Jackie's visit…

The first morning Jackie was here, we wandered over to Pioneer Park, which is around 600 yards from the campground, walking distance.

Lots of flowers in Fairbanks...

The grounded paddle wheel boat...

The paddle wheel is pretty cool, they built the canal, flooded it, floated the boat here, blocked the canal, and drained it. The boat worked out of Fairbanks for nearly a hundred years, most of those years owned by the federal government…because the government didn’t care that they lost, or made very little money for most of those years. The yearly balance sheets are in the boats museum on board.

Diarama's in the boat...

Later we toured one of the old cabins, this one is unique in that it had a second floor. This is the upstairs bedroom.

Jackie walking past old Fairbanks...

The Indian museum and totem pole...

Then the train came by, this is the original train that carted gold bullion around...More train...

Then we visited the aircraft museum. As you might imagine, all these planes have an Alaskan heritage...

A helicopter from the Viet Nam era...

A famous plane of some kind...

And another...

And another...they're kind of cool when you can read their history.

Continuing on, the next morning Jackie and I went out to Chena Hot Springs. If you don’t remember the last visit I made with my brother last year, it’s a natural hot spring that was discovered in 1908 by a couple of Swedish miners looking for gold. The US survey team had spotted steam coming from the area a few years before and noted it in their writings. The brothers actually found it and developed it for tourists. Go here to see what I mean: http://www.chenahotsprings.com.

We wandered around for a hour and then signed up for the ‘Ice Museum’ tour with Appletini’s, a yummy girly drink in a martini glass made of ice, while sitting at the ice bar, gazing at the ice fireplace and ice chandlier. I’ll show you some pictures soon.