Cindy's Visit -- Day Six

Cindy’s Visit – Day Six (Cultural Day)

Downtown Fairbanks and the UAF Museum of the North were the highlight of Day Six.

We visited the Fairbanks Visitor’s Center…Morris Thompson Cultural Arts Center. Beautiful displays with awesome murals depict the seasons of Fairbanks. This was a great way to start our Cultural Day in Fairbanks!

After getting a little culture, Cindy was able to meet the great-grandson (Nick Stepovich) of the infamous Soapy Smith who was a late 19th century American confidence man and gambler. He was known as the "king of the frontier confidence men.” He was a brave man who was loyal to his gang, friends, and family. His motto was “Get it while the get’ins good.” Nike owns a local downtown restaurant named “Soapy Smith’s” where we had lunch.

While at Soapy Smith’s, Cindy had the opportunity to meet the owner of Chena Hot Springs, Bernie Karl. Bernie has engineered a geo-thermal plant at Chena Hot Springs and hopes to inspire the production and use of alternative energy all over Alaska.

We moved on to some downtown shops. The picture shows Cindy with a “Wooden Lady” in front of the most visited gift shop in Fairbanks, the “If Only” shop.

A Dinner Cruise on the Sternwheeler Tanana Chief wrapped up a wonderful day of Alaska Native Culture!!!

Cindy's Visit -- Day Four

North to Alaska, The Rush is On!!!

We traveled to a Gold Mine on day four and panned for gold. We started our ride to the mine on a small train with Earl Hughes (a local country music singer) entertaining us. We helped him sing a Johnny Horton song entitled, North to Alaska. After panning for gold we had it weighed. Cindy's is worth over $14.00 and mine was worth a little over $11.00. Russ had the largest amount worth a little over $19.00. Oh well....I don't think you could say that any of us struck it rich!!!

We also visited the Alaska Pipeline and learned how a "pig" is used to clean the line. Our next stop was the riverboat discovery. Before loading the boat, Cindy was able to talk with Lance Mackey, a four time Iditarod winner. He has also won the Yukon Quest at least three times. He won both of them back-to-back two years in a row! See the great picture of Cindy, Lance, and his lead dog. The Riverboat Discovery took us to an native village where we learned about the Athabaskan Native Culture.

Cindy's Visit -- Day Three

6:45 am -- We checked out of our room and headed to the Wilderness Access Center to catch the bus to the Eielson Visitor's Center, which is at the 66 mile marker within Denali National Park.

Although we were scheduled to catch the 7:30 am bus, we were there in time for the 7:00 am departure and learned that Wendy Heskins (the best "green bus" driver they have) was the driver for the earlier bus. We were fortunate to get on Wendy's bus. She is an expert on the park and loves to talk. We got a great narrated tour.

We saw more wildlife than we have ever seen in one trip!!! We saw a grizzly bear and wolf up close and personal!!! We also saw lots of caribou, some red fox, about 10 grizzly bears, another wolf, and a couple of moose (at a distance). Best of all --- we saw the peaks of Mt. McKinley!!! Only 25%-30% of the folks who visit the park each year get to see the "great" mountain!! We are thrilled that we were blessed with a good view of her on a day that we thought would be cold and rainy and would have no chance of seeing her. It was GREAT! What a wonderful and fun day we had! Enjoy the pictures we have to share....by the way we took many, many more pictures...we are only posting the BEST of the BEST on the blog.

Although this will take you away from our blog site you can click on the link below to view more photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/popswagner/CindySAlaskanVisit?feat=email#

Cindy's Visit -- Day Two

6:45 am -- We loaded our overnight bags, cameras, jackets, snacks and water in the car and headed to our first stop for the day, the Cookie Jar. After breakfast with Russell's retired buddies (George, Tom, and Dave), we headed to Denali National Park. Upon our arrival, Russ (who just turned 62) got his lifetime senior national park pass!!!

12:20 pm -- The Husky Homestead bus picked us up at the Princess Wilderness Lodge for the tour of Jeff King's Husky Homestead. We held Alaskan Husky puppies and learned how they are bread, named, and trained for running in the Iditarod.

We had a delicious dinner at The Salmon Bake. Cindy and I had Alaskan King Salmon and Russ had Halibut.

After cruising through several gift shops we made our way (in the pouring rain) back to our room for TV and a good night's sleep.

Cindy's Visit -- Day One

On Sunday afternoon, we drove to Delta Junction, 100 miles south of Fairbanks, for a Buffalo Burger and an Alaskan Blueberry Milkshake. Everybody should try a Buffalo Burger!!! The Blueberry Milkshake is to die for!! As we started down the road, Russ reminded us that the drive would be filled with lots and lots of beautiful scenery...no shopping....no places to potty...just scenery! We decided it would be a good idea to go to the restroom at Fred Myer's after filling the car up with gas.

The high temperature on Sunday was 68 degrees with sunny skies!!!! Although we had rain in the afternoon, the day was a wonderful way to introduce Cindy to a Fairbanks summer.

We had a wonderful dinner at Pike's Landing on the Chena River. Our table at the window gave us a great view of the river and all of the activities. We saw canoes, a kayak, river boats, water skiers, the Tanana Chief Paddle Boat, and a homemade float held together with duck tape. In addition, a small float plane landed next to the deck just outside the window where we were seated!

After dinner, we enjoyed a relaxing time in the hot tub on our deck! With the sun still shining, we headed to bed around 10:30 pm.