61 Day Alaska Caravan: Day 26-29

August 6-9, 2016

Day 26

Our first day in Fairbanks was full doing touristy things. Our first stop was the University of Alaska Museum which has a great display on the history of Alaska. There is also a theater where we watched a great show on the Aurora Borealis.

There is also a botanical garden on the campus.

After a nice buffet lunch at Chena's Alaskan Grill we then caught the Riverboat Discovery Cruise. This cruise takes you up the Chena River to the Chena Village. Along the way we passed the home of the late Susan Butcher, a four time Iditarod winner. There we toured an Athabascan village, the village is a reproduction built to represent the era after the influence of early western settlers.

Day 27

Today we opted to skip some of the planned tours, instead, we got some business taken care of. A long visit to the Verizon store left with a new Iphone and new MiFi hotspot.

We opted to meet up with the group at the Fairbanks Ice Museum where they have a number of ice sculptures, I can only imagine seeing the ice sculpting competition and seeing them in person.

In the evening we went to Pioneer Park for their Salmon Bake and their Palace Theater Stage Show.

This poor Canadian lady didn't know what she was in for sitting next to Dave

One of our raven maniacs on the trip

 Day 28

Today was a free day so we filled it full of stops. Our first stop was Creamers Field Waterfowl Refuge where we got to stretch our legs, think we ended up walking about 3 miles.

Our next stop was the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum, all of the cars are from the 1930's or prior. Now a lot of times in car museums my eyes start glazing over after awhile, not so here. The auto displays also included vintage clothing which I enjoyed looking at though it appears Dave didn't take too many pictures of the clothes.

At this museum they allowed you to borrow some clothing pieces and get your picture taken in one auto set aside for just this. 

We then headed to the Tanana Valley State Fair, a small fair but lots of fun.

Very different fair food, red crab pocket sandwich and steamed artichokes. 

The booths where Dave got his gourmet lunch delights.

Fooling around with Hank the Moose. 

Our last stop at the fair.








For Dave and I though the day was not over. One of the real joys of this full time RV lifestyle is the reconnecting with friends. This evening we had the pleasure of reconnecting with a young man we've know for many years. Jeremy is a friend of our son David's and we haven't seen him since his wedding quite a few years ago. He has been stationed up here in Fairbanks Alaska for the last few years, so when I knew we'd be up here a visit was going to be top priority. We saw this car with the VT Strong plate on it so we figured he beat us to the restaurant. This evening we spent a wonderful few hours having dinner with him, sitting outside along the banks of the Chena River and catching up. We wish him all the best as he transitions to civilian life, hopefully the next time we see him Sarah and the kids we be around. Thanks again Jeremy for the Alaskan beer.

Not hard to figure out who had the VT car in the parking lot.

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Since I passed up all of the sweets at the fair, had a semi healthy salad for dinner, the desert tray couldn't be passed up, was hard to choose but I did

The creme brulee won, oh boy was it good.









Day 29

A rainy day, the first one we've had since starting on the caravan, actually the first one in a long time. We had decided early on this was going to be a day off from most everything. As with most plans that didn't quite work out, as I took my shower this morning water was coming out of the skylight over the shower. I guess somewhere along the way the skylight got a few cracks in it. For a temporary fix Dave sealed the cracks and we'll deal with it more down the road, probably when we're in TX this winter. An afternoon of socializing with some of our caravan friends with a game of Mexican Train thrown in and we're rested and ready for the next leg of our journey.

Until next time...