Watch the Northern Lights dance across the Alaskan sky.

Taken from the wiki for Aurora.

Alex and I were fortunate enough to go to South Africa during the winter in 2008, then Montana during the summer of 2008, and Tasmania during the winter of 2009.  Next was supposed to be Alaska.  But the long-distance relationship, thesis writing, and postdoc got the best of us, and we dropped the ball and didn't plan the trip during the summer of 2009.

Then we got engaged.

We're slowly getting back our grasp on life and work and fun and adventure, which means we can finally think about things like going to Alaska.  We'd always discussed going during the summer, since our pattern had been north-in-the-summer and south-in-the-winter.  If we planned for this summer, we could enjoy the endless days and possibly run a marathon with our friend Jeanna.

But, when Alex and I were crafting a list of things we'd enjoy doing throughout our lives, he wrote,

Watch the Northern Lights dance across the Alaskan sky.

I just looked it up, and the Northern Lights are best viewed around the spring and fall equinoxes during a new moon.  And, on Thursday, March 22, 2012, there will be a new moon on an equinox.

It's a long way off, but I think we're adding Alaska in March 2012 to our calendars.  My guess is that Alex will have a travel book on Alaska by the end of the weekend, and I will already be starting a list of all I will need to stay warm during the Alaskan winter!