Northern Exposure and the Quest for the Midnight Sun

In the past year I've gotten into the TV show Northern Exposure (I had never watched it while it was on.) thanks to the local public library.

The one thing that immediately struck me was that the quality of the sunlight in "Cicely, Alaska" (the small town where the show took place) just did not seem right.  I've only been to Alaska once (and that was the southeastern part, around Juneau and Ketchikan) but I will never forget how different the sunlight looked.


"Cicely" didn't have that special light character.  And, for that matter, it seemed to have too much daylight in the winter period.




Never mind that they featured shows talking about the midnight sun (and the total dark) but something just didn't seem right.  The scenery looked right, but.....

Well, there's a reason for that:  "Cicely, Alaska" is really a small town in rural Washington by the name of Roslyn.

It really didn't spoil anything for me to know that.  Instead, I have a one day "I'll go there" that may be a bit more manageable than Fairbanks.  Fairbanks is almost a full day's airplane flight (actually, flights) from here, all of which seem to get there about midnight. A lot of effort.  Roslyn may be a bit more doable.

So, knowing that Cicely was not in Alaska:  that's what I get for my fascination with the midnight sun (and the noontime dark.)  The TV detective Monk would probably be proud of me.