Ohio Girl

Heading out down Chena Hot Springs Road we passed through Chena State Park . The trees thickened as did the mosquitoes that invaded the car whenever the window was so much as cracked. Out of the corner of my eye I saw it. “Mooooose!” I shouted. I hit the brake and stuttered, “Mmmoooose, Mmmmm, Mmmmoose.” Right there beside us, ankle deep in a creek, was a moose, head reaching high to munch buds from branches.

To Alaskans this is as typical as the deer that daily pass through my own yard, but for this Ohio Girl it was a scene straight out of Northern Exposure.

We took pictures. We stared. We gawked. I bravely (or foolishly) got out of the car to get a closer look. I called out, “Aren’t you a precious baby?” The moose stared, incredulous, and continued to chew.

A little further down was another, then a pair, then another. Moose were everywhere.

The day started out in Fairbanks where we rose early and kicked about the sunny, laid-back downtown. We took in the little, white, wooden Church of the Immaculate Conception. One of the earliest structures, it was once relocated by sliding it across the frozen river to where it currently sits.

The Ice Museum started with a film detailing the art of ice carving, as well as Fairbanks ’ Annual Ice Carving Competition. “You sit,” said the young, Japanese man running the joint. He apparently learned his English from a drill Sergeant. “You go in now,” he said when it was over, pointing to the glassed-in freezers containing sculpture from local artists.

The Fairbanks Community Museum , run out of the former City Hall, was like going through a stranger’s attic. It smelled musty and was filled with junk, at first glance. Further inspection revealed mementos and pictures from the things that make Fairbanks a community; the massive flood of the 60s, the Iditarod, and the yearly Outhouse Races.

The day ended with Moose and hot springs . I sank down into the warmth, steam rising from the water, trees and mountains framing in a full circle. “Whale and Moose,” I muttered to the young couple making out in the water across the way.

“Whale and Moose and Mountains,” I said to myself—a living, childhood, folk tale.