Nome

How the heck did we end up in Nome, Alaska?

Just a few days ago, we were hanging out on our deck in Napa, CA, enjoying dinner on our deck on a warm spring evening.

Today, we find ourselves on the edge of the Arctic Circle, birding one moment in dense fog, another in 30mph winds and 45F temperatures, and another in California-like blue skies and 70F.

Nome is a 75-minute flight north of Anchorage, or almost the same distance as between San Francisco and Portland. So, while Anchorage is currently experiencing 20 hours of daylight, Nome is getting 22 hours! While I'm writing this, at 11:30PM local time, the sun is still well above the horizon and won't dip under until about 2am, only to pop up again at 4am.

A challenge in small towns is finding good food, and the food here has been OK. Tonight we dined in an Italian/Korean/Japanese restaurant, not an unusual combination for small towns. We chose our cuisine based on the ethnicity of the hosts, assuming they would know the most about that type of food, and sure enough, the Bi-Bim-Bap was pretty tasty.

The birding has been great, as Nome is far enough north to get birds that don't like to travel to where the weather is decent. So, our list now include some exotic names like Northern Wheatear, Eastern Yellow Wagtail, and Bar-tailed Godwit. But, the bird of the day was this sexy little number:

The Willow Ptarmigan is wearing Uggs. In June. Apparently, he's a California Girl at heart.

Note that, the wife cracked herself up when she came up with this, said in the style of Chubby Checker:

The young-un's should consult YouTube for a reference

The remaining lyrics are left as an exercise for the student.

One more day here in Nome, and then we fly back to Anchorage on Wednesday evening. We are only 13 birds from our original goal, and that may be achievable in our remaining 5 days in Alaska!

Ptarm-igan-ing, like we did last year
Me