On Saturday we headed down to Girdwood for a lovely Christmas brunch at my aunt's house. There was ham, french toast, egg and sausage casserole, and all kinds of other delicious food.
I failed at taking any photos. Mostly because I was too busy eating and talking.
On the drive home we noticed that the Alaska Range had some spectacular light on them. This time of year when the angle of the sun is not very big, the lighting on things you see every day is very different and often makes things look very dramatic. When we drove around the corner into town, we realized that you could see all the mountains from Kenai to Fairbanks, which is extremely rare (there are usually clouds somewhere). On a whim, we decided to drive up to the hillside and check out the panoramic view from there.
It was amazing. These photos do not do any of this justice. My mom (who has lived in Alaska since she was in Jr. High) said that it was the best she'd ever seen in her life.
I'm so sad that I didn't have my good camera with me. My cell phone did a good job, but it is not so great at taking photos of far away things.
The only thing I did to any of these photos was sharpen them slightly. The colors are real.
The thing that you can't see in any of these photos is the wicked case of Fata Morgana that's going on out there. The mountains to the left of McKinley and Foraker looked like the walls of the Grand Canyon. It was crazy.
It's stuff like this that makes me love it here (and stuff like the 1mm of snow we have that makes me angry and hate it here). Thanks for the kickass show Mother Nature.
