Winter travel in Alaska

One of the things that would only happen in Alaska:

When people travel by small plane up here in the winter, they're required to wear all of their winter clothes (snow pants, heavy coat, hats, gloves, etc.) in case of a plane crash, so that they have a chance at surviving in the extreme cold.  When Jeff flew out to the village on his first trip, he was fully clothed for winter just in case.  High school sports teams often travel from village to village for games, and are required to do the same.

Now, the river is frozen enough that people are driving on it, but there are still alot of good sized holes, so they have to drive carefully to avoid them.

We have a lake here called H Marker lake, which when frozen in the winter time, makes the road system in Bethel an actual loop instead of a horseshoe shape.  The other day, I took a taxi to church and the driver had to go over the lake to drop someone else off first.  It threw the three of us passengers for a bit of a loop when he veered off the "road" and did some donuts on the ice!  So then later Jeff and I had to do it too!  We're not the only ones; we have a good view of the lake from the house and often see people do the same thing.  I've never done donuts before, anywhere, so it was alot of fun!