Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Fairbanks

... too. Along the way we stopped off at a few places to drop off and pick up passengers. At a couple of places some of us wandered ashore for half an hour or so to have a look. <br><br>We arrived in Skagway on Thursday morning, right on time, and managed to squeeze in to the harbour amongst the 4 very large cruise ships. Skagway is a major tourist trap - I counted 25 Jewellery shops, not bad for a town with a permanent population of 800. All but one of these stores ...

... or a 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.<br><br>From the museum's parking lot we were able to see ...

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 &amp; grizzly bears, moose, lynx, and mountain lion. You put the mold in the sand to see what each animal's print looks ...

... a live recreation of different mining types. In one part, the train goes through a tunnel where a guy talks about underground mining. Then you pull up to a place where you see how a homesteader would mine. And finally you see the above ground type mining. After the train ride, you go to the giant sluice area where they dump dirt and running water together down a chute to separate the large rocks from the small rocks. You want just dirt when you are ...

... dramatic mountain range. We had planned initially to take a dip in the hot springs, but after talking to the locals who indicated that the sulfur in the water tended to destroy bathing suits we opted to just put our hands in the warm water. The temperature of the water at the time was 106 degrees. While we were there we talked to a resident of Fairbanks, who told us where we could get a look at the mountain if it ...

... is fascinating to watch the teamwork of man and dog. No trip is complete without a stop at Chena Hot Springs Resort. I use the word resort only because it is in the name of the place. It is more a cross between a summer youth camp and a motel. And it is expensive - about $200/night for one of the old rooms. That said, I go every year. They have updated the rooms in the old section so at ...

... Café, which was excellent. Nice folks, hope they don't mind if we drop in for dinner next time we ski at Banff. Day 15, Friday, 24 Aug, Fairbanks to Wasilla, AK Enough goofing off. After our second breakfast at Sam's, it's back to riding in the rain. We had done some high-speed pilot ...

... We panned for gold and they gladly stored our findings in a locket. I heard that if you didn't want to keep the gold, they would trade it for cash. I had scored 7 grains, which meant 14$$$. In the morning we took the morning boat, steamboat discovery III up the chena river. Stopped at a dog mushing training center. Also at a salmon cutting demonstration. The salmon were hung to dry so that the dogs may eat them. Continuing on the river we visited an old village known ...