The True Meaning of Winter

Christmas Parties! Chocolates! Star Wars releases! Sub zero temperatures! Winter is here and she is a demanding task master. We had 3 Christmas parties in one day. One with family, one at church, one for work. The work party was mercifully just going and seeing Rise of Skywalker, no awkward small talk.

This family party had a special guest appearance from Grandpa Claus, er...Santa. definitely Santa.

Despite being the second Santa the kids had seen that day, they were still thrilled to see this Santa at the ward party.

I forced a family picture on my kids while they were still all dressed up after church, we tried to ease the agony of a family photo by allowing stuffed animal buddies aaaand a silly face version:

A visit to Mrs. Cavanaugh's and this was my kids favorite part. Well, that and the samples.

To kick off our 2020, Lee had a work trip to Fairbanks Alaska. If you're thinking, "Isn't it kind of cold there?" Yes. The answer is yes. He had to stay a little over a week, so I flew up to visit him for the weekend. It was beautiful. It was cold. Our first visit on our weekend of adventure was the North Pole. Well, North Pole Alaska. It's a little town near Fairbanks whose main draw is the Santa Claus house, where kids can visit with Santa year round. Daytime temperature: -35 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Fun fact: car thermometers don't generally measure below -40 degrees, if it had gotten colder, we wouldn't know. The thermometer wouldn't have told us.

When the world is this cold, just don't breathe without your mouth being covered. You will likely not stay outside for more than a few minutes, that's how long it takes for your hands and feet to start hurting. If you need to be outside longer than that, you need some legit cold weather gear, which I do not own.

I just didn't breathe while posing for this photo. Air too cold.

An adorable "Santa's Workshop" area inside, along with a huge gift shop, and we made sure our postcards were getting postmarked from the North Pole.

I love kitschy, touristy road side attraction style photo ops.

From there we hopped in the car. When it is below -20, you gots to plug in your car. Batteries do not like cold, they lose their charge. It takes quite a while for your car to warm up enough to be comfortable to sit in. Also, I've never cared for seat warmers, but they are a necessity when it's this cold. I didn't go anywhere without that seat warmer on. And that included heading up to Chena hot springs. You may be wondering, how? Why? Weren't you miserable getting in and out of water when it's that cold? The answer is: getting in is unpleasant. the air is freaking cold. You are in your bathing suit in sub zero temperatures. Your feet are so cold that the hot water is like needles when you step into the water. However, the water at Chena is seriously hot. we couldn't even walk to the hot end of the rock lake. You hang out in that for an hour and your body is radiating so much heat that you can comfortably walk back to your room in a bathrobe and slippers without feeling the least bit chilly.

We had fun with our frosted hair and eyelashes. Lee looks like a Backstreet Boy in the 90's and I look like a crazy witch.

My hair froze like this. Pretty awesome.

 Did you know that it can get too cold to snow? When it is -20 outside, it won't snow. But you can make your own by tossing hot water into the air. It'll mostly turn to snow before hitting the ground. Do not do this into the wind, if it blow back in your face you'll get heat and freeze burns at the same time. Science is fun!

I call this car-tography, pictures taken from a car because it's too cold to get out.

Chena is also known for the ice museum. A whole buncha ice sculptures and bar inside an insulated igloo that is open year round. During our visit, it was about 40 degrees warmer in the ice museum than outside.

The ice xylophone actually worked in the sense that it made sound, but it was in no kind of tune.

If you have $600 laying around, you can stay the night in the ice museum hotel room. You can sleep on a bed made of ice in a room made of ice in your very own sub zero sleeping bag. No bathroom, you'll have to head to the real hotel for that.

For even more money, presumably, you can also get married in the ice museum in this little chapel. Apparently the husband and wife team to create all their ice sculptures did get married here, so did their daughter.

 You can sip an appletini from a glass made of ice at this museum, but they didn't have a non-alcoholic version so we passed. Also, they were $15. 

We toured the greenhouses and geothermal power plant at Chena. I love a good hydroponic growing system and this one seems to work really well. Things we didn't see: the Aurora Borealis. We tried. The skies were clear, there just wasn't strong solar activity during our visit. We also didn't see animals. I was hoping for moose, but saw none. I did see paw prints that were definitely from a Lynx.

We headed back to Fairbanks for the night so I could catch my early flight home. Fairbanks: home to what must be the last Fred Meyer in existence. 

The thriving metropolis of Fairbanks, as seen from our hotel window.

Our Last Adventures in Spain: Barceloneta and Tarragona

The last travel post of this most excellent visit to Spain begins deliciously. After a few days of cellophane wrapped muffins for breakfast, we needed a change. So two days in a row we breakfasted at Granja Dulcinea, an old institution in the Barri Gotic. They serve delicious churros con chocolata, and assorted pastries. My only regret: not suggesting it sooner so we could have eaten a couple fewer hostel breakfasts of cellophane wrapped muffins.

At the table next to us there were two women who each ordered hot chocolate churros, melindros, crema Catalonia, a couple more things. They didn't eat any of it the whole time we were there, they were just posing it and taking pictures of it. That is a HUGE amount of food to not eat, and they couldn't possibly finish a fraction of it. I do not understand instagram, apparently.

Next stop: Barceloneta beach. If you want to plant yourself in the sand and hang out at the beach, I don't necessarily recommend this one. It is lovely, and it is a good place to go for a walk or jog or bike ride. The aggressive salesmen won't chase you down, but if you are sedentary they will descend like vultures on hot roadkill. 

Beach blanket sellers were plentiful and pushy, but they would take no for an answer. The massagers were a bit more invasive. If you don't like unsolicited, unexpected massages from strangers, this beach isn't for you. I spent probably 2 minutes getting a "free" massage while telling this woman constantly that I didn't want a massage and I would not be paying for a 5 Euro 5 minute massage. It took this long probably because I was too calm in my protestations. If I had responded like a crazy person, we could have gotten rid of them much more quickly, but I didn't want to shame them or anything. They're just trying to make a living. It takes guts to walk up and start massaging strangers, though I think much of it as a sales technique.

After our walk along the beach, we headed inland and uphill to the Parque del Laberint d'Horta. It is a big lovely garden park, complete with a hedge maze. A small maze, but deceptively tricky. 

The park was filled with rugged seeming wooded areas, fountains, ponds, and pseudo-Grecian statues. It was built as part of the estate of the wealthy Desvalls family starting around 1791, it was turned into a city park in the 1960's. It is a little far from the town center, which means it is delightfully devoid of tourist crowds.

After this adventure it was time to say good-bye to my lovely nieces, nephew, sister-in-law, and deranged brother. They were heading out early the next morning--except when they didn't because weather--but our joint trip ended there.

Lee, my mom, and I still had one more day of adventure planned. Our last day of travel we spent in Tarragona. This little town just down the coast was quiet, colder than expected, and full of Roman history.

Lee on the beautiful Balcony of the Mediterranean

This Roman Amphitheater has been many things over the millennia: dead in the center the early Christians built a church to commemorate an early martyr. That church was later destroyed and rebuilt and, obviously was more or less destroyed by neglect again. Due to a number of structural and preservation related concerns, the amphitheater was getting inspected and we couldn't go down in and walk around. Hopefully it gets the support it needs to keep intact for future visitors.

Just across the street is the remnants of the Roman Circus. This is where the famous chariot races would take place. Just one corner of the track and spectator stands remains.  Enterprising medieval Catalans used the structure at the foundation for look out towers, so there are some slightly more modern additions to the circus.

Under the stands where the spectators sat, there were these big long tunnels. I believe these were perhaps ancient locker rooms, merch stands, and food vendor stalls.

Inside a tall lookout tower one can find a collection of Roman artifacts...

Models of Tarragona's Roman layout...

And the rooftop provides the best views of Tarragona! You can see the tunnels, the sea, the Circus, the Amphitheater...

This is the best vantage for understanding what part of the circus we're looking at. Note the stadium seating and the curve of the track.

And our next destination: the cathedral of Tarragona.

The cathedral is quite large, beautifully Gothic, and had a small museum of artifacts from all eras of Tarragona's storied past. From the Romans to the Visigoths, the Moors to the Inquisition, the conquest of Napoleon and beyond.

I think you might know how I feel about Mudejar architecture at this point. If you missed it somehow: I love it.

And our last visit was a walk through the garden along the ancient fortified walls. The foundation of the walls are Roman, the rest has been built and dismantled half a dozen times in the past couple of centuries. It has been converted into a romantic style garden and makes for a nice walk.

And look at this NOOK we found. In case you've forgotten, we like a good nook.

And that afternoon we made our way back to Barcelona, just as it started to rain in Tarragona I might add, and headed to our last adventure! We took a food tour with Devour Barcelona. Unpaid promotion ahead: We got delicious food, an educational experience, visited local bars and restaurants, and had a good laugh with the other tour member and a very nice, smart guide.
We would never have found these spots without local help, and with a guide to help us overcome the language barrier, we tried delicious sandwiches, bomba, botifarra, patatas bravas, alcohol free vermut, sardines, olives, and cheeses. I have never been so full. Food tours are pricey, and this one was worth every penny!

BYOB: Bring your own bottle and you can fill up on the in house vermouth and wine at this old school bodega!

And with that, our trip to Barcelona concludes. We made our way to the airport and headed home to experience winter and rescue Grandma Karen from our kids. We brought home lots of goodies, photos, gifts, and happy memories. To all of 5 of you readers, I hope next trip is a good as this one!