Fair day in Fairbanks

Today was our last full day in Fairbanks and our best day. We started out with a great potluck breakfast with biscuits and gravy and lots of other goodies.  The weather was nice most of the day for a change, partly cloudy with temps in the 60s.

At 1pm we loaded the bus and headed for the Discovery river cruise on the Chena River. A four time winner of the Iditarod dogsled race was at the visitor center with a sled and one of his dogs.

The first stop on the cruise was a bush pilot display with a water takeoff and landing.

Forty-eight degree water and 60 degree weather did not stop these kids from jumping in, but they came out almost as fast.

The next stop was the Susan Butcher sled dog training facility.

They showed us how the puppies are trained then hitched up a team of dogs to a motorless ATV and drove them around a long track.

We then stopped at a mock native American village where they showed us how native Alaskans live in the wilderness.

We also got to see some of the sled dogs up close.

After the cruise we went to dinner at the Pumphouse Restaurant where we had another excellent meal. The building which houses the restaurant once housed large pumps which sent water to nearby gold mines.

Tomorrow we start heading homeward and finish the Alcan Highway from Delta Jct  to Tok. 

Dalton Hwy or Bust 7/22/2010

We did not have any scheduled activities today. Some chose to take bus tours or air tours to the arctic circle or beyond but we decided on a more economical drive to the beginning of the Dalton Highway. The Dalton Highway is the road used in recent season of “Ice Road Truckers” on the History Channel. That is the road built by the oil companies to supply the oil fields in Prudhoe Bay. It is a gravel road and is not recommended for the faint of heart so we only drove about a mile of it before turning back.

Our northernmost sojourn

The drive up was marred by the usual clouds and rain but the weather cleared some on the way back and we saw 4 moose and some nice scenery as we crossed the mountains.

Mother and two calves

Birch and Black Spruce

Temps were in the 50s most of the morning but rose into the 60s in the afternoon when the sun came out.

Fairbanks July 21st 2010

Another cloudy, rainy day although the rain did hold off long enough for us to complete our tour of the El Dorado Mine. It was raining as we boarded the bus at 8:30am but the rain had stopped by the time we got to the mine.

We boarded the small amusement park type train for a tour of various historical gold mining reenactments.

After a short ride we arrived at the main facility where there is a sluice mine demonstration.

Everyone is then given a bag of dirt to pan for gold. They guarantee that you will get at least 8 flakes of gold.

 Nancy and I got about 20 flakes between us which they said was about $18 worth. Of course you can then buy a locket to hold your findings. Can you say “tourist trap”? It was interesting and kind of fun though and we got free coffee and cookies.

We then got another look at the Alyeska pipeline and the “pigs” used to clean the pipe.

After lunch Nancy and I went into Fairbanks and got the oil changed in the truck, had the windshield chip repaired and bought some groceries and gas. As we left the grocery the rain began to fall and continued for several hours.

Gas was $3.439 at Sam's Club and $3.49 at most other stations.

Of course, Nancy had to visit this building.

Girl Scout Office in Fairbanks

Fairbanks July 20th

Today was our first full day in Fairbanks. It rained all night and the forecast called for rain all day so we donned our raincoats and boarded the bus for our tour. 

This is a mural in downtown Fairbanks.

 First we went to the Ice Museum where we watched a movie about the fantastic ice sculptures done every March.

See http://www.icealaska.com/10/10sculptureindex.html

There are some small simple sculptures in the museum but the ice is so clear it is hard to photograph them.

An artist gave a demonstration of how to create a sculpture in just a few minutes.

Next we visited the Fairbanks visitor center and museum.

Our next stop was the University of Alaska Museum of the North.

The last stop was the University of Alaska botanical garden.

Any by the way, we did not need the raincoats, the sun came out and we had a beautiful day in the 60s.