Fairbanks is wicked cool!

I somehow had the foresight to pick a seat on the left side of the plane from Anchorage to Fairbanks and was lucky that we had clear weather for a view of Denali yesterday.  Wow.  It is so much higher than everything else around it!  It has an incredible 18,000 feet of vertical relief over the land around it.
 

After a long day of travel and setting up for the meeting, I jumped at the chance to go to Chena Hot Springs last night.  It's about 60 miles from Fairbanks...60 long, dark, and potentially moose-filled miles.  We did not see any moose, much to my disappointment.  We did not get to leave until almost 8 pm, but they're open until midnight.  When we got there it was COLD outside, definitely below freezing, and the main pool is outdoors.  But the water was hot - almost too hot for me - and it felt nice to alternate between the hot water and sitting on the rocks around the pool.  Since there was such a temperature differential, the air was filled with gently swirling fog...which would occasionally part and reveal about a billion stars.  Spectacular.  There were very few lights at the hot springs so the stars where so bright.

However, the absolute highlight of the night was seeing a WOLF loping down the road on the trip to the springs.  We stopped the car to watch it until it disappeared into the night.  I love this state.