This year I spent my St Patrick's Day in Fairbanks, Alaska. The funny thing was we left 70 degree weather in Okinawa and got to Alaska during unusually low temperatures for February and March. The lowest being -45 degrees F. It has been raining a lot in Okinawa lately but I'll take rain and 70 degrees over 40 below at night with daytime highs in the single digits!

For dinner we ate the the "northernmost southern restaurant" Big Daddy's Bar-B-Q. The beef brisket was great and the cornbread was a little sweet but good as well. We had trouble getting help from the waitress. As you can see from the reviews that's nothing new. During dinner we enjoyed some green dyed Alaskan Amber and Summer Ale. I turned in early while the rest of the group hit the Yukon club on Eielson AFB.

The highlight of my trip has been by far Chena Hot Springs Resort. The outdoor hot springs pool was awesome! It probably wasn't at the 110 average temperature...depending on where you were at in the pool but it felt great. Some of the granite rocks on the sides make great recliners. I sat on one rock half in and half out for at least a half hour. You have to occasionally get back in because the water on your hair, eyelashes, nose hairs, etc. would freeze in about 10 minutes. At night there's limited lighting and you can barely see from one side to the other through the steam. This is great for couples that want some privacy. I don't think I interrupted any couples' quality time. Unfortunately no Northern Lights, but we did see a small strand of the lights a few nights ago.