My brother came up here to Fairbanks to visit after he spent a week hanging around the southern part of Alaska. He hiked the Chilkoot pass, visited Juneau and other towns nearby and then flew up here. There are tons of things to do around here…it’s a tourist mecca. The first day we rode the bikes into town and visited the Visitors Center trying to get a handle on what we should visit by perusing the brochures. Outside of the center was a giant statue of the ‘First Settlers’ so we had a passerby take our picture. We also rented a pedicab ride around town visiting some of the earliest buildings around downtown. It was great fun, especially since someone else was doing all the work peddling us around.
Just a shot of Dan next to the RV before we left:
Then a shot of us at the statue, this thing has a history, seems back in ’67 there were all sorts of big shots here, including the president, celebrating Alaska’s statehood. This statue was part of all that. And then the whole town flooded after days of heavy rains:
A shot of the Chena river, very picturesque:
Here we are on the cab:
Pretty girl with friendly guy, note she is wearing a sweater in the middle of August:
You can’t really see it but every car has an electrical cord hanging out of the front that caught Dan’s attention, they power the oil pan heaters, battery blankets, etc. so the rigs will start during cold weather:
One of the older pioneer cabins still in the downtown area:
And a bunch of other pioneer cabins scattered all around Fairbanks:
This one is unique in that it’s not only a pioneer cabin but it’s also the only place where there is still a section of the boardwalk that use to be all over town before the roads were paved:
Some of the millions of flowers that are all over town:
Dan enjoying the weather:
This church use to be on the south side of the river but the town had changed enough by that time that most of the people were living on the north side (they have since shifted back to the south side). Not wanting to pay the fortune the moving company was asking ($3,000), they waited for winter and had a bunch of volunteers push the building over to where it is now using skids and skis:
Flowers at the church:
And the little park there:
Another of the things we decided to do was to take a van up to the arctic circle. Just to say that we’ve been there. Although my goal has been to visit and work at the Antarctic Circle for 25 years or so, it looks like I’ll have to settle for just visiting the Arctic Circle. I have friends up in Barrow Alaska now so maybe I’ll get up there someday but I doubt it, except maybe to visit but not to live and work.
Anyway, we hired this tour guide to take us up there. He has a large multi-seat van and since it was only four of us with the guide, I had a full bench seat to myself. First stop was just 9 miles out of Fairbanks where we stopped at an Alaskan Pipeline viewing area, like a rest stop but with a giant pipe overhead.