Dredge #8

Today we visited Dredge #8 where 1.5 million dollars of gold was harvested at one point in time by this team/ system. Although we tried to get Emily and Colin to find some gold the old fashion way, they were more interested in socializing. Kelly found herself $14.80 in gold. I think she cheated since my bag was went missing while Emily ran off to do a unguided tour of the Gold Mining Camp. We opted not to get the Mess Hall lunch after the tour, but it smelled gooood! There was lots of other stuff to tool around in a discover, such as the store houses, bath house, and offices. The dredge started in the early 20's and closed up around the 60's.

The Duckie Race and More

Today was another part of Golden Days. There was a "Duckie" Race down the Chino river where the grand prize is said to be $10k. Kelly bought four tickets so we shall see if we won one of the 30 prizes available. There was also a parade that featured many organizations, an Army Stryker, Classic Cars, and Dancing Girls. The kids didn't make out as well on the candy front as they have at Festag in Minnesota Lake, but got plenty to get through the day. They also visited the new fire station which was open featuring two new fire poles and a monster of a fire truck.

Golden Days

Kelly and the kids really enjoyed Golden Days in Fairbanks. There was plenty to do with the Kids Parade, Log spliting, log sawing, seed spitting, pie eating, and a whole bunch of fun little things around town reliving the Pioneer days of the early 1900's. Most of the activities were in Pioneer Park, but there were others around town. Kelly thought the little girl in the blue was just the cutest in the kid parade!

Pioneer Park and the Air Museum

Yesterday we visited Pioneer Park again where the kids rode on the train once more while I toured the old houses of Fairbanks. They have about 30 houses and buisnesses from old Fairbanks from 1900-1930 which were moved into a little town with most of the stories posted on the sides which make for interesting reading. They also had a air museum where you can see many parts to old planes and some planes and some other stuff that I thought reminded me of the scene from Star Wars Episode I when the characters where looking for parts to thier ship. Anyways, one of the cool things inside was a UH-1 "Huey" which the kids were inside of. The building was filled with various parts that you normally would't see in a museum, old photos, models, prints, and was pretty cool to poke around in.

Fairbanks Fountain

Other than the Hotel Pool the kids favorite spot to hang out is the Fairbanks Fountain next to the visitor's center. Yesterday they watched a local band play at the fountain.

Pioneer Park

Today we cruised around Fairbanks, walked a little, and then visited Pioneer Park. This park was a lot of fun for the kids who took a ride on a little train, played on the playground, and wandered around a old school steamer looking for a Captain. There was much more to do such as visit the trading posts, the air museum, gold mining camp, and native American camp. We didn't get to those but maybe someday down the road. While we were there we ran into some familiar faces from Louisiana who were vacationing who recommended the Denali Train Tour that leaves from Fairbanks and Ankorage. The kids also rode a merry-go-round that was built in 1920 and had a better time than most.

Longest Day

Our longest day of the trip from Minnesota was from Kasota to Montana which took about 17 Hours. We did take a moment to stop in the Badlands and enjoy the scenery. This was a shot from Roosevelt National Park overlooking the painted canyon. Apparently there was a Gold Wings convention in the town we were going to stay at in Montana which extended our trip a few hours.

Wild Life

Kelly and I saw the majority of the wildlife between Fort Nelson and Whitehorse. She was giddy as they kept popping up alongside the road and being armed with her new Nikon D40x and a couple of 1G memory cards there was nearly no limit to the shots taken.

We saw Buffalo, Mountain Sheep, Deer, Moose, Bear, and Caribu to name a few. Meanwhile the kids slept the whole time after a rough night of watersliding at the Fort Nelson Super 8 hotel.

Looking Back

Well I started to sift through the nearly 400 photos we took along the way to pull out some highlights. Here are a few:

We saw this plane at the Northern Rockies Lodge which offered a one nights stay at the price of $119, the catch? Meals cost between 11-20 dollars per person. But armed with a cooler, we may stay there on our next trip.

Arraived in Alaska

Well the family made it here after a long and sometimes trying journey from Louisiana. Kelly has found plenty to do already since her visit to the Fairbanks Visitor Center yesterday. We are looking for a new place to call home today. So far Fairbanks has more to offer than any previous locations with the exception of Oahu. Yesterday we cruised around to take in some of the local sites and even stopped by the new office which was pretty spacious in comparison to my mobile one I had for the last few years. Be patient, we just downloaded the photos from Kelly's new camera and will post them shortly. -B