Today, on Tuesday, June 6, we spent all day in the northern city of Fairbanks. This is as far north as the main highway system goes – we’re in the center of Alaska.
Our small group of fellow tourists have been great. Here’s a picture of the wonderful group that we’ve been traveling with for the past five days on the land portion of our Celebrity tour.
We started our exploration in Fairbanks today with a riverboat cruise. This three hour tour took us on the Chena Slough near the Tanana River and described what life was like before cars came on the scene. It included a one-hour stop at an Native Village where young adults presented talks and demonstrations they learned from their grandparents on the topics of: original clothing, furs, fish preparation, and house building.
Equally interesting, while on the riverboat, was a tie-up next to an elite sled-dog training farm, run by the husband of Susan Butcher – the woman who won the Iditarod four times! His demonstration included hitching up a team to pull an old ATV around a training course on the farm. Those dogs love to run!
We also got to talk with a bush pilot who flies float planes and watch him take off and land on the river right next to the riverboat. (See pic below)
We then had lunch in Fairbanks, walked around the town, and visited the Cultural Museum and Visitor Center. Finally, we enjoyed a visit to an old car museum and a nature walk (accompanied by a bunch of mosquitoes) around protected forest land in town.
These events concluded our Celebrity cruise and land tour. Our first seven days were at sea on the Millennium cruise ship, and the past five days was the inland route seen on this map where we saw cities and tourist places by bus with the best tour guide and bus driver anyone could request.
The past twelve days got us to three national parks, but we wanted to see more! So Mike, Joanie, Sue, and Ted decided months ago to extend the trip by three more days to add a fourth national park. Now, we are on our own!
So on Wednesday we will rent a car, and travel 311 miles southeast to Chitina, AK, to spend time the next day in the Wrangell-St.Elias National Park, which is about 250 miles due east of Anchorage. More on that in our next blog! The pic below was taken by Sue from the top deck of the riverboat as the bush pilot landed his float plane onto the river.
