Alaska Vacation Day 3

We left Fairbanks this morning via a coach passenger bus for an approximately 2 1/2 hour drive to Denali National Park.  Halfway to Denali, we made a stop at a local, all-purpose tour bus rest stop/ and campground and little gift and convenience store for a break.  What a great little gig for these folks, who do reside here all year round we are told.

We arrived at the hotel, McKinley Chalet Resort, around 12:30ish, and were quickly checked into our room.  How nice it is to have the suitcases already in the hotel room (up a flight of stairs in this case as well), waiting for us, not having to deal with them.  We put the bags outside our hotel room door early this morning with appropriate tags, and the tour staff move them along appropriately for us.  We will do this again in the morning for the travel leg to the cruise ship. 

I'm not quite sure what I expected as far as being able to see...well, actually I do know what I EXPECTED...I had thought I would actually SEE Denali mountain (formerly known as Mt. McKinley, the third tallest mountain in the world).  However, the weather and low lying cloud cover did not allow this to happen.  As it turns out, it sounds as if not that many people do actually SEE the mountain (probably unless you get pretty close to it) because of the cloud cover.  The mountain range is so extensive that it creates its own weather pattern according to the locals.  I'm hoping that we will perhaps catch a glimpse of it when we leave the hotel in the morning to drive to Seward. 

This is the Denali Visitors Center.  The hotel provides a free shuttle service from the hotel to the center., and back again.

We liked the bear statue. 

Inside the visitors center there was a variety of native animal exhibits.  They were like rock statues.

It wasn't raining hard, just kind of a constant drizzle.  Before we left for the trip, people who had been here before advised to be sure to take rain gear as it rains fairly often.  It is true, however, they only get an average of 11" of rainfall a year.  That is less than even Arizona some years.  It amazes me to learn this as they get so much snow as well in the winter.  I guess it's a pretty dry snow, and doesn't pack well (the comment was made that kids don't get to have very many snowball fights). 

Below is the view from the door of our hotel room.  There are probably 10 hotel rooms on each of two floors in a bulding and there are rows of buildings.  We are in Building E tonight.  I'm not sure how many buildings there are.  It resembles loosely a cabin.  It's pretty cute.  It's a small suite like room.  There is a small living room area when first enter, then bathroom, and bedroom with standard size bed and twin bed in the back. The sofa in the front room pulls into a sleeper, which Allison has claimed as her own space.

Dinner tonight at Karsten's Public House on the resort property.  There was also live music, which Bruce very much appreciated.  He did a good job with some nice easy listening choices.

I had seen in some the literature we were given when we arrived that folks could sit around the fire pits in Denali Square below the hotel rooms and make s'mores.  Of course Allison tunes into the sound of the word "s'mores".    Guests can buy a premade "s'more kit" and enjoy the tasty treat. 

 Pleasant sitting in the Denali Square after dinner.  It's around 10:00 p.m. and it looks like mid-evening back home.  Since we've been here, it just doesn't seem to "get dark"...not like at home.  I do think this would be kind of hard to get used to if I lived here for sure.

Our bus is scheduled to leave in the morning at 6:45, and the itinerary says a 10-hour road trip.  Since we stopped halfway through a 2 1/2 hour trip this morning, I assume this will include several stops along the way.  We will end up in Seward and board the cruise ship tomorrow evening.  I don't anticipate being able to get online again until we stop in a port stop, and get to someplace with wi-fi, but we'll see.  

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Alaska Vacation Day 2

Friday in Fairbanks...We went on Discovery Riverboat in the morning.  It was like 2 hours or so, and very enjoyable. 

While we waited to board, we looked around the gift shop and of course had to try on the moose and husky dog earmuffs.

Once on the riverboat, we sat on the very upper most deck (there were 4 "floors").  This company that runs the riverboat set up the trip as an "experience" not just sit and look around as you float down the river.  As we started down the Chena River, a "bush pilot" came and landed on the river.  The narrator on the riverboat was able to link up with him, and they did a little question and answer about the plane, flying in Alaska, and how to take off and land on the water.  It was very cool.  He then took off again.

A little farther than the river we then came to a dog sled training facility.  There was a well known dog sled driver by the name of Susan Butcher back in the 1980s/90s, whom won 4 Ididterod races.  She passed away in 2006 from cancer.  Her husband and daughters continue to raise dog sled dogs.  It was especially neat, because the husband came out in the yard and spoke about the dogs, how they train, etc.  We were able to see a couple of puppies, as well as saw an example of the dogs being hooked together as a team and pull a specialized four-wheeler.  It was very neat.

There were some domesticated caribou down the stream a little further.

Then there was a native Alaskan fishing camp set up.  A lady talked about the salmon and how the folks there fish and smoke them, etc.  We then were able to get off of the boat and spent about an hour there, while we moved around to three different areas where we learned about different aspects of native Alaskan life.

In the afternoon, we went on a tour owned by the same company.  This one was called Gold Dredge #8.

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Alaska Day 1

Arrived in Fairbanks late last night, around 11:00 am local time (3:00 am Kansas time)
  It was still very light outside which would take a little getting used to I would think.... It's a really nice smallish laid back town.

The Fairbanks Airport, looking from the rental car parking lot just before we were getting ready to head to the hotel.  This is at 11:00 p.m.   We were mentioning if it weren't overcast, it would probably be even brighter out.

This Moose was inside the airport; there were also stuffed polar bear, eagle, grizzly bear, a replica of an artic tour wagon, etc. 

Thursday morning we walked downtown Fairbanks to go have breakfast.  This was painted on the side of the building, and of course Bruce tells Allison she need to have "mom take her picture by the sign." Thanks dad!  This is actually a clothing store.

We had breakfast at a little eatery downtown called "The Creperie", where they had a wide variety of really wonderfully fun crepes.  It was delicious (and #2 of the restaurants to eat at on Trip Advisor).

The first touristy stop was the Morris Thompson Cultural & Visitors Center.  It was pretty much just that...a visitors center, but also a museum of the cultural history of Fairbanks and Alaska as a whole.

We attended a live cultural performance by a group of high school and college age students who shared information about their native Alaska culture.  It was interesting, and nice to see young people interested in their culture and history.

They did a dance where they actually had people from the audience come up and dance....and Bruce WENT UP!

An antler arch that we saw as we were walking back towards our hotel/car.  Allison wouldn't let us take a picture of her.

This is a photo of the Chena River which is just across the street basically from our hotel.  I like the little white church building.

A statue/fountain we walked by.  It has statues of native peoples.

A welcome sign near our hotel.

This is the front of our hotel.  I am loving the lovely live flowers.  When we arrived late Wednesday night, I could actually smell the fragrance from them as we were walking in. It was nice.

We went to Pioneer Park, which is a free area to go that celebrates the pioneer history and settlement in Alaska.  There is a collection of old cabins and buildings, railroad, old ferry boat, art center, airplane museum, playground, etc. 

I read somewhere ahead of time that there are a lot of totem poles in Alaska, part of the cultural crafts. I was drawn to this one for some reason.  I think the eyes; as I approached it closer, I'm not a fan of the "thing" on top, but I still like the rest of it.

A moose swing set.

And a train play equipment for the little people

We ended up eating dinner tonight at Big Daddy's BBQ.  Allison's and Bruce's dinner was really good they said. Mine was meh.  It was okay but not as good as theirs sounds.

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