Blogs from Fairbanks, Alaska, United States, North America - page 7

Knitchick2: I'm melting!!! It's 88 degrees here! Ahhhhhh!... read more

knichick2: hi, back from day three at camp. I was busy the second night so that's why I didn't blog. Anyway, today was pretty sweet. In the morning my group and I went to the botanical gardens. Where there is a long trench with running water down to a little pond. We found out if someone put their head at the end of it and other people clogged the water in the trench with their arms and let go at the same time the person at the end got a pretty good shower. But it was 80 degrees out so it helped. After that we went back to the main building for lunch. A man who knows the camp and stuff, came and brought his three 2 month old puppies. SOOOOOOO CUTE!!!! After that we went ... read more

Saturday 2/06/12 – This morning we packed up the tent and headed for Smithers. Nothing much else happened along the way. We camped at the Riverside Municipal Campsite, which backed onto a mighty river that no amount of swimming ability would have helped you if you fell in. We made our dinner and then headed into town to get a dessert from Dairy Queen as a treat. Sunday 3/06/12 – We started the Cassier Hwy today, which is apparently the more interesting highway north to the Yukon compared to the Alaska Hwy. It started in Kitwanga and twisted through more snow-capped mountains and trees. It was very pretty. We also saw about five different black bears on the side of the road in various positions from crossing the road to munching on grass as we went ... read more

Can you say ROCKSTARS? That is exactly how we felt today, thanks to our friend, Jim Binkley. Jim is a 3rd generation riverboat captain, and the family tradition is still being handed down to kids, grandkids, nephews and nieces. Jim's grandfather worked on boats on the Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio Rivers, but came up to Alaska during the Yukon Gold Rush in 1898. He started a boating company to transport equipment and supplies to the miners. Jim's father also took to the river, and in the 1950's his parents started a riverboat tour company. The family built several sternwheel paddleboats and later actually cut them in half to expand them for their growing business! The Riverboat Discovery has grown to a thriving riverboat tour company and has been passed on through two more generations. Jim picked ... read more

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