Jun 2007

Since it’s still light at 1am in the morning, we have been staying up later and later. In fact last night we realized it was 1am and we were still up! So we sleep in til 9:00 this morning and get a late start to the day’s activities. It’s sunny and warm today. We’re not used to the heat, so today’s high temp of 83 degrees feels really hot to us.

When we finally get moving, we decide to visit the Tanana Valley Farmer’s Market and Creamer's Field Bird Sanctuary and Wildlife Visitor Center. The sand hill cranes are still in the field where they were yesterday. They still look like baby ostriches to me :-)

After lunch we decide to go separate ways. I go back to Creamer's Field to do some birdwatching; and Jere & Joe rent a 2-man kayak and go kayaking down the Chena River. I see a few birds, but many more mosquitoes during my two hours of birdwatching.

Jere and Joe have a good time kayaking down the Chena River. They kayak about 8 miles downstream from Fairbanks Pioneer Park to the Pump House. The river is flowing well, so a nice easy kayak ride. We pack the kayak into the truck and return it to the rental shop.

After dinner we take a few hours to try to plan the rest of our Alaska trip. We need to make reservations for RV parks during the week of July 4th. We’re planning to be in the Kenai region during the 4th and the salmon are running—lots of Anchorage vacationers and fisherman in the Kenai that week, so we need to make reservations to assure that we have a camping spot that week.

A nice sunny day and several float planes take off on the float pond next to the campground. They are really loud but also really enjoyable to watch. There also is a small airstrip on the other side of the float pond where small bush planes take off and land. The small bush planes only need a very short runway. They take off almost immediately. We're really glad that we decided to stay at this RV park; we really enjoy watching the planes.

Late morning we head up to the Chena Hot Springs, an hour drive north of Fairbanks. Along the way we see two moose beside the road, but Jere doesn’t stop and he will continue to hear me complain about not stopping throughout the rest of the day. We see 5 moose today along the road to/from Chena Hot Springs.

The hot springs are nice, but we’re disappointed to find out that their only outdoor pool is Adults Only. It is so nice out today, we want to be outside. The outdoor pool is very nicely landscaped with rocks and flowers. The indoor pool is warm, but not nearly as ‘inviting’. I complain to the cashier about the resort not being family friendly, and she explains that the outdoor pool is not chlorinated and children are more susceptible to infections. Later as I’m taking my shoes off, she admits that the nice outdoor pool is 'adults only' due to a number of complaints from older adults about some misbehaving kids. She says it’s unfortunate that all kids suffer due to the actions of a few misbehaved kids. They can’t afford to lose their many older summer tourists, so they instituted the adults only rule. Oh well. Despite our disappointment, we have a good time enjoying the pools and relaxing in the sun on the outdoor patio.

On the way back to the RV we stop at Creamer’s Bird Sanctuary and Wildlife Refuge, which is on the northern edge of Fairbanks. We see several Canada geese and ducks. Then I spot these very large birds in the distance and I say “they look like baby ostriches”. Jere looks at the info board and we find out that they are sand hill cranes. Creamer’s Field is apparently known for it’s sand hill cranes. They are very large birds!

We spend the evening doing chores and relaxing at the campground.

Jere and I spend the morning agonizing about whether we should drive to the Arctic Circle or not. It's about a 6 hour drive one-way on the Dalton Highway. The Dalton is paved for the first 50 miles or so, but is gravel/dirt for the much of the remainder of the trip. From what we understand the biggest problem is the tractor trailers who use the road for it's intended purpose: to haul supplies to/from Prudhoe Bay for the Alaska Pipeline. They kick stones/dirt up and can damage your car, especially the headlights and windows. We originally were going to drive our truck up to the Arctic Circle, but Jere is having serious second thoughts about risking his truck to broken windows just to have our picture taken beside a sign that says "Arctic Circle".

We have two other alternatives: rent a car or take a tour. After much research this morning, we find that renting a car will cost us $350 (including gas) and the tour will cost $450 for the 3 of us. Jere's not sure what to do and I decide that I don't want to pay $350+ for a 12 hours ride to an Arctic Circle sign. We've seen lots of tundra and we've seen the Yukon River, so I fear that we're going to regret the 10-12 hours in the car/bus and the huge amount of $$$ spent. Bottom line: after hours of agonizing, we decide to forgo the arctic circle trip.

After spending too much time deciding if we should drive to the arctic circle tomorrow, it's 2:00 and we head to the University of Alaska Fairbanks Museum.

It's a nice museum--the outside architecture is very impressive, but nothing special in the inside of the museum and overpriced for the hour that we spend there. We walk around the outside and look at their totem poles before taking off to have a quick dinner.

After a very quick dinner we head to the movies to see Pirates of the Caribbean at World's End. The theatre is actually very nice and we enjoy the movie and 2 large buckets of popcorn!

Beautiful sunny morning in Fairbanks. The RVer across the lane, who has been here for 3 weeks while working in the area, told us that it has rained every single day for the last 3 weeks.

We start the day by checking out the campground's "Klontinental Breakfast". Danish and coffee. Not great, but more than any other campground has offered on the trip. Then we do some reading before lunch and watch a few float planes take off.

After lunch we head over for an afternoon sternwheeler ride on the Discovery. We board the boat with several hundred other tourists, including 10 tour buses, but the sternwheeler is four stories with lots of seats. Even before we leave the dock the announcer gives us info about the boat and the area. He will continue to give great info throughout the 3+ hour trip.

The boat ride is a little pricey (we're in Alaska, everything is $$$) but worth the money. We travel down the Chena River and our first stop is at the late Susan Butcher's dogsledding camp. I had seen Susan on TV over the years when they had stories about the Iditarod dogsled race. She won the Iditarod 4 times (late 80s/early 90s I think). Susan died last August from leukemia, but her husband David Monson, who is also a dog musher, continues to train dogs (along with taking care of their 2 daughters).

He gives a WONDERFUL program about the sled dogs. He has a 3-day old puppy that he is holding for much of the time (they hold the newborns for most of the waking hours for their first 5 days of birth to build trust), and the other dogs are full of energy! They hook 12 dogs up to a 4-wheeler (without an engine) and they drag it over stones on a course they have around their camp. Really fun and interesting to watch.

The next stop is at an Athabascan indian village. A woman demonstrates how her ancestors filleted and dried salmon.

Then we get off the boat and they have 4 different programs to watch. Three are related to the native Athabascans and the other is about the Alaskan huskies used in dogmushing. The tour guides are descendants of various Alaskan native tribes. Very interesting programs.

After the programs, David Monson is signing a children's book that he and Susan had started before her death. It's a children's book about Granite, their Alaskan husky that was the lead dog for Susan when she won the Iditarod. It was released about 3 weeks ago, so I buy one as a souvenir of the trip. It is signed "To Joe" but Joe is embarassed because it's a children's book. I tell him he can read it to his children when he grows up and tell them about his trip to Alaska :-)

I'm touched by some of the people who are getting books signed by David. They offer heartfelt condolences to him about Susan's death and talk to him about how they had followed her career over the years. David graciously accepts their condolences and says that it's been a long year but they're doing fine.

On the boatride back to Fairbanks the skies get very dark and we get some rain again, but it's over quickly and we enjoy the rest of the boat ride.

We then spend the evening making phonecalls and relaxing.

We're having breakfast and we notice a lot of cars in the Pioneer Park parking lot. After I finish my cereal I walk over to see what's going on at the park and realize there's a charity run today. It's starting in 30 minutes and cars are quickly filling up the parking lot! If we don't leave very soon, we will be parked in til after the run. So I hurry back to the RV and we pack up the RV faster than we ever have! We're quickly getting parked in and we leave the parking lot with no time to spare. That was a little crazy.

We get some prescriptions refilled at Wal-Mart and then head out to the Chena Marina RV Park. We have reservations for six nights at this highly recommended RV park. It's a small RV park on the edge of a float plane pond. The staff is extremely friendly and we like our campsite across the pond from several float planes. A float plane takes off soon after we arrive -- they are very loud! We start wondering how early they start taking off in the morning.

After we're done setting up and checking out the park we take off to downtown Fairbanks to check out the visitors center. We look at the fountain, read some of the info boards, and pick up some flyers about the area.

Then back to the RV park for dinner and to relax watching a video about RVing in Alaska. The RV park has a large video library with free rentals.