Hotel Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge

... few nights in Whitehorse but to be honest there is bugger all there, unless you have a car and can get out to the wilderness, so when I was offered a ride to Dawson City I took it. It is only 535 kilometres away. It was good timing as that weekend was the anniversary of the first gold strike in the Klondike in 1897, so they were having their annual Discovery Weekend. This included the Mud-Bog, which is where they race their modified 4-wheel drives through lots ...

... stopping to get fudge at The Fudge Pot! We got back to the hotel around 3 and hit the gym where we watched UF's amazing come from behind, last second victory over Bama at the Women's Softball College World Series. I'm sure the other guests wondered what all the screaming was about. The Andersons arrived around 5 and that's when the party began with cocktails on the deck followed by a trip to Pioneer Park for a salmon bake. Okay, this is where ...

Drove around town to see some of the sites. Rode by the Rivers Edge RV Park on the other side of town. It's very nice; a little tidier than Riverview but more crowded. It's also closer to most of the attractions.

On Saturday there is a Farmer's Market--yum, fresh vegies. Unfortunately, we were a little early; they only had a few green peppers and cucumbers. There are other homemade goodies like ...

... work pants and khakis work in Alaska and are 100% cotton. This makes them unfriendly for hot weather and hard to wash as we go. He also has suit pants, which are not travel or weather appropriate. His last option is his hiking pants of which he has two pairs. The first of which have zip off shorts which act like rubber bands on his thighs. Even though the rest of the pant fits, they look awful. The second pair are so loose they look like MC Hammer pants. Men's travel pants are really ...

... were some caribou inside a fenced area. As part of tour, we also got a quick demo of sled dogs , and the puppies were cute. We then head over to Pike's landing for a delicious Sunday brunch. Food was great and was totally worth it (< $20) In the afternoon, we headed out for our search for the gold. There were 2 "gold panning" touristy places: the El dorado mine, also run by the riverboat people and the gold dredge #8. We ended up going to the ...

... excitement continues.... we are going to a Salmon Bake and live entertainment depicting the development of this area around the Gold Rush. Our bus driver actually lives in Fairbanks. He says it is a dry climate, little snow.... In the winter, 0 is a good day, and the avg is 30-35 below 0 at night.... and can go much lower. When we asked what he does in the winter, he said "shiver".

... we got to our hotel in Anchorage on the last day. Had I known this I wouldn´t have been as concerned about what I packed. My biggest concern was that we would have to drag our two-each suitcases as well as all of our carryon luggage all over Alaska. Anyway we sorted through everything and put all of our dirty clothes as well as our dress clothes and other unnecessary stuff in several bags and tagged them for storage. It made everything a lot less complicated.

... me to a University where I was going to have to start over with no reference points whatsoever. It was unprecedented in my life to make such a drastic change. I don't thing my family really saw it coming. I made the journey, however, and landed in Fairbanks at the end of the red line on an early autumn day. Renna was 7 years old. Now it's 18 years later. My first 18 years sent me across a line on a map to a new world. I think it's time to balance that ...