midnight sun in both hemispheres

Here's a fun, adventurous bucket-list idea (or maybe just an idea for your 101 Things in 1001 Days list): Why not try to see midnight sun in each hemisphere?

Not that we're bragging, but we've done it, ourselves.

We actually first saw midnight sun when we went to Antarctica. Our boat left just a few days after the solstice, on December 26, and we were lucky (or smart?) enough to be booked on a boat that sailed further south than most other cruises--in fact, we even went below the Antarctic Circle!  As we slowly sailed north, and as we got further away from December 21, the midnight sun slowly turned into midnight dusk, but honestly, we still had full midnight sun on New Year's Eve.  That was a real trip! (Pun intended.)

Then, in the Northern Hemisphere, we got to experience midnight sun in Alaska, when David decided to run his first marathon, which just so happened to be the Midnight Sun Marathon in Anchorage.  The marathon was run on the actual solstice, itself, so David needed to get a good night's sleep the night before. Thank goodness our hotel had some industrial-strength blackout curtains!  Once the race was over, though, and he could stay up a little later, we still had an opportunity to see sun at midnight. We went north to Talkeetna, and stayed at this fabulous lodge with a terrace facing Mount Denali in the distance. We sat out there late into the evening, watching the sun hovering over the tallest mountain in North America and it was really incredible.

Midnight, viewed from our hotel room, overlooking the JCPenney Parking Garage in Anchorage.

Late evening.

Since today is June 21, it might be too late to book your Alaska trip for midnight sun this year (but if you wanna give it a shot, we're up for the challenge, just call us right away!), but we can easily find an Antarctica trip for you for this coming winter. They book up quickly, and well in advance, but we're also super duper extra awesome travel agents, so ... let us know!

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