Finding Fun in Fairbanks

Unfortunately, I have two longer breaks (4 days) broken up by my one short tour. My tour ended, and much to my joy, the family of ten left. Alaska is not a vacation spot for young, energy-filled children.

Anyway, during my break, I decided to stay in Fairbanks. I'm never here long enough to see the other sites besides the Riverboat Discovery and the Gold Dredge. These last few days I've played tourist.

Tuesday I went to the Alaska Art Gallery, wondered around downtown, went to the ice museum and Chena Hot Springs. Wednesday I went to Pioneer Park for July 5 festivities, then I worked for a few hours at the Westmark and that evening Holland America through a party for all the staff. It was a lot of fun. Today I'm briefing and debriefing for my next tour and getting all that prepared. I also plan to follow up with my resume today. Tomorrow I will go to the Museum of the North and Botanical Gardens at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks.

The past few days have been really hot in Fairbanks - I would say mid-80s to mid-90s. Actually the past couple weeks have been unusually warm all over Alaska. Many guests come with parkas, not prepared for short-sleeve weather ....

Fairbanks is known as the Golden Heart City because of it's locale and the gold rush that took place here. This picture was taken at Golden Heart Square, and it's a sculpture of Alaska's first family. The family does not have any ethnic origin because there are a number of different "first nations" or native people in Alaska.

This is the tent for the ice museum at Chena Hot Springs. The first rendition was made entirely of ice, but it only lasted through the winter, not the summer months. Now they've constructed this tent to hold the ice bar, sculptures and rooms.

Dustin is quite surprised about having an ice bed ... No one stays in the rooms, but in the first ice hotel, it was an option. It's safe to say that this was a bone-chilling experience.

I took a stab at being a little Eskimo girl, but I don't think I would make it. Oddly enough, the igloo was a bit warmer inside.

Two knights were jousting in one of the sculptures.

One of the ice sculptures.

On the way to the Chena Hot Springs - there is actually a hot spring pool there that we used - we saw a bull moose. This is the first bull moose I've seen here.