Tripping with MikenJudy 2012: Fairbanks, AK

We’ve spent the last four days in Fairbanks, Alaska’s second largest city. Originally a gold rush boomtown it has been at the forefront of the construction of the Alaska Highway, Alaska North Slope pipeline, military bases, and the University of Alaska. The weather has been in the 70’s, with sun and showers the same day.

We went to the Alaska Salmon Bake Restaurant in Pioneer Park for an all-you-can-eat dinner since they have silver salmon, cod, king crab legs and prime rib on Fridays (and it was Friday!) Lucky us! Salads, beverages and dessert are also included. Of course we ate too much. Afterwards we walked through Pioneer Park, which is very pretty. It was originally built to commemorate the 100^th anniversary of the purchase of Alaska from Russia. We saw the Sternwheeler Nenana, and the President Warren G. Harding Railroad Car, “Denali’. This restored car celebrates President Harding’s trip to the interior to drive the Golden Spike commemorating the end of the line of the Alaska Railroad, which joined Alaska’s two major cities, Fairbanks and Anchorage.

We took a 3½ hour tour on the Riverboat Discovery. It is a paddle boat that has four decks and can handle 900 passengers. It has 19 viewing monitors throughout the boat so any seat is a good one. There are live camera shots and also taped video clips with excellent commentary. The cruise is on the Chena River, which is about 500 miles long. It is the largest glacier-fed river in the world, and a tributary of the Yukon River. The first treat scheduled was watching a seaplane take off, land, take off again, and land again. Along both sides of the river we saw some huge, beautiful homes, and some that looked like shacks. Most had either a boat and/or a float plane docked.

We toured a Chena Athabascan Indian village replica of the early 1900’s where we saw salmon being prepared to dry on a rack before being smoked, a fish wheel, a trapper’s cabin, viewed garments made of animal hides, Caribou running and feeding both in and outside their pen.

We also passed Susan Butcher’s home where her husband, Dave Monson, spoke to us and took out a team of Iditarod dogs pulling a four-wheeler. Susan won the 1,100 mile Iditarod Dog Sled Race from Anchorage to Nome four times. She led the only climbing party to conquer the highest point on the North American continent by dog team when she mushed to the top of 20,320’ Mt. McKinley.

The next day we drove to Chena Hot Springs Resort which is Alaska’s 440 acre all-season wilderness resort about an hour and a half (60 scenic miles northeast) from Fairbanks. It was built as a way to boost tourism. They have natural outdoor hot springs, but for us the main draw was the Aurora Ice Museum. We arrived about a half hour early for the one o’clock tour. During that time we toured the grounds, where they had a beautiful assortment of flowers (probably coming from their greenhouse!)

This museum is the most beautiful example of alternative energy technology. It’s easy to keep ice frozen in winter but what if you want to keep it cold (20°) when it is 90° and sunny! Their first attempt in July of 2004 (ended in a melt-down) so they tried again the next year. They use an absorption chiller design powered by geothermal water and it is a unique, three-pressure design (the only one like it in the world). It was completed in January of 2005.

We viewed the great hall, lounge area, chandeliers made of individually carved ice crystals, countless sculptures including life-sized jousting knights, etc. The two art champions, Steve and Heather Brice, were there doing their art.

One of the highlights of the day was seeing moose on the trip to and from the hot springs. We saw one in a pond, eating from the bottom of the pond, a few single sightings, and a mother being followed by her baby crossing the road. That made our day even more special.

Our next stop was the Cookie Jar Restaurant where Guy Fieri, from the Food Network, has dined. Again, he didn’t steer us wrong, as we enjoyed the food and walked out stuffed.