February 21, 2015 by mysocalledcreativelife

Chena Hot Springs Resort Aurora Ice Museum

On the grounds of the Chena Hot Springs Resort is also the Aurora Ice Museum. Because the resort is only 60 miles outside of Fairbanks, the resort is a frequent destination for day trippers. One of the big activities is a guided tour of the Ice Museum.

The museum originally started as an ice hotel. However, as our tour guide told us, all hotels require sprinklers, even ice ones, and a sprinkler system was not part of the original design. So the resort turned it into an ice museum, though the venue can be rented out overnight and people can stay in it, sort of like an ice hotel, but not exactly.

The only way the museum can be visited is by guided tour offered multiple times a day. The tour itself lasts around 45 minutes, and pretty much consists of the guide giving a quick overview of the museum, answering your questions, and then allowing you to wander freely.

The museum is basically one big, open air exhibition with a variety of ice sculptures. The ice sculptures are regularly updated and refreshed to ensure they retain their shape and consistency. It also has some flowers frozen in ice.

The sculptures are rather beautiful, and again, evoke the image of the White Witch’s frozen castle in Narnia (yes, this idea frequently popped into my head over this trip). The only thing missing was a scenery chewing Tilda Swinton (and I mean that in a good way since I thought she was one of the big highlights from the movie).

An optional add on to the museum visit is an appletini in a hand carved ice glass, and of course Mom and I couldn’t pass that up. The appletini costs $15 per person (make sure all adults who drink one bring their ID to verify their age). Even though our trip was at 11 am, it is never too early to enjoy an appletini in a carved ice bar. It’s a great aperitif before lunch. If you have been to ice bars in other parts of the world (I have), it is a very similar set up, though it is much bigger than a typical ice bar.

February 19, 2015 by mysocalledcreativelife

Chena Hot Springs Resort Activities

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, while there are a lot of activities available at the Chena Hot Springs Resort, most of the activities are at your own pace, with the occasional scheduled tour. The first activity we did was a tour of the Aurora Ice Museum (a later blog post), but we also did some hiking of the grounds, and a dogsled ride. There were also some local reindeer kept on site, and a small ice skating pond, though it didn’t seem frozen enough to actually skate on.

Nature trails abound on the resort, and they are kept fairly walkable during the winter, which I honestly didn’t expect, but was grateful for. While walking around, it was amazing to me how pristine the snow was, and how frozen it was. I often marveled that it was like being in the Winter Wonderland of Narnia (before those meddling Pevensie children arrived and brought spring with them). I live in a more temperate area, so even when it does snow, the temperature would not drop long enough for the snow to freeze, nor to remain on the branches, plus what snow does remain would often get slushy and dirty. But somehow, the snow at Chena Hot Springs Resort remained dazzling white. The white snow, combined with the bluish light, or salmon when the sun rose high enough, was a beautiful artistic palette.

I had also hadn’t often seen snow that was so white and clean, even when people tramped all over it. It was refreshing to experience such amazing cold, but it wasn’t as obvious. The cold is a very dry cold, even with the wind, and it was easy for me to pile on multiple layers of clothes to stay warm and active outdoors.

Mom and I also had the chance to enjoy a dogsled ride around a set track. The ride was about 1.5 miles, so about 10 minutes. The resort keeps dozens of sled dogs for the guests, trained dogs, but not as highly trained or skilled to be elite racing dogs. All the dogs were very energetic, and just seemed to love to run.

But one of the most relaxing pursuits at the resort is to enjoy the natural hot spring pool. The resort keeps a chlorinated indoor pool open to families, but they also have an outdoor rock pool for adults only. The pool is natural and untreated and very pleasantly warm, with a regular infusion of geothermally heated water. It reminded me of similar pools from New Zealand and Iceland. The pool is open from 7 am-midnight, so there are hours and hours to enjoy the pool if you so desired. The pool was great during the day, but it was a special treat at night, when it was dark, the moon was out and the sky was clear and cold. My body stayed wonderfully warm under the surface, and bracingly cold above the surface. Stay in the pool long enough, and your wet hair will literally start to freeze and turn white with the accumulation of ice crystals. I felt so relaxed, so languid after the pool, and it was a perfect complement to the extremely cold winter weather.

While there plenty of activities at the resort, you could also choose to stay indoors and relax if you so desired. Basically there is something for everybody who enjoys outdoor or relaxing indoor activities at Chena Hot Springs Resort.

February 17, 2015 by mysocalledcreativelife

Fairbanks Chena Hot Springs Resort in Winter

I have always been a fan of very cold winters. I elected to go to Iceland in March one year, specifically because I wanted to see the country in winter, and hopefully see the Northern Lights. While I did see the Northern Lights, they certainly weren’t bright like the pictures. So I did some more research to discover that Fairbanks, Alaska is one of the best places to see the Northern Lights, at least in the United States. It took me a few years, because I was living overseas for a couple years, but I finally had the opportunity to go up to Fairbanks in January 2015. I figured New Years would be a great time to visit Fairbanks, since it is pretty cold and dark, and would provide a great opportunity to (hopefully, since the auroras can never be predicted) see some beautiful Northern Lights.

Some quick research of potential places to visit in Fairbanks yielded me Chena Hot Springs Resort. It’s located about 60 miles outside of Fairbanks, basically in the middle of nowhere, and therefore a great opportunity to indulge in some (really) cold winter activities and see some Northern Lights well outside the lights of the city. Chena Hot Springs offers up a wide variety of packages, and I selected the four-day Aurora Odyssey package for my mom and me. The package offered up a selection of activities, including a night time Aurora Snowcoach tour and a dogsled ride. It was an opportunity to do some things I had never done before in a cold place I had never been before.

Due to the timing of flights and the timing of check in at the resort, my mother and I flew into Fairbanks the night before our check in at Chena Hot Springs, and stayed the night at a very comfy lodge, the Pike’s Waterfront Lodge, which is near the airport and right on the Chena River. The next morning we took a shuttle bus to the resort, which is about 90 minutes away from Fairbanks in winter weather.

I knew that there wasn’t much daylight in Fairbanks during winter. Reading up on the sunrise and sunset times for Fairbanks, there was officially four hours per day of sunlight when we were visiting. So I expected to spend most of my vacation in darkness, and that appealed to me as well. If I ever get the opportunity, I want to go north of the Arctic Circle in winter time to experience polar night where the sun never rises, just like I experience midnight sun in the summer, when the sun never set. However, what surprised me is how much light there is on either side of sunrise and sunset. It started getting light about two hours before official sunrise and it stayed light about two hours after official sunset. But because of our location, I never actually saw the sun the first four days of our trip. Sure it was sunny and beautiful out most of the days and I enjoyed the brilliant light, but the sun just never rose high enough in the sky to actually see over the mountaintops.

For the most part, there are limited scheduled activities at the resort. We had four days out at the resort, and the only scheduled activities we had were the Aurora Snowcoach trip one of the nights, a trip to the Aurora Ice Museum (a follow on blog post) and a dogsled ride. That left a whole lot of time to do whatever we wanted.

We both walked around the resort on many of the nature trails. Sure there were inches of snow on the ground, but the resort took the time to ensure walking paths were available and packed the snow down. One morning I got up early (for the area anyway, since I started hiking about 0900, two hours before official sunrise) and did some hiking along the ridge trail. I hiked about one hour up the trail, before deciding to turn around because the snow was a lot more unpacked, deeper and harder to walk in (plus I couldn’t get the thought out of my head that I was being stalked by wolves- which I wasn’t). The view from the trail was very beautiful. The air was clear and cold, the silence and absolute solitude was peaceful, the light was beautiful, changing from the blue of the pre-dawn to a gorgeous salmon light shining on the mountaintops (even though I still couldn’t see the actual sun).

Fairbanks in the winter is also an opportunity to experience some serious cold. I have experienced single digit temperatures on occasion here and there, but winter in Fairbanks is frequently much, much colder, especially with wind chill. I was looking forward to it, so imagine my surprise and chagrin when we arrived our first night at the temperature was in the low 30s. Yes, the temperature rose to be around 32 degrees so it snowed. It sounds like it could be cold, but that temperature is basically spring thaw weather, and it was exceedingly out of character for Fairbanks in January. It actually snowed the first day we were there, but thankfully the temperature dropped into the single digits and the sun came out.

That also meant clear nights out to see the auroras. The auroras would make their first appearance around 10 pm, but then disappear until around 1-2 am, when they would come dancing out over skies. Our first two nights were cloudy, because it was so warm so no auroras were visible, but the last two nights were dark, clear and cold. On the third night, we got the aurora call from the front desk at 10 pm and bundled up to hike up to the aurorium to see more aurora. I had forgotten to bring a flashlight, but luckily our stay coincided with the full moon, so we had enough light to hike up the hill in the middle of the night. We stayed up until about 12:30 am the third night, but after seeing nothing, and because I assumed we wouldn’t see anything, because the weather wasn’t perfectly clear, we went back to our rooms to sleep. Of course we found out later that day that the auroras came out around 2 am and were so bright, with colors of green, pink and purple.

I had to kick myself for not waiting, but the next night we went out on the Aurora Snowcoach tour that took us to a nearby hill out in the middle of nowhere. The aurora schedule mirrored the night before. They were initially out in force around 10 pm as we ascended the mountain. I kept straining my head for a good view, but by the time we reached the top, they had disappeared. The next three hours were filled with cold and disappointment (luckily they had heated tents with hot beverages so we weren’t outside for those three hours), and doubt they would appear. Just because the conditions are right for aurora, there is no guarantee they will actually appear. Of course, shortly before 2 am when we were supposed to come down the mountain, the auroras came out in force and were bright green, dancing overhead with long swirly streaks. While the guides kept trying to usher us back into the snowcoaches, we weren’t having any of that, and stayed as long as we could to enjoy the sights. I deliberately didn’t bring my camera with me, because I wanted to just take in the experience and see the lights, and not have to worry about camera settings or getting the best picture. I just wanted to treasure these memories, with the hope of coming back later to take pictures. I am very glad that I got to see the Northern Lights, though that engendered a desire to see more. I REALLY want to come back to Fairbanks in the winter (preferably around the new moon) to see more auroras. What I learned from this experience is to have patience. Sure there are no guarantees they will appear, but I can’t give up until around 3-4 am. I mean, that is one of the main reasons to come to Chena Hot Springs in the winter anyway, so take full advantage of it and stay up all night. Chances are you won’t be disappointed.

This trip was one of the best winter trips I have ever taken. Sure I didn’t see as many auroras as I wanted, but I still did see them. I got some great hiking in, and enjoyed clear, pristine weather in a gorgeous location. Our final day, when we were at the airport getting ready to leave, I finally saw the actual sun for the first time in several days, as it rose beautifully above the horizon. Fairbanks is definitely not a place to be missed if you like cold winter and beautiful nature.

March 10, 2014 by mysocalledcreativelife

Tokyo in Winter

For President’s Day weekend I went back to Tokyo, because I wanted to see it in the winter time. I figured the weather would be good enough, plus there weren’t many things I wanted to do in the winter time. Or at least I thought at the time I made my initial vacation plans.

It snowed the first day of my weekend. The snow was flurrying when I first landed that morning, and as the day progressed and turned into night, the snowfall thickened. I was glad I had an umbrella with me to shield me from the snow falling upon me, but it was beautiful to watch the snow fall. I spent the late afternoon and early evening in Ueno Park, which is a very large urban park in the middle of Tokyo.

The snowfall was delicate and pure white, and it laid a gentle blanket over the trees and the paths. The streetlights and particularly the lanterns added some spot illumination to make you feel like you were in a winter wonderland, like Narnia.

As it got darker, the otherworldly aspect of the city became even more pronounced. It was like the winter night scenes in The Shining (Stanley Kubrick version), only without a hedge maze or a madman with an ax chasing you.

Of course there is often a downside to winter snowfall, and that was certainly the case the next day. I woke up early, because I intended to go up to Nikko for a day trip. What I found is that the snow had fallen all night, and it was now several inches on the streets. But by this point, the temperature rose enough to turn to rain. Just imagine what you get when combine several inches of snow with driving rain. You get large pools of standing, cold, slushy water. My feet were soaked entirely through, and my train was canceled to due to heavy snowfall.

So even though the snow was melting fairly rapidly that day, there was still enough on the ground to enjoy the East Garden of the Imperial Palace. Parts of the garden were closed for the day due to the snowfall, but there were some winter blossoms on the trees.

The next day, the trains were running to Nikko, but the local buses weren’t. While Tokyo appears to have gotten four inches of the snow the day prior, Nikko got around 12 inches of snow, since it is located higher in the mountains. While the trains could get through, the roads hadn’t been completely plowed, and there was a danger of avalanches. I ended up returning to Tokyo shortly thereafter, because my day’s plan were ruined.

Later that night, I partook in one of Tokyo’s winter illuminations. It wasn’t as colorful or elaborate as the ones I visited in Korea, but it was nice nonetheless. A very long stretch of road behind the Marouni Building was lined with trees illuminated by clear lights. It was pretty, though I love me some garden illuminations. The crisp winter coldness and the cold, clear lights was a perfect accompaniment to the absolutely delicious sakura chocolate latte with sakura whipped cream topping as I walked up and down the street.

What I learned from this trip is that I need to be judicious in selecting winter vacation destinations. It’s one thing to pick something you know will be filled with snow. But you also run the risk that things will be shut down due to the weather.

But I did get my fix of beautiful winter landscapes. I got my fix even more when I was editing the photos. I recently took a digital photography class, and part of the class was a licensed copy of Adobe Lightroom 5. Even though I shot my Tokyo photos in JPEG, as opposed to RAW, it was quite interesting to see what I could do with the software to pretty up the pictures. I was going for photo enhancement that just bordered on appearing to be paintings.

June 28, 2013 by mysocalledcreativelife

Iceland Thingvellir River and Church Painting

I spent two weeks in Iceland in March 2011. I made the conscious decision to visit Iceland in the winter, because I wanted to see the Icelandic winter landscape, and especially wanted to see the Northern Lights.

Thingvellir is a day trip from Reykjavik and is the site where the Icelandic parliament was founded around 930 CE. Thingvellir is the place of a beautiful rift valley and the largest natural lake in Iceland, Thingvallavtn. I went out to area twice during my visit. One of the visits was to snorkel and the other time just a bus trip as part of the Golden Circle day trip.

There is a lot I like about this painting and a few things that give me pause. I laid down a watercolor underpainting and overlaid hard pastels and watercolor pencil on top for the detail. I especially like the depth created on the ice formations with the blue pastel water, overlaid with indigo blue watercolor pencil to give depth to the scene. After some thought, I decided to create the shadows in the snow with a lavender watercolor underpainting and light blue and violet hard pastel for texture and shadow. The ice formations was created with blue, gray and white watercolor pencil and burnished to give the appearance of a smooth ice surface finish.

The parts of the painting that I felt I could improve the most is the background and distance. I could improve the water reflections in the distance. I also realized after the fact that I drew the church way out of perspective. The church looks way bigger in the painting than it was in reality. I feel I need to improve creating a background with depth and texture to make it look more realistic.

This was one of those paintings that I wasn’t sure about when I first decided that I couldn’t make it better, but it did grow on me over time.

Above is the reference photo I used for this painting. I really loved Thingvellir, though truthfully I loved all of Iceland. It was a remarkably beautiful country. This day was very cold, sunny and bright and it just accentuated the fabulous natural of this special country.

February 18, 2013 by mysocalledcreativelife

Morning Calm Arboretum Lighting Festival

What’s a public garden in a cold climate supposed to do in the winter? Sure, you can stay open all year around, but for the most part, the beautiful flowers people like to see at gardens are hibernating for the winter. Of course gardens can also close, and some of them do, until spring when new flowers bloom. Or gardens can take the step that the Morning Calm Arboretum in Korea does and host a lighting festival. Sure the garden is open during the day and you can walk around the gardens and take in the snow-covered views. But the real action starts when the sun sets, and the garden comes alive with all the lights. Shrubs and trees are covered in all shades of colored lights imaginable.

All of a sudden, you are transported into a fantasy world, albeit a crowded fantasy world filled with many, many people jockeying for position to take the best photos. While beautiful, this is definitely not the place to come if you want peaceful solitude, where you can just sit back and take in the view. Or I should say, you can’t really contemplate the view from any viewpoint that attracts a lot of people. Everyone is impatient for their turn to take pictures ( I know I was), so you take the pictures you can, take in the view from the viewpoints for a couple minutes and then just walk around and enjoy the lights and block out the people (if that is your thing like it is mine). When I was focused on just seeing the lights and not worried about taking pictures, time just sort of slowed down and it was more about enjoying the moment and experience for what it was. The Sunken Garden is the main attraction, where most of the lights are located. But there are also three other lighted areas: the Hometown Garden, the Bonsai Garden, and the Road to Heaven pathway.

The Morning Calm Arboretum Lighting Festival takes place every year from approximately early December to early March. During the lighting festival weekends, the garden is open until 2100. The earliest sun will set is around 1730 near winter solstice and gets progressively later as time goes on. When I was there this past Saturday, sun set around 1815 and the lights came on right around that time.

Getting to the Morning Calm Arboretum is a bit time consuming, but still pretty straightforward. Since I don’t want to drive in Korea, I elected to take public transportation. I took the Metro and a bus all the way there. In Seoul, take a train to Sangbong station, which is a stop on the Metro Line#7 or the Jugang Line. Transfer to the Gyunchen Line subway headed toward Chuncheon. An alternate means is to take an ITX train from Yongsan, Cheongnyangi, or Sangbong (among other stations) headed toward Chuncheon. The ITX train is undoubtedly quicker, and just slightly more expensive. It however doesn’t run quite as frequently as the Metro. Either way, you will exit the train at the Cheongpyeong Station. From there, go around the back of the train station to catch a bus. There is a shuttle bus that runs from Gapyeong Terminal to the Morning Calm Arboretum on regular intervals throughout the day. The shuttle bus will stop at key tourist sites, such as Nami Island, Petit France and Morning Calm Arboretum. An all day bus ticket with cost 5,000 won per person. The ride from Cheongpyeong Station to Morning Calm Arboretum is approximately 30 minutes. Ticket prices for the Lighting Festival is 8,000 won per adult. A note if you take the shuttle bus there. The last bus is scheduled to leave from the arboretum at 2000, and keep in mind there will be a line of people headed back to the train station. So keep that in mind if you want to sit down for the 30 minute ride back to the train station. Taxis will also be available, though there is also a line for them as well. Travel time from central Seoul to Cheongpyeong Station is approximately two hours each way.

More information for the Morning Calm Arboretum can be found at their website: http://morningcalm.co.kr/

The website is in both English and Korean. The Morning Calm Arboretum is open year round, the views change throughout the year thanks to the changing seasons.

My So Called Creative Life

Independent world traveler who loves art, food, books and photography

Tag Archives: winter

Chena Hot Springs Resort Aurora Ice Museum

Chena Hot Springs Resort Activities

Fairbanks Chena Hot Springs Resort in Winter

Tokyo in Winter

Iceland Thingvellir River and Church Painting

Morning Calm Arboretum Lighting Festival

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