Part 4 Continued: Fairbanks

Monday, Aug 1^st

Fairbanks, AK

Well, we survived the weekend and are headed to Fairbanks. One of our new friends, Gary, grew up in western Colorado and goes to the Country Jam in Grand Junction each summer. He is also a scuba diver. So we already had a lot in common. We made plans to scuba dive at Birch Lake, where he has a cabin, next weekend. So that left us plenty of time to visit Fairbanks and Chena Hot Springs.

We followed Gary to town so he could show us some of the sights along the way. Our 1^st stop was Nenana for propane. Nenana has a lot of important pioneer history and native Athabascan history. (Link to information about Nenana)

Then we stopped at Skinny Dick’s Halfway Inn. It is a bar halfway between Nenana and Fairbanks and Dick was a tall, skinny guy. Perfectly innocent,and yes, they sell naughty novelties and have a lot of fun with the name. (R-rated pictures, viewer discretion is advised)

Gary gave us directions to Wal-Mart and we set up camp there for the week. Tuesday afternoon we went to Test the Waters scuba shop in North Pole, AK and made arrangements to pick up tanks and weights so we can dive on Saturday. (Link to Test the Waters dive shop...North Pole, AK)  We also did laundry; $37 later, and washed the jeep; $15 later, and had dinner at the Loose Moose Cafe. Our friend Rick cooks there nights so we had a chance to visit with Janet and him again. We also bought caribou steaks and reindeer hotdogs from there to bring “outside” as Alaskans call the lower 48.

Fairbanks is a beautiful city, very friendly and unique. With mining, the military and the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline just to name a few, much of people’s work schedules are 24/7. In the summer it is very intense, trying to work and play as much as possible. There is a midnight sun baseball game played on June 21^st, the only one in the world. There are 2 more hours of daylight in Fairbanks than in Anchorage, 200 miles to the south. So everyone boats, golfs and plays late into the night, only it isn’t dark! And they are very proud to have:

The northernmost Denny’s in the world;

Big Daddy’s BBQ, the northernmost southern BBQ;

The northernmost Girl Scout council….well you get the idea.

Fairbanks is also the home of the World Eskimo Indian Olympics, which we missed by 2 weeks. 

Link to the Eskimo Olympics

Link to Alaska 101 webpage on Fairbanks

Link to Explore Fairbanks

Link to a History of Fairbanks 

Wednesday we went to Pioneer Park, a beautiful park on the Chena River that is part theme park and mostly preserved historic cabins. There is a pioneer air museum and a museum focusing on pioneer gold miners, settlers, their artifacts and how they shaped the territory and later the state. There are lots of displays and dioramas on how they mined for gold, from placer mining to huge dredges. They have also preserved and are restoring the paddle boat Nenana which steamed 24 hours a day during the summer months to the coast of Alaska, a trip of over 770 miles. (link for pictures of Pioneer Park). (Link to information on The Nenana)

Thursday we went to Chena Hot Springs. (Link to Chena Hot Springs) This is an amazing place….the way up there …60 miles NE of Fairbanks, is a beautiful forested area crossing the Chena River and many forks. We saw 4 moose on the way up there. The resort itself is very unique. They are completely off the grid. They use geothermal energy for everything, including a special cooling system to maintain an ice museum year round. (Renwable energy information on the Ice Museum)  “The museum features a gallery and ice bar, overhead chandeliers made of individually carved ice crystals which change color every six seconds mimicing the northern lights, countless sculptures including a gigantic chess set, life sized jousting knights, an ice fireplace and four galleries with varying themes." Everything is made of ice,icluding special martini glasses. Here is a link to the photo gallery with pictures of the museum, renewable energy fair, the resort and 100 years of history. These are really great (Chena Hot Springs Photo Gallery)

The outdoor hot springs pool is a huge rock pool with a sand bottom and a water chute that you stand under for massages.   The grounds are landscaped with antique machinery and lots of flowers. Jim was waiting for me to shower and change and got a ring side seat as 3 moose walked right thru the resort and stood in the pond, just as calm as can  be. Of  course I had the camera with me  (Link to pictures of Chena Hot Springs)  

Friday we went to the Morris Thompson Cultural Center at the visitor center downtown. (Link to the Morris Thompson Cultural Center) This is a truly remarkable exhibit documenting rural and native Athabascan and Alaskan lifestyles throughout the four seasons in Alaska. They show how native tribes still maintain their culture and subsistence lifestyle today and show how it was a 100 years ago. It is an interactive media display with beautiful photos and dioramas. Their displays of beadwork, baskets, clothing and scrimshaw are breathtaking. 
(Link to pictures at the Morris Thompson cultural center)

Friday afternoon we met Gary at Test the waters and picked up our tanks and weights. Then we drove a little farther east and visited Santa in North Pole, AK (Link to information about North Pole, AK )(Link to pictures of Test the Waters and Santa's Shop).

Then Gary said we have to visit the Knotty Shop. Jim said, “the naughty shop?” No, the Knotty Shop. Wow, what beautiful examples of burl wood. Really creative statues, too.  
(Link to pictures of the Knotty Shop)

We got to Gary’s great little cabin in the woods at Birch Lake and had a wonderful weekend. He has an icehouse that they put on the lake in winter. Mitch, the owner of Test the Waters worked with the History Channel on Ice Road Truckers. They used Gary’s icehouse and filmed the intro to the program on Birch Lake. Can you imagine a full size semi-truck on a frozen lake? I guess 4 feet thick ice is strong enough to support it.  (Link to Ice Road Truckers)

We dove Saturday. Of course there is nothing really to see in a lake, but now we can say we dove in Alaska… with moose ... in the interior. (We wanted to dive in Homer but there wasn't a dive shop). We got to 31 feet and our computers said the water temperature was 50 degrees but it sure felt colder! My face felt like I had just plunged it into a bowl of ice cubes and water! 

(Link to pictures at Birch Lake) 

We are leaving Monday to go to Canada and continue back south. We are already planning our next trip to this incredible place. We hope to be able to return the generous, open-hearted hospitality of our friends in Alaska  when they visit us in Mexico.