Spring in Anchorage

Inspired by my friend T over at 'My Own Party of 5', I decided I should write about springtime in Anchorage, Alaska. For those who have never experienced it themselves...you are missing out on one exciting ride. I have decided, after living in Alaska most of my life, that the state has a hard time finding a happy medium. It is either cold or hot. It is either rainy/cloudy or really sunny. It is either very enjoyable or a living hell. There really isn't a middle ground.

That being said, Alaska doesn't really 'do' the transitional seasons of Spring and Fall. At the end of summer, we start getting a lot of rain, the leaves start falling off the trees, and typically it snows before anyone has the chance to rake or do any sort of fall cleanup. That is followed by a long, cold, and snowy winter. Then spring hits. Literally. We go from being frozen to melting in 3 seconds flat. One day, it's snowing...often very large quantities, the next day you are having 40+ degree temperatures in which all that recently fallen snow is melting like the dickens and you have puddles several feet deep because the storm drains are still frozen and can't move the water.

That is why most weathered Alaskans refer to spring as 'break-up'. The snow and ice are literally breaking up. Not to mention the pavement. Due to our extreme temperature range and all the water that gets to sit on the road due to our special form of glaciation (running water over frozen ground), the roads start to fall apart any place there were tiny cracks last year. It goes from a tiny crack to a pothole so deep that people flatten tires or just plain get stuck in them. Driving down some of the older roads is like driving through a minefield. You have to dodge and drift and sometimes jerk out of your lane to avoid a hole that threatens to cause serious damage to anyone not paying enough attention to the road.

Needless to say, we actually are in our 'break-up' season now. When I left for Vegas on the 21st of March, we were getting snow. When I got back on March 30th, we had just gotten another snowfall. In fact, I think we got a bit of snow the end of last week. But over the weekend, the sun was shining and it has continued since then. The thermometer may only read 30 degrees, but with the sun beating down, everything is melting and us Alaskans are getting antsy for summer. Unfortunately I know we still have a few more weeks of dealing with all of the melt-off of our past winter. You have the lovely smell of rotting leaves that we didn't get to rake and dog poop that people either neglected or lost in the snow. Everything is dirty. Spring is definitely not a time to wear white up here. You would take two steps out your front door and be brown.

Yet somehow...it all changes. Almost in an instant. One day you are driving down the road looking at all the brown scenery, thinking to yourself, "God, this place is ugly." Then, almost the next day, you take a look around and notice everything is turning green and blooming and that our city is quite beautiful. I am anxious for this summer to come. We need a good one after the rainy/crappy one we had last year. But this spring has been pretty beautiful thus far. Let's hope it's a good omen for the summer to come....