The Arctic Circle is at 66 degrees, 33 minutes north latitude, and it's the place where at least on the summer solstice (June 21) the sun doesn't drop below the horizon for 24 hours. We still haven't seen real night even though we're now quite a bit south of the Circle.

The 24-hour day (and near-24-hour-day) that we've had is amazing. It's really light all the time. We have not used our camping headlights and won't for some time yet. We did bring blindfolds for sleeping at night and they've been fantastic.

Despite the 24-hour day, there is still a cycle to things. It cools off quite a bit at night, and warms up in the day. The insects know about the cycle and function quite adequately.

As you've seen from our pictures, nearly everything is fully summertime here, just like you'd see at home in the Rocky Mountains. Apparently, even though the sunlight is filtered by much more atmosphere to get here, the fact that it's shiniing for 24 hours means that the earth absorbs as much solar radiation in the 24 hours as it would in 12 hours at the equator, and that's the reason for the glorious summer.