Exploring the North: What time zone are we in??

We got to bed early last night (8:00 pm). Needless to say we were up early (6:05 am for Barb). I was in the bathroom with the lights on reading a book, I didn't want to wake her at 5:00 am. So we will try to stay up a bit later tonight.

This morning we explored downtown Anchorage. We took a 1 hour tour on a trolley bus for some great information about this city. Our driver/tour guide was a 3rd generation Alaskan, and she was very knowledgeable. We even got to meet her family when her husband and son surprised her at one of our stops.

We found some interesting Alaskan road signs on this trolley tour.

There is a road near the airport where aircraft taxi across, so drivers need to be aware of planes out here as well.

Next we visited a local outdoor market open only on weekends.

Then it was back to the airport for our trip to Fairbanks. On our trolley tour, our guide pointed out Denali, or Mount McKinley, the highest mountain in North America. We could see it from Anchorage, and our cab driver on the way to the airport, proudly pointed out some mountains and told us that was Denali. We knew it wasn't, I pointed to the right and said to Barb, that Denali was over there. She agreed. Funny how we seem to know more than this guy after only one day. Here is a picture of the mountain while we were flying to Fairbanks.

While at the airport, we arrived early as usual, so off to the bar. Our server, Fernando, asked to see our id!! At 60+ why would we be carded? Barb was giddy and most ladies are when asked, while I was dumbfounded (usual for me). We showed our id and pressed Fernando on why he asked. He told us that in Alaska, if someone is caught drinking and driving they are charged. If someone is charged 3 times, a red mark is placed on their drivers licence and they cannot be served alcohol. So he needed to see our drivers license before he could serve us. Barb wanted her picture with him, because she thought he was sweet asking to check her age!!

So I found Ana for a picture. Ana is from Serbia, a student working the summer in Alaska before returning home to complete her masters degree. We told her that we were in Serbia last summer on our European Tour. We had a nice conversation with her and enjoyed meeting someone from another country.

So while waiting for our flight to leave, we crossed paths with some old travelling companions.

This is Dave and Cheryl, who we travelled with last year through Europe. They had planned a trip to Alaska this year and what a coincidence, they will be on the same cruise as us next week!!! It will be fun to catch up with them and travel together again. Before they go back home to Sydney, Australia, they will visit us back home in late September.

Barb took more great pictures from the sky as we travelled to Fairbanks in this tiny, turbo prop airplane. The ride was smooth and we are now settled in Fairbanks for the next few days. We still hope we can catch the Aurora Borealis while we are here in Alaska.