Feeling pretty stiff after yesterday’s snowmobile misadventure, so considered taking a pass on our snowshoe trek this morning. But Ken is all about outdoor exercise (and making *me* do outdoor exercise), so he dragged my unmotivated ass out of bed.

I’m so glad he did.

Snowshoeing is super fun, but man, it’s an ass-kicker of a workout. The views along the way were incredible. My biggest obstacle was learning to trust the spikes on the shoes. Note: I did not fall once. I know, it came as a surprise to me, too. Several others in our group did fall, so I’m feeling like snowshoeing might be my sport.

And no, I’m not wearing a hat, gloves, or coat in this picture. This is because women of a certain age (my age) have random and intense “personal summer” moments. The Arctic is the perfect place for these little occurrences.

We saw a few minutes of blue sky today, so I was cautiously optimistic for tonight’s adventure – a catamaran cruise to hunt for the Northern Lights.

The catamaran is actually the “home” of the captain and his wife, Jula, the “boss of the boat”. Made fast friends with their Finnish Lapland dog, Risca. Jula made us a traditional Norwegian fish dinner of poached cod, boiled potatoes, and carrots. Here’s something I don’t often say about cod – it was freaking delicious. Of course, they had caught it earlier in the day, so ultra fresh. Probably can’t replicate with the frozen stuff from Wegmans. But I might try.

Standing outside on the catamaran decks, waiting for the aurora to maybe show up, was definitely the coldest I’ve been since we got here. The aurora did appear briefly, and just barely peeked through an opening in the clouds. Worth taking my gloves off and almost getting frostbite so I could snap a few pics.

God Natt!