Touring Fairbanks

We have been here 5 days and have enjoyed each one thoroughly.  Friday arrival and set up camp.  Saturday Bob and I caught up on some shopping and barber shop beauty shop visits.  Sunday was a wonderful Father's Day brunch at the Pumphouse with Gary and Floy.  It is a really nice restaurant with a river overview.  We followed that up with a visit to the Museum of the North which has such high quality exhibits.  The textiles from native Athabascans was fantastic.  Monday was one of the best "touristy trap" things we have done in a long time.  We took a Paddle Wheel boat trip on the Chena River which had an educational audio visit by a bush pilot as he landed and took off next to us.  Then we stopped to listen to Susan Butcher's husband talk about training sled dogs for the Iditarod.  His wife died of cancer several years ago but she won the Iditarod several times with dogs they trained.  The dogs demonstrated their tremendous strength as they pulled an ATV around a long track.  After completing their run, they high-tailed it to the river for a swim.  I enjoyed this part of the tour best of all.  The third and final stop was at a model Athabascan Village where we divided into 3 groups and rotated among presentations on ancient Athabascan culture, modern culture, and how they prepare animal skins.  Meanwhile, some of the sled dogs arrived to add even more fun to the stop.

Grizzly was quite impressive. E

These birch trees begin topple over if the ground underneath thaws.  Global warming maybe????

Love...love...love the Boreal Forest trail.

Discovery III was a delight.  We finished the trip off by having Sockeye Salmon appetizers.  Yum.

Bush plane pilot talked about the things they do to people in remote regions.

Susan Butcher's husband who continues to train the sled dogs.  Great presentation.

V	Athabascan Village demonstration.  The lowest grade salmon is frequently fed to the dogs.