A Fairbanks Tourist

Today we were typical Fairbanks tourists! Having been here before, we skipped the museums and headed out to Gold Dredge #8. It was actually a fun time complete with a ride on a narrow gauge railroad, history of gold mining in Alaska, tour of the historic dredge and panning for gold. It was topped off with viewing the pipeline. A great high school history teacher led our tour while some of his former students worked the various stations.

We topped off our day with an authentic Alaskan Salmon Bake. Since this gal doesn't do fish, I was thankful for the prime rib, big salad bar and dessert.

Tomorrow we are off at 6:30 AM to drive the Haul Road  aka Ice Road Truckers Highway (Dalton Highway) to the Arctic Circle and back. It will be a 12 hour day for us-ugh! Really hoping to not have rain so that we can enjoy the views and have an easier drive.

I did laundry today-gotta take time for the mundane!

One of the pictures below shows our campground at 10:30pm last night. Sunset is 11:45; sunrise at 4:30.

For my teacher friends, I talked to a waitress who is an elementary school substitute. I just had to asked her about recess in the dark! The playgrounds are lit and the cut-off for not going out is -20! She said when she subs in Kinder and 1st she spends most of recess helping with zippers, mittens, boots!

Gas @$3.47