Fairbanks

After being home from Nome for one day, we headed down to Fairbanks to play a few volleyball matches, and play in a tournament. Fairbanks is in the interior of Alaska, so there are a lot of trees, but it is VERY cold. The temperature hovered right around 9 degrees when we were there. It snowed about 8 inches just a few days before we got there, so it was absolutely beautiful! But, it was quite an experience driving a 15-seater van in the snow, having never really driven in the snow before. The girls and Lynn, who is the other coach, taught me quite a bit.... like how to do "broadies" in the parking lots (aka doing 360's in the parking lot)! The first couple of nights, we played teams in the Fairbanks area, and so we stayed at the dorms at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. We also went to see one of their volleyball games, and they happened to be playing Seattle Pacific that night, so it was awesome to see a little bit of home! During those few days, we pretty much did a ton of shopping... especially grocery shopping. Our cupboards were looking bare so it was nice to be able to get that done.
After spending a few days in Fairbanks we headed out to a small town called Healy, which is about 2 hours south of Fairbanks bordering Denali National Park (which is where Mt. McKinley is). Needless to say, it was absolutely beautiful. Here is a picture from the school parking lot:

The tournament was two days long. It was great for the girls to play so much volleyball in a short period of time because I could just see them getting better by the game. Our team ended up taking 2nd place in the tournament, which was a huge accomplishment for these girls. A couple of them even made the all-tournament team. Here is a team picture with our plaque (which is now in the trophy case at school):
After the tournament was over, we headed out to the Denali National Park for the afternoon. Although we didn't go far enough into the park to the Mt. McKinley, it was still an awesome experience. The park is patrolled by park rangers on dog sleds for most of the year, and we got to go out the the dog kennels and see the sled dogs. Hearing about it makes me so excited for the dog sled races here in Kotz in the Spring! Here is a picture of me with one of the dogs:


Finally, this is a team picture of us at the National Park:


This was a great trip, with a lot of good team bonding time. I had an awesome time getting to know the girls on my team, and exploring new parts of Alaska. But, I am glad to be home and back with my kindergartners, and of course... my husband.