My First Polar Bear!

I saw my first official polar bear in the wild... and I was on a snowmobile! Last night at about 9:00 pm, a call came over the police radio that a polar bear was seen roaming around the city dump. So naturally, we bundle up and head out there as fast as we can to catch a glimpse. Sure enough there was a big ol' bear stomping around on the ice pack. We parked pretty far away for obvious reasons and watched him for about 10 minutes before he dissappeared behind the broken pieces of frozen ocean that had piled up about 500 yard out.

I would have loved to have seen him closer, but I have a thing about being so exposed when there is a polar bear near by. We rode around a little to find his tracks, just to see how big is paws were in comparison. I was surprised to see how HUGE thos footprints were. It was about the length of my forearm with claws that extended out past my finger tips. I would have taken a picture, but the cold zapped the batteries and there was no juice for the camera to even turn on.
Now that I have seen the northern lights in their full glory, witnessed a polar bear in the wild and frozen my patootie out on the tundra, I think that I can say I have experienced the Arctic... can we go now?

I guess on that front, it doesn't look like it will be soon. I had an interesting conversation with the chief of police that has bothered me more and more every time I think aobut it. He was trying to convince me that this was the best place to raise a family and that it really isn't all that bad, once you get used to the culture. WHAT!!! Is he flippin out of his mind? His wife doesn't even live up here, she is down near Anchorage and he didin't raise his family here. I think he was trying to be incouraging, but it was a little insulting. Did he really think that I wasn't going to notice how hard life is up here?

Anyway, I hope that he didn't catch that I thought he was full of sh**. Never good to tick off the man who has the final say in where Ben goes rotational and ultimately even if he does. I think that we have decided that if they screw with him, we will just apply elsewhere. I know that I will not be up here for next winter, but we haven't decided yet if Kaia and I will "move" till we get the 2-week rotation, or just "visit" Grandma and Grandpa for a few months.

Maybe we will try to schedule our vacation time for then and Ben can come down for 4-5 weeks. Who knows; all I know is that I am not going to manage another winter like last. Even with the northern lights and polar bears, it just aint worth it! Wish us luck in getting the 2-week rotation.