Fairbanks, Alaska

We're in Fairbanks and will be here for two more nights - leaving on Thursday, July 29th. On Sunday we had a beautiful day weather-wise plus a lovely trip on the Riverboat Discovery. This is a big sternwheeler that holds 900 passengers. The trip includes a demo from a seaplane pilot taking off and landing on the river, followed by a stop to watch a dog sled demo. They hitched up the dogs to an ATV and then then the dogs took off - running like you can't believe. It was quite interesting. Next we went up the river and saw lots of beautiful homes that have been built on the river. After turning around we stopped for more than an hour visiting a 'mock' Native village. While there we saw more of the dogs, saw how they used the moose, bear, fox, salmon, etc.

Monday morning we had the oil changed on the truck. Next was a visit for groceries to the commisary at Ft. Wainwright. In the afternoon we did the Eldorado Gold Mine tour. It was kind of hokey, but it was fun. We panned for gold and susposedly our gold flakes are worth $46.00. They take you on a little train ride into a perma-frost tunnel, and show you how various gold mining takes place. It is a lot of work!

Today we both got our haircuts and we're headed to the University of Alaska Museum. Then later in the day up to Chena Hot Springs.