Given that the weather was not improving and that Nick and Jessica had the Kaktovik scene figured out, we decided to head back to civilization a bit earlier. We had begun settling into Kaktovik life pretty well and enjoyed our visits with the neighbors and the chaos of Waldos, but the list of things to do to prepare for the next phase of the trip began growing longer and longer the more we thought about it, and the list of productive things to do in Kaktovik was getting pretty short. So once Turner got his stitches out, we switched our reservations and headed back to town.


Huge snowfences surround the infrastructure of Kaktovik. These fences slow down the blowing snow, helping it accumulate behind them rather than behind all of the buildings in town. (Click on the panorama and drag to look around, press Shift to zoom in, Command (Mac) or Control (PC) to zoom out.) Enlarge this panorama


Turner says goodbye to Jessica.

Fairbanks hadn’t changed much, but there was a lot more green and trees around than we were used to. Our house survived, but had been inhabited by voles and ants during our absence, causing an unpleasant mess. We made the mistake of dropping off our stuff at the house before going out for dinner – Turner was very happy to find all of his toys here, but very unhappy to be taken away from them again 10 minutes later. But just as quickly he was happy again to be running around on the deck of the Pump House and throwing rocks in the river. A few hours later we were all asleep in our own beds again, for the first time in about 3 months. And it felt good.


Benny and I check out some of our photos on the deck at Pikes.

The next day, Friday, I spent with Benny, showing him the sights around the University and trying to explain the Fairbanks lifestyle to him. We toured the museum, showed him my office/closet, ate at Lemongrass, and took a look at Fairbanks architecture. Dinner was a simple pizza and beer meal at our house, eliminating the need for Kristin and I to play tag team chasing Turner around a restaurant. Next day we ate a nice lunch at Pikes before dropping Benny off at the airport. It was a great visit with him and I learned a lot about high-end photography and I think Benny learned a few things about Alaska too. I think we’re both looking forward to continued collaborations.