June 29, 2012                     Day 21/60                            Fairbanks, AK

Mom and Mike needed to go to the post office to get a General Delivery package. The General Delivery Post Office is downtown.  Mike went in to get the package. He was gone quite a while. We didn’t think there could be a line at 9:30 in the morning with no cars in the parking lot. Turns out he waited in the main line only to be told that General Delivery was in a different line. When he asked the woman behind the counter why there wasn’t a sign letting people know this important bit of information, she replied something to the effect of “most people know.” I guess she never heard of tourist getting General Delivery.

Our next stop was the Morris Thompson Cultural Center. It houses a small museum, a documentary theater, the visitors’ information center and a ranger area – all free to the public. There is also a gift shop where nothing is free. We saw a movie about the Aurora Borealis. The film in Whitehorse had been about filming the Aurora. This one was about the Aurora itself and the science behind it. I stayed awake for the whole thing and found it very interesting. The color of the Aurora has to do with which gas particles are bouncing off of. Oxygen produces the reds and greens that we on Earth see most often. It has nice dioramas about life in the wild North. It showed a variety of tents, cabins, etc. that people could walk through.

Outside there was an arch made of antlers from moose and caribou. Sadly, someone had carved into the antlers. Still we did our photo op thing.

From here we found our way across town to Lu Lu’s Bread and Bagels for a delicious and inexpensive lunch. I hope it is a chain so we can eat at Lu Lu’s while in Anchorage. We all enjoyed eating out again as we haven’t done it much. However, we must eat in again now that we have groceries that could spoil.

We headed over to the Large Animal Research Station (LARS) at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. We had just missed a tour and you couldn’t see anything from the picnic area. So we decided to check out the gift shop area. Here both Rick and Mike found caribou antlers they liked. The antlers are grown each year and the gift shop uses the money from the sales to support the animals. They also sell the warm under hair (like wool) from the musk oxen but it was too expensive. The young lady running the gift shop is a teacher in Fairbanks. She used to drive up from Wisconsin every summer to work at LARS and finally moved up permanently 3 years ago. It was fun comparing situations with her.  It started to rain so we went down the hill to the Museum of the North also at the University.

This museum had great and varied displays. Dominic was most interested in the gems collection. Luca liked the taxidermy of the Artic Fox even though he was sad that it was dead. Rick liked the mummified wooly mammoth that he remembered seeing photos of when he was little. I liked the section about the internment of the Japanese Americans and Inuit during WW II. I had never seen anything about the Inuit experience. They were placed in terrible conditions without drinking water or medical care. Really a sad time in our country’s history. I got there in the middle of the film and had to leave before I could read the stuff on the walls. I will have to look into why our country’s leaders felt the Inuit people were such a threat to our safety.

After dinner, the guys went fishing at the river by the trailers. It was catch and release only for grayling. Luca caught a little guy but released it before anyone could get a picture. He was still pretty happy.

June 30, 2012                     Day 22/60                            Fairbanks, AK

 We started with a yummy pancake breakfast at the big trailer. I brought bacon and strawberries. I hadn’t had any pancakes since we left Millbrae so it was quite a treat.

We headed toward Chena Hot Springs, our destination for our day trip. We detoured a bit so we could see part of the Alaska Pipeline. It was a spot on the side of the road where you could see the huge pipe above ground and a piece of equipment called a pig that is used to clean the pipe. What was really amazing was the map showing the distance the pipeline travels, the full height of the state.

We went a little further along the detour to a gold claim on the side of the road where the public can pan. There was another couple and their dog already working there and holes all along the hillside of tailings where others had tried their luck. The boys each gave it a try with the two pans we had with us. Rockers and sluice boxes are not allowed here. The boys seemed to enjoy digging in the dirt and throwing rocks around, but, alas, we found no gold.

On the road to Chena Hot Springs we saw a total of 5 moose in the sloughs and creeks along the road. Some were tucked in back corners barely within view. Others were eating quite close to the road completely ignoring the many tourists who jump out of their cars to take photos. At least most of the tourists are not getting too close to these powerful animals. Locals drive this road way too fast and Mike had a close call with a speedster in a white car while crossing the road back to the car.

Chena Hot Springs is a resort (Alaska-style). They have the pool at the hot springs, but they also have a hotel, horseback riding, massage, beauty salon, etc. We ate at the restaurant. I had some of the best caprese ever. Here they called it Chena Fresh Rose. The tomatoes were grown in the hot house garden. The mozzarella tasted smooth and creamy. Fabulous.

The pool consists of 2 indoor hot tubs, an indoor “cool” pool for families, 1 outdoor hot tub, and a large outdoor stone pool (104 degrees). One has to be 18 to use the stone pool so Rick and I took turns with the boys. Most of the hot tubs and definitely the stone pool were too hot for me. After a quick soak, I enjoyed the indoor pool. The families with small children were a bit noisy, but hey they are kids and need to blow off steam.

A word about the locker rooms – no need to bring your street shoes in. They are not allowed. Not sure why. No need to bring your modesty either. There is no room for it. The lockers are all jammed into one small corner with only two 3 foot long benches. Everyone has to wait to reach the lockers and then change as quickly as possible because someone else wants to get to her locker. There were three showers with curtains but only 2 bathroom stalls which were both being used by people to change when I arrived. Seriously, one stall had two teenage girls jammed into it to change. I can’t remember a time when I was so modest I would rather change with a friend in a small stall with a toilet than out in the open. I do remember being a little taken aback at the group fitting rooms at the local Loehman’s. I got over it quickly though and would not cram in close to a public toilet to change.

On the way back we stopped at several places to try fishing. One was so buggy and mossy that we didn’t last 20 minutes. The second and maybe third (I lost track) we didn’t even get out of the car. The last and winning spot was along the river on a gravel bar. At first it was too buggy for Mom, Dominic, and I but a breeze helped clear the area and we got out to rock hound. We had great fun wetting the rocks to see the patterns of color and made piles of interesting rocks along the beach. Luca soon gave up on fishing having developed the beginning of a blister. Mike had a couple of hits and almost got one but it got away. It was a pretty area and we all hated to leave, but we had dinner and laundry calling us home.

Tomorrow we are off to Denali. We have had so much rain lately. I really hope it is clear enough for us to see some of Mt. McKinley.