Blogs from Fairbanks, Alaska, United States, North America

We slept in until 8:00 am local time and hit the ground running because upon our return to Fairbanks it was time to start relaxing. Yea right. After using the exterior access shower (It was indoors) and packing and loading the truck I noticed the Truck’s temperature reading was just above 30 degrees. Oddly enough, it didn’t feel that cold as I loaded the truck in a tee-shirt and jeans. We then had breakfast in the common room and finally departed at around 10:00 am. We gifted the Host’s with Oranges and Bananas we gathered from the Hampton Inn the previous stay. You would think we were delivering gold. The irony at such a location. It was well received as they don’t get such produce in that part of the world. Upon Heidi’s (Hostess) recommendation, we ... read more

We decided to sleep in a little since our jog from Denali to Fairbanks would be fairly short. Sleeping in consisted in our waking up at 6:30 rather than 6 am; our bodies are still out of whack. We ate a quick breakfast standing up since our tight little room had no table just a dresser and night stand. At the end of the season if you time it right you can drive into Denali without a pass or special permission. You can only go so far but it is self guided. We timed it right. We got to drive 30 miles into the park out of 92 miles. The scenery was majestic. The road was all but empty; of everything including wild life. We drove as far as we were able, turned around and headed ... read more

There is a LOT to tell! We Left Dawson City early in the morning to ride on the Top of the World Highway that crosses into Alaska. Dawson was socked in with fog, I took that as a good sign that the clouds were all going to be in the valleys. We crossed the Yukon river on the free ferry and started to go up in elevation quickly. After a few minutes we cleared the fog and came into clear blue skies! The highway is at about 64° N and runs along a mountain ridge. We are entering autumn this far North, and the aspen and alder trees are all gold and red. We crossed into Alaska and headed into the mining camp of Chicken. We had a bite to eat there and met a batty ... read more

I forgot to mention, at our little cabins, which are very cute and clean, when you flush the toilet, a small child could be sucked down with the force of the flush. No kidding, and it is a big wosh! Alps to go to the bathroom or take a shower, the light is on timer... Guess what, if you go to the bathroom first, and then hop in the shower , you tend to forget that your on a timer. Well... I am sure you guessed it. All altered up, shampoo in your eyes, and whoops... It is totally black in the bathroom. Of course you cannot reach the knob to turn the light on on the bathroom from the shower... I ended up having to wash the floor, after I got out of the shower. ... read more

Thursday morning, we,re off to Denali National Park. With no stops should take about 2 hours, but of course we will stop,especially if John is driving. We will stay outside the park tonight and then tomorrow, get on a bus bright and early,6 am, I think, and head into our lodge. It's 95 miles in, but they do the scenic tour and we're told it will take about 6 hours!!! We're not sure about cell phone or internet access, so we could be out of communication until we leave the park on Sunday and get to Wasilla, Sunday afternoon. Toodles for now. P.s. we're still working on the picture thing, when you see them, you'll know we figured it out. Love to all.... read more

Well, we're still here and doing great. Cathy says its my turn to do the blog. But I tyoed about 4 paragraphs last night and then this blog sight went down for maintenance and I lost everything I typed. So now I have 2 days to report. So, here goes: Tuesday took a city tour of Fairbanks , could have been done in about 1/2 hour, but it took us 3. Our guide was a transplant from Houston, Texas. Came here in1976 with his wife on vacation and never left. That seems to happen a lot. I think Cathy and Neil might do that. In the afternoon we took our rental car and drove to the North Pole to visit with Santa. He really does know who's naughty and nice and guess what that meant for ... read more

Hi to all, We were out of communications on this part of the journey so I will try to get you up to date with our travels. We returned today from our expedition. What an experience! We drove 250 miles north to Coldfoot, after stopping at a locals home for an interesting shopping experience. We have photos, not sure how to send them, still working on that. There were 5couples in a van with our guide Patrick who fit right in with our group. You just cannot believe some of the places that we stayed overnight in. In Colfoot it was like a storage unit with a tiny bathroom in the room, twin beds and a window, that was it. good eats though. We then went to Weismen, I will tell you it is the highlight ... read more

Just letting everybody know that we have arrived in Fairbanks Alaska. The four of us have been together for about 3 hours, and we have already had several differences of opinions. We are still laughing though! The time change is 4 hours, and right now it is 9:00, and it is like it is the middle of the day. We are hitting the wall, and are going to bed because we feel like it is 1:00 in the morning. We are off to the Arctic Circle tomorrow, and we thought we could bring one of our duffle bags, about 30 pounds... Not so much, we were told 10 pounds per person! Are you kidding me? For 3 days and winter gear... This is going to be a trick. Oh by the way, John needs a hearing ... read more

Day 1 What a long day of travel-- on the "road" over 15 hours- but every leg of the journey went well- no issues! We arrived in Fairbanks at 8:30 Pm- which was 12:30 Am our time- then checked in to our room at the Princess Fairbanks Lodge - sitting on the banks of the Chena River- took a walk around the property - still daylight at 10:00pm Day 2 Up at 7:00 am for breakfast and a full day of sight seeing -- first up was a sternwheel boat ride up the Chena River- saw championship sled dog training center, an Alaskan Indian village, raindeer - then went to a gold mine and panned for gold-- Suzie and I panned nuggets worth about $39! On the way back from the Gold mine we stopped at ... read more