July 29,- August 8, 2010

Fairbanks, Alaska

75 - 87 & Sunny

Days 68 - 78

Fairbanks is a rough and ready city, full of outdoor activities.We noticed that the population is very young.The city seems full of young families and lots of children.

The Chena River runs right through the middle of downtown.River rafting provides a lazy ride from one end of town to the other.

We visited Pioneer Park.The park is a nicely done exhibit of original relocated gold rush period buildings.Foods and native crafts, as well as other period items are available.Store, and exhibit personnel add to the mystique by dressing in period clothing.Some exhibitors tell interesting tales of the Gold Rush days.There's lots of green space here, which lent to a very enjoyable day.

The University of Alaska at Fairbanks Botanical Gardens was amazing.The extended daylight hours in the summer allow the plants that are cultivated here to grow to gigantic sizes.We saw Dahlias grew to the sized of basketballs and cabbage were as big as beach balls.Amazing…and a wonderful place to wander about.

We drove just north and east of the city to see the Alaskan Pipeline.It was very impressive.We were lucky enough to tag along with a tour group and hear all the stories about the pipeline.Truly and engineering feat.

We visited a nature area called Creamery Fields.This was and large old dairy farm that was donated to the city.The nature trails went miles through the farm area, a boreal forest, wetlands area and a lake area.The farm area is a sanctuary for migratory birds.We saw hundreds ofsandhill cranes here.Their hopping mating dance drove Abbie nuts.Other nature trails scattered all about town give a glimpse of the wilderness that lay just outside of town.

Fairbanks is located so far north that it stayed light all night.The sun sets, but it never gets dark.It was strange waking up at 2 in the morning and thinking it must be 4 in the afternoon.It was hard to sleep with all that light.

We sat each evening and watched as the young folk floated, paddled, jet skied, and boated by us in the 55 degree river.We marveled at our luck with the unusually warm weather.

It was beautiful!