I was up early today, started packing for a possible mid-week trip, prepped watercolor paper for tomorrow's workshop, painted an example for tomorrow, had lunch, and took a little tour of town by bicycle.  It was a gorgeous, warm day, the sunniest and warmest I've seen yet in Kotebue, maybe 70 degrees (F), and a welcome respite from the cold and rain of the weekend.  The sky and ocean were vivid blues today.

For my tour of town, I visited the little gallery in town, went to one of the two stores, Rotman's, went to the hospital to check out what any of the art vendors might be selling today, then went to ACI, the other store in town.  All I got was photographs and bananas today.

This evening, we ate grilled lemon pepper chicken and I made garlic pasta with some seasonings and parmesan, also a lovely fresh salad.  After dinner we cleaned up, then headed out for a drive down the beach on the four wheeler.  There were many neat little finds along the way.  We went until we were stopped by a slump, then parked and climbed up the bank to the tundra above, picking blueberries and tundra tea.  Watched the colors on the ocean for a while, and the patterns of waves and light and dark areas that are affected by the large sandbars out there.  Then headed down and back.  Before town, we veered up onto different roads for a couple of great views of the sunset.  It was basically sunset from just after we left until just before we got back.  Just gorgeous.

The forecast looks good for the auroras here tonight through mid-week, so Tyler gave me tips on when, where, how to view.  He ducked out around midnight to look, but nothing yet.  I stayed up and checked again closer to 1am.  They were there, but really hard to see with all the lights from town.  Almost looked more like whispy clouds except for the way they slowly move.  I went in and grabbed cameras, then headed out to see if the view by the water was good.  Definitely not, far too much light.  Still, I walked all the way up to the hotel before turning around.  At home I grabbed the bike and my headlamp and set out toward the park's hangar, a spot that was recommended for viewing.  It was pretty weird to be out biking in the middle of the night, with light in the sky, and a few people still out on four wheelers or trucks, slowly passing me.  Rode south from town, across both airport runways, and to the hangar driveway.  As I got there the auroras faded away.  I know they go in spurts, so waited a while, but it's late and the forecast for them is great the next couple nights, too.  There's a good chance I'll have better viewing conditions wednesday night, fingers crossed!

Chukchi Sea, Arctic Ocean, and Cape Krusenstern National Monument.

The gallery.

Rib bone of a whale outside the gallery.

The store.  Behind me is the ocean.

Driving across Sadie Creek, which usually doesn't flow like this.  Recent rains have made it quick and a little deep.

Panorama of the beach and ocean from Sadie Creek.

Up on the tundra.

Headed back down.

Found part of a crab.

The recent slump that stopped us.

Heading back.

Walrus carcass.

Looking back on Lavonne's Fish Camp.

Grasses catching the light.

Looking down on the road we took out to the beach, several local mushers keep their dogs down there. The fireweed was dispersing it's seeds all over town today.  Clouds of fluffy white.

Headed back to town, Cape Krusenstern and the mouth of the Noatak visible on the horizon.

The ocean and Cape Krusenstern from Kotzebue, at 1:30am.  Rocks are bright because of street lamps. No photos of the northern lights tonight, they were too dim with the lights from town.