day (hooray!) & the days begin to get longer. We reach the 12/12 hour mark at the Vernal Equinox & then... keep going! Suddenly, the sun is starting to stay up longer, setting farther & farther to the northwest & rising in the northeast. As we approach the Summer Solstice, the sun sets way to the north & in a couple of hours rises again in the north ready for another long day of rolling all the way around the sky, to the east, south, west & finally back to the north for a quick rest below the horizon before it all starts again! If you've never seen this, you can't imagine how wonderful it is, especially after a long, cold, dark winter. 

It's common to see kids out riding bikes, people in their gardens, sports activities underway late into the night - but who cares? It's light now & you can sleep in the winter! We Alaskans tend to go a little crazy because of the Midnight Sun, but whatever -- we tend to be a little crazy anyway!