I started to get really good at spotting aurora. It starts out looking like a vertical cloud.
Then you hold up your phone and it turns green. So we went behind the hotel where it was darker and there were about seven people wandering around checking out the aurora.
The next night the lights were supposed to be really good, so we decided to find a darker area. We went out to Creamer’s Field. There was no aurora at all. We thought we would go to one of the covered benches to sit and wait.
I thought the ground was just wet. Never assume the shiny ground is wet when there is snow. It was ice. I started out windmilling, trying to save myself, then I started to pitch forward, and I knew that was it. I was going to crack my head or break my arm on the ice and it was going to be painful.
Suddenly, on the way down, I flashed on ice skating classes I took when I was nine. One of the first things they teach you is how to fall safely. So I put out my right forearm, my left knee, lifted my head and slid forward into it. I hurt my hip a little but was fine. Luckily, I had a massage therapist with me, and Anne made sure I didn’t suffer.
When we walked back into the hotel lobby, everyone was talking about how awesome the aurora had been. I wanted to curse them out.
Pareidolia