As far North as we go. Fairbanks, Alaska, part one...June 20th and 21st

Here we are at Fairbanks, Alaska, and it is 80 degrees outside.  And the little flying critters (a.k.a. mosquitoes) just love it.  So much for them.  We probably won't have any anywhere else in Alaska.  We hope. 

This is Riverside RV Park, very nice.  And guess the first thing my Dear Bride finds, even before we locate our site and I have us hooked up.

Yep, you guessed it, Rhubarb--great big stems of Rhubarb!   (I did ask the Mgr. if I could pick some, and she said, "Sure!")  OK, she is happy.

The river is the Tanana, and it is busy with everyone enjoying the warm weather.

 

So while my Dear Bride is getting settled in, and while we have electricity and WiFi, I will spend some time on the blog.  Then we did something unusual.  We went for a walk down the river, "just to see it".  Nice river, a month ago you could drive across it on the ice.  The next morning was Sunday, so we went to a breakfast buffet at a place we heard about, The Pump House.

I am cheating a bit here, because this picture was taken later--from the Discovery stern-wheeler  It was a great place to eat--a huge buffet with everything imaginable, plus more.  It was Fathers day and we were lucky to get in.  Stop in next time you are in Fairbanks.  

Outside the Restaurant was a river walk garden

Alaska's peonies are just beginning to bloom in mid-June

And Pauline did find some flowers.  She will tell you about them.

River Birch

exfoliating Cherry bark

Docked near the Restaurant was the original Discovery, a sternwheeler.  You will hear more of it later. 

From there we went to explore the Botanical Gardens at University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF).  Their "gardens" are more like research plots, where they test for cultivars & plants that will survive the climatic extremes of this place, (Permafrost and temperatures to 40 below Zero in the winter).  Also they would like to discover economically profitable crops.  They hope that Peonies are a possible business, as many cultivars of these lovely flowers grow well here and could be exported after that flower is past blooming in most other locations.  I didn't take pictures as it was too early for most of the plants to be prettily in bloom.  Just a week or so before our arrival they had had an unusually late, big snowstorm!  I was told that in just days it suddenly became spring & summer at once!  Plants, like the Rhubarb, just 'explode' out of the ground in the long daylight days!

While there I took a picture of a 

Robins Nest.  We spent a few hours and walked a few mile around the gardens and My Dear Bride finally decided there were too many mosquitoes to stay there any longer.  (forgot to bring the mosquito repellent along on our ride)

So we drove around and found the Pioneer Village Park.  Many old & historic houses are relocated in this park, and most had shops in them.  What an original idea.  WOW..  Of course most of the stuff in them was from the local Natives.

We did have to "log in" first.

Real Guest Logs

Then we took pictures of other stuff there, at the UAF Museum, & the Fairbanks Visitor Center.  Tell Cindy about the fabulous beadwork!

Quilting:  (take note Betty Jean)

All very interesting and all very inexpensive.  Yeah, right . . .  (Chuck perhaps does not realize the expertise and hours involved in making these.)

The next day we went on a cruise on the Discovery III.  There have been 3 of the Discovery ship on the river and they all Captained by the same family.  This is run by fourth generation issue.  We will see the Discovery II later today and you saw the original one earlier.  It will hold a bunch of people and both were full.  I did see 3 or 4 tour buses in the lot.  They run twice a day down the Tenana River, a great trip.

As part of the cruise this bush pilot takes off and lands beside the boat. He then floats alongside and answers questions from the ship about what he does and where he flies.  Then he takes off again. 

 As we cruised the river we saw a few shacks next to the river.  What do you expect with the weather the way it is in the winter?

Perfect home:  a plane, a boat, and an RV (car must be hiding).

Ready to take a boat trip

I liked the decorative canopies!

Yeay!  Solar power!

 If I had shown you one or two, you wouldn't have believed me, so I have shown you an even dozen, mostly because my Dear Bride will think even that many is too many.  But you get the idea.  (Well, I do love looking at pretty houses!  And they do exist in this North Country!)

 We continued downstream to the confluence of the Tanana and the Kantishna Rivers.  We watched the smaller Discovery II turn around in front of us, then we turned around.

As you can see, the water is not too awful deep; but sternwheelers are known for their shallow draft, so no problem.

You can see the different colors of the two rivers.  The silty river was possibly from glacial melt.

 This is the Discovery II.  As you can see it is smaller, but we are both going to the same places.  Next is a demonstration Native village, where we will all get off and walk around learning how the First Nations lived.

 The lovely young lady showing off the gorgeous fur coat is a member of the crew of the ship.  Funny part is, she is a Navajo, from Arizona, going to school at UAF.

This is the back of the nice fur coat she was wearing.  It probably weighed 40 lbs.  If you wanted to buy it, only $7,900.  I got two--in my dreams.

Furs to make clothing are from several different animals.  There were more furs all over the place.  They either use it or sell it.  

This is another use of furs: for shelters they used and some still do.  If it works!!

This was the name of the village.  And this was the meeting hall.

They also had a herd of domestic Caribou, which makes them Reindeer, as I understand it.  They are molting for summer, so look pretty shaggy.

I did get this long shot of a moose.  GRIN, GRIN..  Doesn't it look real?

There was a dog racing kennel there like there is all over Alaska.  These dogs are for speed and endurance and train all year round.  And, without exception, they love to run.

 Doesn't seem to be a snow dog does it?

 Drying salmon, for the dogs!

Filleting demonstration

 This lady, think she was Native, gave us a much needed lesson on how to prep and dry salmon.

She was very quick.

Further on down the river, we met the husband of the late 4 time winner of the big Iditerrod race up here, and I can't remember her name.  He talked for a while, showed how the dogs are trained all the way from puppies.

After the run they get to cool off in the river.  And as you can see, they were pulling an ATV.   And loving it.   The husband would be at the store when we got back and sign the books that he wrote and folks bought.

Discovery II back at the dock.

 This is the Discovery Trading post where we will go into a room that is 40 below Zero, then eat Ice cream.

This is about enough for today.  We will have more of Fairbanks for you later.