Comfort Inn Fairbanks

... sleep on plastic sun-bathing type recliners in the "Solarium". This is basically an area with glass roof and 3 walls open to the back of the boat. It has heaters hanging from the roof. So very warm by day and warmish by night. It was fun though, interesting people to talk to and a surprisingly good sleep. We had all day Wednesday to take in the scenery - mountains, islands, glaciers, humpback whales, bald eagles, etc and then spent Wednesday night on the ...

... bag lunch. We all split up in different directions and met back at the bus an hour later to travel to the University of Alaska-Fairbanks Museum. We were ushered into an auditorium where a movie about the Northern Lights was being shown. Since Art and I have had just about enough about the Aurora crammed down our throats, we promptly exited and browsed the museums five exhibits and its store.

From the museum's parking lot we were able to see where the ...

Just a few miles down the road from Border City is Tetline National Wildlife Refuge Center. What a great stop this was! They have interesting exhibits, and we especially loved the paw print molds of brown & grizzly bears, moose, lynx, and mountain lion. You put the mold in the sand to see what each animal's print looks ...

... weeks of time from a building project for the Partners staff, offer professional medical training and treatment to villagers and camps, or bring some fun to orphans with a Vacation Bible School (VBS) program. Both the team and the staff gain in forming relationships and working alongside each other. In addition, the team will gain a broader 'world view' while being engulfed in a new culture. The team will also learn first-hand a ...

... don't worry: everybody gets to find some gold). We took those nuggets and got into the gift shop, where we chose to put them into two pendants for the girls. Next stop was at the Ice Museum. This is a small museum, where they have some ice sculptures displayed in huge freezers (more like freezing rooms). First we watched a movie telling us about the ice sculpting competition taking place in Fairbanks every winter, with groups coming from all around the ...

... up close and learn a little of the history. To see this thing and think that it goes for 800 miles across the rugged topography of Alaska is mindboggling. Then it was on to the mine. Now this is a very touristy place and it is pretty expensive - $35 per person. So why did we go? Well, we had another one of those 2 for 1 tickets here. So $17.50 is not too bad per person. There is a small train that goes around for a mile and stops here and there to ...

The day dawned with beautiful blue skies, so we headed toward Chena Hot Springs. As we drove along the Chena Hot Springs road we notice the Alaska Mountain Range, with the snow covered peaks off to the south leading us to believe that just maybe Mt. McKinley was visible. The drive to the hot springs took over an hour. Shortly after leaving the campground we passed two moose having breakfast in the stream. Then we passed ...

... with like-minded aurora lunatics at Clearly Summit, one from only a couple of miles from where I live on the east coast! An added feature was the annual Open North America dog sled competition which runs through downtown Fairbanks on three days. It is a sprint race - 20 miles each of the first two days, 30 miles the last day. It always brings out a crowd at the many different check points ...

... riding two KLR 650's to the North Slope then to Chili and back home. They were allowing a year and a half, didn't want to rush. Another neighbor, the Kilian's with son, Max, from Calgary were riding three different bikes touring Alaska. We joined them for breakfast Friday morning at Sam's ...

... I would be able to work there. I'll have a stub from that job next week. Each week I will be paid now. And in the morning, when I tuck in the bedsheet now, I know that I could go to Fred Meyer and buy a bedsheet that wouldn't pull off the bed each night, a bedsheet that wasn't patched, I'll remember that Renna and I went shopping for this bedsheet together. That we put my room together together. And the money I would spend on a bed sheet I would rather spend when we are together.