Aurora

not really a great picture but if you look hard enough you'll see both of us

More Pictures

here is a picture of some our our soldiers shooting a 120mm Mortar out of a stryker
This is where we do a lot of our training
waiting on the mortars to show up like usual. Here is a picture of me grabbing some chow before the MTRs show up for the live fire.
here is a picture of what we sleep in when were in the field. Notice the jerry can (tan thing) turned upside down...that actually supplies fuel for the heater inside the tent. Even when its -50 outside the heater inside will keep it nice and toasty.
breaking down the shanty. Notice my two little fish...one is an arctic char and the other is a rainbow trout. I know they're small but fish and game encourage catch and keep in some of the lakes due to low oxygen levels during the late ice.
never thought I would see my truck parked behind a no wake zone sign
just to give yall an idea on how people ice fish up here. These are personal permanent shanty's and some people go to town on the inside. I mean they have wooden floors, posters on the walls etc.
Shanty time. Inside you can get away with wearing a t-shirt as long as the heater is roaring. Believe it or not it was -20 outside!
Yeah thats right....my truck is on a frozen lake! Here is a picture of our first ice fishing trip up here in Alaska. Unfortunately, the ice auger broke after I drilled the first hole so our trip was cut short but we still had a good time.

The Conversation

I was ready to hit the sack after nodding off watching countless episodes Law & Order when I decided to peak out the window to see if the aurora was out, and sure enough they were dancing across the sky. I grabbed my boots, watch cap, gloves, camera and tripod in about 20 seconds while yelling for Tara to get out of bed and come look at the lights and its safe to say she wasn't a happy camper about waking up. Here is what the conversation sounded like

Richie: Tara...Tara wake up...come look at the lights

Tara: shut up I'm sleeping

Richie: no for real...wake up and come look

Tara: I don't wanna...(this is what she was humbling as she was walking towards the door) Richie, I'm sleeping...I'm tired...and I'm feeling sick....OMG those are awesome!

Richie: I knew you would like it in Alaska

Tara: no response, however I did get a stern look as she walked away

Once getting all set up and ready to shoot, the lights started to put on a top notch show and if that weren't enough the wolves started howl over by the river for at least 30 mins! At that point I realized this place is awesome and I could do this all night but after being outside for over an hour my fingers and toes started to go numb so I packed up shop and headed back in for the night.

Northern Lights

The Aurora

Finally...the Northern Lights decided to make an appearance last night and I was able to take a couple pictures of em'...this was my first attempt and they didn't turn out too bad but keep in mind these pictures don't do them any justice! They actually dance across the sky which makes them hard to photograph because the images will turn out blurry but they are truly amazing to see!