Are we really in Alaska?

I woke up at 3:30am and felt rested and ready for the day. Seriously, I had an eye mask and sleep machine but I was wide awake at 3:30am. It was 7:30am to my body and normally on a Saturday morning I don’t wake up this early. It was crazy!!

Okay, so I fell back asleep for a while but this is going to take some getting used to.

We start our day by meeting for breakfast. We were starving and really thirsty. One thing we learned from Pat & Charlotte was it is very dry here and a good idea to drink lots of water. They said their snow is so dry they can’t make snowmen.

The breakfast bar looked like it should be good but it was lousy and expensive. We couldn’t get enough water and liquids. It was crowded the the service was slow.

Anyway our next adventure, Charlotte assured us, was the highlight of Fairbanks: The River Cruise & Gold Mining excursion. Our husbands seem anxious and excited for our adventure, the girls – not so much.

We climb on a comfortable bus and our driver starts telling us what to expect. I am thinking this doesn’t sound so bad.

We hop on the river cruise and dash to the left side – another suggestion by Charlotte.

The first thing to happen is a Sea Plane flies along and is part of the tour. Our tour guide is talking to him and he is teaching us all about it. Very exciting stuff, no really, it was. I got so excited I videoed it and posted it on Facebook for my dad. He would have loved it!!

Next up was a story about Susan Butler and her daughter that is continuing her mom’s legacy raising dogs for dog sledding.
After that we continued down the Chena River learning about Salmon and Native American Indians.

We got off the boat and walked around the village to learn more. After that they talked about salmon and passed around salmon spread on crackers. I promised my dad I would try it again, Bebe did as well. Sorry dad, I still don’t like Salmon.

Then it was time for a family style meal! It was really good! Then we caught the bus again for the gold mining part. They dropped us off at a place where we actually could see part of the Alaskan Pipeline.

Honestly we were tired, and cracking up. We didn’t want to learn anymore. We hopped a train, and this was run “Disney” style and they were singing Johnny Cash songs while we travelled to the Gold Mining spot. We heard lots of stories about Gold Mining and then got to try panning for gold.

The smartest thing I did was ask for help. When we used the pan I didn’t have patience, I tried but eventually the staff helped us find about $25 worth of gold!

The girls all took our gold crumbs and put them in a silver locket. We pooled our crumbs and got Lisa one as well.

Turned out the ones in our group dreading the panning for gold liked it better than those who claimed to like it. Score!

We returned to the hotel, after hearing lots of information including where to eat dinner and how to get there at a reasonable price for party of 7.

Dinner was back to the Chena River at The Pump House (there is nothing in town). Wish we had made reservations to sit outside also wish I had known their portions were so big I would have split my meal with someone.

When we got back we walked around Fairbanks. It was 8pm and the town was empty. See the photo above!! Like a Zombie movie. Most stores were closed down.
Headed to bed because this is where we make sure the bag for the cruise is ready to go. I moved all my souvenir purchases to that bag leaving room in my land bag.