Fairbanks, AK - Janine and Kristy Depart

Today is Janine and Kristy’s last day in Alaska. They leave for California tonight. We will miss them. They planned this wonderful trip and we are very grateful. We will miss them.

Our first stop for the day was the Fairbanks Visitor’s Center. Then we went to the Fairanks Ice Museum. Every year they have an ice sculpturing contest. They cut huge chunks of ice out of the river. Some of the exhibits are saved in the Ice Museum. We also got a demonstration of carving an ice sculpture.

We also took a paddle wheel ride on Discovery II on the Chena River. Prior to the boat ride. We met and visited with Lance Mackey. He has won the Iditarod the last four years straight. He is also a cancer survivor. I think we are going to be watching the Iditarod next March. I believe we have met at least five Iditarod dog mushers, and at least four have been winners!!! We also saw Susan Bucher’s kennels today. She won the Iditarod for several years in a row, but she lost the battle with cancer. We met her husband, Dave Monson. Dave put the dogs through a race pulling an OHV with no engine, but beefed up brakes.

In Alaska, a large percentage of people own and fly private planes. Sometimes they have regular tires; sometimes they have balloon tires for landing on ice. Sometimes they have pontoons for landing on water, and sometimes they have skies for landing on snow. We saw a pilot take off and land on the water on the paddle wheel boat ride.

Next we saw some demonstrations at a Chena Indian Village. We saw filleting and drying fish. We heard about using animal skins for clothing and saw a ceremonial coat.

After the paddle boat ride, we went back to our little trailer and cooked some of the halibut that we caught in Homer for dinner and then we took the girls to the airport.