Our Tour Begins

You may have noticed from yesterday's post that this trip wasn't quite living up to our expectations.  While our tour had not officially started, we have been here for a few days staying in the two largest cities in Alaska.  While they do not compare in size to Toronto, or even Oshawa, staying within walking distance to MacDonalds, KFC and Walmart wasn't giving us that feeling that we were in the most northern state of America.

Today was better, we began with a ride on a paddlewheel steamboat down the Chena River.  This river runs right through Fairbanks, but we took a route away from the city.  We were given a wonderful narrative from the tour director of this boat, who has been a part of Alaska and this company for most of his life.  Very knowledgeable and funny at times with his stories.

We saw some really nice homes on this cruise.

Next we were given s demonstration of flight here watching a float plane take off and land on the river right near our boat.  Many of the residents here have a pilots license since the majority of communities here had not access by roads, so these planes become the only mode of transportation.  In the winter they change the pontoons for skis so that they can land on the snow or frozen rivers and lakes.

This trip was very well planned and we first stopped at the location of the dog sled teams of Susan Butcher, who won the Iditarod race 4 times here in Alaska.  This is a 1000 mile race across the state.  Susan died at age 52 of Leukemia and is regarded around here as a folk hero. Her husband and two daughters still manage the sled dogs and we were given quite a demonstration of their power, pulling a lady on a 4 wheel ATV. 

Next stop on this tour was near a replica native village, and our hostess here was a young descendant of the Athabasca people who showed us how they catch and cure salmon for their people and the sled dogs.  We were taken on a tour by this young lady and shown various pelts from the animals here in Alaska and the clothing they make from these pelts.

We also got to visit with the sled dogs from the demonstration earlier and learn more about them.

After our river cruise, we headed to downtown Fairbanks for lunch and a bit of sightseeing.

For dinner tonight Barb and I headed to the Pump House restaurant a very nice restaurant on the river we travelled down this morning.

We decided since we were in Alaska, we would order some King Crab Legs as an appetizer. King Crab is very expensive, but we thought we would order 1 pound from the menu.  Here is what we got for our 1 pound.

Now these crab legs are fun to eat so I fought with them until we managed to get all of the meat out. 

Tomorrow we leave Fairbanks at 7:30 am heading for Denali and the National Park that surrounds this massive mountain.  It will be a long day for a 4 hour train ride in the morning and then a 6 - 8 hour tour of the park searching for wildlife.  Now we are going to see the parts of Alaska that we came to see.