The Midnight Sun (Baseball Game)

I’m not a big believer in ‘bucket lists’, but I do try to promise myself that on those ‘big birthdays’, I’ll do something special. And I really, really, really wanted to take a trip to Alaska, so on one of my ‘zero’ birthdays, that’s what we did.

(I must note this took place in 2017, long before Coronavirus was part of our world. So there are no mentions of social distancing, masks or other restrictions, since four years ago we’d stand shoulder to shoulder in a crowd and not think anything of it. My, how times have changed. But, back in the day …)

Luckily, my birthday is in June and we started our trip flying Alaska Airlines from Los Angeles to Fairbanks on June 20^th, when sunrise was 2:57 a.m. and sunset was 12:48 a.m. I’ll say those numbers again so you don’t think it was a typo: sunrise 2:57 a.m., sunset 12:48 a.m. We arrived early evening, picked up a rental car, checked into our hotel (Regency Fairbanks, with a fun, rustic gold-rush feel) and quickly headed out to the Visitors Center to grab local maps before they closed. There was light rain, and as we walked toward the Visitors Center, a beautiful rainbow appeared – a good sign of things to come! We had dinner at a local barbeque joint (barbeque in Alaska? Why not!) and went for an after-dinner walk around downtown Fairbanks. Most of the businesses were closed by that time (around 10:00 p.m.), but it could have been noon as far as we were concerned. Looking back at our photographs, yes, that’s me at 10:00 p.m. wearing sunglasses and needing them!

We timed our trip to be in Fairbanks on June 21^st, the longest day of the year. Our plan was to see The Midnight Sun Baseball Game, an annual event that starts at 10:00 p.m. in a stadium without lights.  But we had a full day of sightseeing before the game began, so we went to the University of Alaska Museum of the North to see their dinosaur exhibit, and then on the Fairbanks Riverboat Cruise, a delightful three-hour tour up and down the Chena River that bisects the city. A highlight was seeing the Trail Breaker Kennel, home of the late Susan Butcher who won the Iditarod multiple times. Her husband runs the kennel now and gave a wonderful demonstration of their sled dogs in action.

Back to the hotel to freshen up, and on to the evening’s activities. We stopped for a quick dinner at Denny’s, because, why not? The sign in front proudly boasted “The Northern Most Denny’s in the World”. Then on to the ball game. 

The Alaska Goldpanners, based in Fairbanks, are part of a summer baseball league made up of primarily college players. They play teams based in Alaska and the western part of the lower 48 states. We saw the Goldpanners play the San Diego Waves, and sadly, the home team lost 4-2. But what an experience! The game started at 10:00 p.m. and ended close to 12:30 a.m. -- and it was still light outside. The sun was just disappearing from the horizon. 

I’ll confess that watching a baseball game at 10:00, 11:00, midnight, and having it still be light outside really takes a toll on your psyche. And even at 1:00 a.m. as we were going to sleep it was not yet completely dark.

While our trip was planned around going to the game, we still had plenty of activities for the week to come. We spent the next morning at the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum, a combination vintage car museum and fashion collection. Yes, I said fashion, ranging from Victorian to Art Deco.  The classic cars were surrounded by mannequins wearing fashions of the day. What struck me most was how colorful the cars were, especially the cars of the early 1900s – so many bright reds and yellows!  I commented to one of the tour guides, and he quickly reminded me that any time I had seen a photograph of an automobile from the early 1900s, it had likely been a black and white photo. Oh. Oh, yeah. That’s right.

We drove to the town of Healy, just outside Denali National Park, and spent the night there in order to get an early start in the morning. Of course, it’s hard to go to sleep at midnight when it’s still light outside, as I would rediscover every night of our trip.

Most of Denali National Park is closed to private vehicular traffic, so we opted to take one of their shuttle busses and then get off to hike. The tour guides on the busses were very knowledgeable and helpful, and it seemed every place we went had “just seen” a moose or a bear. We were destined to miss most of the major wildlife.  But the park was beautiful, and we hiked around for hours just enjoying the scenery.

As we exited the park, however, we did see a moose on the highway, so I can check that off my bingo card. Then off to Anchorage.

The drive from Denali to Anchorage is around five hours. We got started later than we’d anticipated (having too much fun in the park and couldn’t pry ourselves away) so it was about 6:00 p.m. when we started. No problem, we thought, since it would still be light at 11:00 p.m. when we arrived. And it was.

We stayed at a local hotel, The Lakeshore, which was walkable to some nice shops and restaurants. In the morning, we walked to the Millennium Hotel and had brunch on their outdoor patio called “The Flying Room” where we could watch seaplanes take off and land. It was a beautiful day just to sit near the bay.

The following day, we met my Uncle and Aunt (Anchorage locals) and they took us on the train from Anchorage to Whittier, then onto the “26 Glacier Cruise”, a five and a half hour cruise around Prince William Sound. Being a city girl who has lived most of my life in Los Angeles and New York, it was magical.

The next day we drove to Homer to meet another Aunt who lives nearby. Homer is a small town full of art galleries, surrounded by wilderness and Kachemak Bay. We walked on the beach, hiked up the hill and shopped the various arcades. 

The drive to and from Homer, at the end of the Kenai Peninsula, is mostly along Highway 1 (Sterling Highway). It’s about a five hour drive from Anchorage, not counting stops -- and you will make stops. It is a beautiful drive, very remote for much of the trip. We stopped at Cooper Landing, a good roughly-halfway stopping point where there were a few small restaurants and shops. Salmon chowder seemed to be the local delicacy, so we got salmon chowder both times we stopped, once at the west end of town heading south, and once at the east end heading north.   For the record, we liked the east side chowder more.

Then, back to Anchorage to pack and get ready to fly home. Our entire trip to Alaska was mind-boggling, full of wonders and once in a lifetime memories. I’m sure once you’ve been there for a while, you’d get used to the constant light in the summer (along with its mirror image in the winter), but as a visitor, it’s quite befuddling. 

But I loved everything about our trip to Alaska. And I did see the Midnight Sun Baseball Game, which started at 10:00 p.m. at a stadium with no lights.