WANDERING WITH THE WRIGHTS

July 25, 2024

Posting a few days early as we will be heading into some pretty remote areas the next few days and expect spotty wi-fi and phone.  We have enjoyed our time in Fairbanks, Alaska's 2nd largest city, with about 30,000 residents.

Sunday the 22nd we visited North Pole, AK

The world's largest Santa

And a pretty big tree too

Visited with Santa and got a darling video message from him for Vincent

As well as Vincent will receive a letter from Santa a few weeks before Christmas

The mosaic's on the outside of building were really nice

The street lights in the town are all candy canes

We spent the afternoon visiting Pioneer Park

Pioneer Park is a 44 acre Historical Theme Park and there is no admission fee - if you lived here it is a great place to come as a family and they had a nice playground for the kids.  All of the buildings are original but have been moved from different locations to the park.  Many house gift shops, museums, etc.

We finished up our time there visiting the small air museum they have

Monday we had a fun day - started out visiting the Alaskan Bowl Company - didn't buy any but enjoyed seeing them being made and looking at the huge variety of wooden bowls that they sell.

The highlight of the day, which was our 30th wedding anniversary, was a ride on the Discovery Riverboat on the Chena River whose purpose is to immerse you in frontier living.

The homes along the shoreline were beautiful

Part of the boat tour was a demonstration of a bush pilot landing and taking off several times from the river right next to the boat.  Bush pilots and their planes have and still do play a vital role in remote Alaska

While staying on the boat we visited Trail Breaker Kennel - This Kennel was started by Susan Butcher, four time Iditarod Champion.  The kennel is now run by Susan's daughter.  

We learned how the young puppies are trained

We have seen several of these demonstrations while in Alaska and it is amazing how anxious the dogs are to race.  They yap, dance around, spin around in anticipation of what is to come

It was a warm day but the dogs couldn't wait to run

And as soon as unhooked ran right for the water to cool off

We next sailed to a replica of an Athabaskan village.

We learned so much about how hard the winters are for these indigenous people and how they have learned to adapt.  They waste nothing.

How they use animal skins to keep them warm during the winter

This statue is dedicated to Granite.  When he was a little puppy no-one believed he would make a good sled dog.  Susan Butcher, that I mentioned earlier had faith in Granite and with hard work on both her part and Granite's he became one of the greatest lead dogs in Iditarod history.

That evening, to celebrate our anniversary, we went back to Pioneer Park for their Alaskan Salmon Bake

We had met 3 couples at the campground and had become friendly - they were there with us.  The food was delicious: Salmon, Cod, Halibut and Prime Rib.  

Never would have dreamt we would have been celebrating in Alaska 30 years ago

The next morning we took a tour of Dredge 8 - This Gold Dredge operated in Fairbanks from 1928-1959 and extracted millions of ounces of gold from the frozen Alaskan ground.  The dredge is on the US National Register of Historic Places and serves as a monument to the hard working miners who built Fairbanks.

The tour started very close to part of the Alaskan Pipeline that is above ground and they did a short presentation on the pipeline - more on that in a bit.

We boarded a train for the Gold Dredge Tour.  The train is a replica of the Tanana Valley Railroad 

We learned so much about the entire process of gold mining

Before getting off the train and entering the Main Camp area they showed us how to pan for gold.

We were all given a poke (bag full of dirt) and proceeded to a pretty luxurious area to try our hand at finding gold.  No squatting by the river for us - got to sit on benches and dip our pans into troughs right in front of us.

When we first poured our poke into the pan

Then, using the information we learned, filled our pans with water and swished and poured until the dirt and rocks were washed away.

And what is left is gold - I found $6 worth and Jerry $10 - not enough to pay for the trip but it was fun!

          There is another area here in Fairbanks to learn about the pipeline and we stopped there also         

                                                                                 

This shows the pipeline going into the ground.  There is some above and some below the ground

Because there are so many earthquakes in Alaska they came up with this system to keep the pipeline from breaking or falling during an earthquake

Pigs are run through the pipeline to keep residue from building up inside - this is a retired pig

 If interested read up on it - it is a very interesting story

At the Walmart there were many many poles with electric outlets on them - so employees and customers can keep their car engines warm during the cold winter.  

This is also done in other northern states but I had never seen it

Jerry and I both needed a haircut and read great reviews about this place - we had to laugh.  The barber was well into his 80's, as you can see the place isn't very clean but he couldn't have been nicer or more friendly and we were both happy with our $15 haircuts.  He even offered for us to bring the motorhome and park on his 300 acres - guaranteed we would see moose and bear.

Next to the Antique Auto Museum - we have read many great reviews about this museum.  All of the cars were made in the US prior to WW ll and is known for all the beautiful period clothes by each car

                                                      

                                                                 
And today, Thursday, we headed about an hour north to Chena Hot Springs Resort.  Our main reason for going was to see their ice museum.  It really is a full resort with a lodge, restaurant, horse back riding, indoor pool, hot springs and on and on and on - if I ever win the lottery we are coming back to stay for a week.

                                                               

    

                                                 

The hot springs - we didn't go in as we are going to another one on our way home in Canada and at $20 a person we decided to pass

Interesting poster they had up - total hours of of day light today was 18 hrs and 54 minutes

The Aurora Ice Museum

A bar and bar stools completely made out of ice 

You can buy a drink in this ice glass - after drinking the drink you take the ice glass outside, make a wish and throw the ice glass on the ground to smash it

Man working inside the museum - he carves out approximately 120 ice glasses a day

What your glasses look like after you walk back outside

The resort is not open just in the summer but also for wonderful get aways in the winter to view the aurora borealis.  So they grown their vegetables hydroponically so they are available year round

And we learned about their geothermal power plant - once again very interesting and if you google Chenapower.com or Chena Hot Springs there will be lots of information on it

They are generating their own electricity from the heat, from 1,100 feet below ground.

These two posters explain what our guide, also pictured, was explaining to us

Tomorrow we head out of the "big" city of Fairbanks and go back to being more into the "wild" parts of Alaska - stay tuned