12/26 ＊ The first Northern lights; Auroras! ～アラスカ・オーロラの旅 Day１-２～
It was like a long first day, but even the time flew fast!
We ate dinner, and waited for auroras!
長いようであっという間だった初日。
夕ごはんをいただき、いよいよオーロラを待ちます！
The main dish was beef roast which was made from a large piece of meat and roasted slowly.
夕食のメインは、塊のままじっくり焼き上げたビーフステーキ
どどーん！ボリューミー！！
I took a slice of beef on my plate. 切り分けた一枚をプレートへ…
The side dishes; baked potatoes and vegetable salads. The baked potatoes were flavorful, and the carrots in the salads were so sweet. Mrs. Pat told us the carrots which grow in Alaska become so sweet because the soil in Alaska is so cold. I tasted them and it was exactly sweet! The dinner made me happy because it was delicious and enough amounts to make me full.
付け合わせのベイクドポテトはホクホク
サラダの人参はアラスカ産で、
パットさん曰く、アラスカの土は冷たいから人参が甘く育つのだとか。
確かに甘かった！すべて美味しくいただき、お腹パンパン。
By the way, Mrs. Pat and Mr. Ed also have a cat whose behavior is elegant. Her name is Cinnamon. However…,
ちなみにパットさんのキャビンには、毛並みが美しく、
立ち居振る舞いが上品な猫ちゃん・シナモンも暮らしています。
しかし、、、
Look! She is such a fat cat like this!!
No matter how stout she is, she looks still elegant for me and even cute because of the stoutness.
でーん。このとおり、太っちょさん！！
それでもやっぱり上品だし、太っちょボディがなんとも愛らしい～
In addition, Mrs. Pat told us Cinnamon pays quick attention to Mrs. Pat whenever she said “MATATABI”: a Japanese word. She told me it means “catnip” in English. She also showed us about that. When she said “MATATABI”, actually, Cinnamon replied “MEOW…MEOW…” and the voice sounded like saying “Please, please give me the MATATABI～”. However, as she once knew she couldn’t get any MATATABI, she looked like ready to move on to another thing. It’s funny.
彼女、パットさんが「マタタビ」と言うと、すぐ反応し、そわそわ。
「みゃおぅ…みゃおう…」と甘えた声で鳴き、
パットさんに「くださいな～」と哀願するかのよう…
もらえないと分かると気持ちの切り替えも早そうだったけど・笑
After the dinner, we took the dogs to a dog barn: The purpose of this move is to protect them from the cold, and because specific dogs like to sleep close together: brothers, sisters, parents and children, and so on.
Finally, we stood by auroras in our cabin!
Mrs. Pat gave us homemade cherry pies as desserts, which we couldn’t eat because we were too full.
夕食後は何匹かのワンコたちを
個別のものとは別の、大きな犬小屋に誘導するのを見送り、
寒さをしのぐ目的のほか、
兄弟で寄り添って眠りたいワンコなども
この犬小屋で夜を過ごすのだとか
私たちはいよいよ自分たちのキャビンでオーロラ待機！
パットさんは、私たちがお腹いっぱいで
食べきれなかったデザート・手作りチェリーパイを持たせてくれました
Before standing by seriously, we explored the trail to find the best spot to see auroras.
とその前に、オーロラ観測に
最適な場所を見つけておくべく、トレイル散策へ。
It was around 8 PM, a perfectly dark night in the snow mountains. While we were walking with looking up at the sky, a big shooting star appeared suddenly! We even saw clearly how it was burning out. I thought it was not like a shooting star, but a falling meteorite because the lights were so bright and intense like a fire. Moreover, it took longer time than I had ever seen to disappear: about 3 seconds or more!
すっかり暗くなった雪山の夜。時間はおよそ８時ごろ。
２人して空を見上げながらトレイルを歩いていたら、
突如、燃え尽きてゆく様までもはっきりと確認できる、大きな大きな流れ星が！
それは流れ星というより、隕石落下の瞬間、
といった方がしっくりくるほど激しさのあるもので、
約３秒、もしかしたらそれ以上の間、
夜空でひときわ印象的な、炎のような光を放っていました。
We talked each other like “We are lucky to see the impressive star!”, “I get the feeling something lucky will happen”. Also, we discovered the best spot to see auroras and went back to our cabin: At that time, we couldn’t see auroras.
We checked the sky again around 9 PM, and couldn’t see auroras either.
「すごいの見ちゃったね～」
「なんだか幸先いいね！」
なんて話しつつ、観測に良さそうな場所の目途もつき、
一旦、キャビンへ。この時、オーロラは現れず
再び９時ごろ、空をチェックしてみたものの
この時もやはり、オーロラの姿は見えず。。
We spent time by playing Jenga, which we had bought for our long nights in Alaska, and checked the sky around 10 PM. I discovered something not a normal cloud, but similar to a contrail. I thought it was just a strange cloud, but my husband said that was an aurora. Even though it was difficult to believe what he said, I believed him. We stopped by Atsushi’s cabin to let him know what we saw, and we three were off to the spot for auroras.
持ってきたジェンガで遊びつつ時間をやり過ごし、
お次は10時ごろ、空チェック。
すると、普通の雲とは違う、ひこうき雲のような
すーっと細長いもやがかった何かが空にかかっているのを発見。
私は“変な雲だな～”と思った程度だったのだけれど、
旦那ちゃん曰く、あれはオーロラだよ、とのこと。
半信半疑ながらもその言葉を信じ、
あつしさんにも声をかけ、３人でオーロラ観測スポットへ。
The strange something like a cloud changed its shape little by little. The movements were really like auroras. However, even that time I didn’t agree that was an aurora because it looked far different from what I expected. It was not colorful.
山裾からゆるやかに湾曲しながらのびていたその白い雲のようなものは
少しずつ、少しずつその形を変え、動きは確かにオーロラのよう。
それでも、見た目は想像していたカラフルなオーロラとは
かけ離れたものだったので、“オーロラだ！”という自信は持てず。。
Anyway, we decided to take a photo of that by using Atsushi’s camera, which he bought for just taking photos of auroras in Alaska.
そんな中、とりあえず写真を撮ってみようか、となり、
このために買ったというあつしさんのカメラで１枚撮影。
Pressed the shutter, waited about thirty seconds…
We all gazed at the display without talking. There was silence a little while.
We all readied to look at what it was,
and then, the image which appeared suddenly in the display for a moment made us surprised so much!!
シャッターを押し、待つこと約30秒。。
個人的には期待薄だったものの、
みな無言で液晶を見つめ、ひとときの静寂。。。
そして唐突に現れた一瞬のプレビューに、一同騒然！！
It was GREEEEEN!!!! みどりーー！！
We recognized what we saw was real auroras. We took many photos by changing the setting and the direction to take it. We were into the auroras photography!
カメラを通して「あれはオーロラだ！」と確信した私たち・笑
その後、設定を変え、撮る方向を変え、とオーロラ撮影に夢中に。
However, seeing the green of the auroras by our eyes was still difficult. We guessed that’s because it was a so bright moon at that night that we couldn’t see its color. Because of this reason, we went back to each cabin. It was around 11 PM. I made up my mind to check the sky in early morning, when the moon might be lower, and fell asleep.
Next morning around 5 AM, I looked at the sky but there were no auroras. Although I checked the sky about every thirty minutes, I couldn’t see any auroras.
Meanwhile, the moon was still bright.
Finally, I stopped waiting for auroras on that day.
しかし依然として、目ではなかなかオーロラのグリーンを確認できず。
この晩の月はとても明るく、そのせいで見えないのかな～？
と思い至った私たちは、１時間ほど空を眺め撮影を繰り返した後、キャビンへ。
月が低くなるであろう翌早朝に空をチェックすることにして、
この日は眠りにつくことに。
そして翌朝５時。空を確認してみるもオーロラが見えそうな気配はなく、
その後30分ごとにチェックしたものの、やはり見えず。
ちなみに月は変わらず光り輝いていた…
そんなこんなで、初日のオーロラ観測は終了。
What we saw was not what I expected: Not colorful. However, it was interesting to see the movement of auroras. Furthermore, I was really satisfied with seeing auroras at the first night at that place, even though it was weak and slight.
In summary, the first day was wonderful for me because of the dog sled and auroras!
“まさにオーロラ！”というオーロラではなかったけれど、
刻一刻と形が変化する様子は、見ていて飽きることはなく。
何より、ささやかながら初日にして見ることができたことに大満足。
犬ぞりにオーロラと、楽しく充実の１日目になりました！
