Fairbanks and Denali

On Tuesday morning, July 27th, we went to the North Pole.  Yes, it is real.  We saw Santa's house and the reindeer.  The entire town has candy cane lamp posts and even the McDonald's arches sit atop candy cane posts. It's Christmas all year long and so pretty with the cool weather and tall trees everywhere.

We spent Tuesday afternoon on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks.  We visited the University of Alaska Museum of the North ( http://www.uaf.edu/museum/).  It was a great place to learn more about the native people and World War II's effect on their culture.

We also spent some time at the university's Large Animal Research Station (http://lars.iab.uaf.edu/index.php).  They do research with musk ox, caribou, and reindeer.  The musk ox shed Qiviut every Spring. It's one of the rarest fibers on earth and is currently valued at $25.00 per ounce.  An average musk ox will produce 5 pounds of Qiviut per year.  The native people use it for knitting to make hats, scarves, and sweaters.

We learned the difference between caribou and reindeer.  Reindeer are a subspecies of caribou and originated in Siberia.  Reindeer are domesticated and used for hauling freight or portage. Caribou, on the other hand, are not domesticated.  The photo is of a caribou.  Caribou have long thin legs that consist of bone and tendon, no muscle.  The lack of muscle in their legs allow their leg temperature to remain in the 50s while their body core temp is 105.  Very useful for running through thick snow.  The tendons in their legs make a clicking sound when they walk.  Caribou love to eat willow.

Tuesday evening we took a dinner cruise aboard a steamboat in the Chinook River at Fairbanks.  We had a nice meal of prime rib and salmon.  The picture below is of a traditional fish camp along the river.  There is a large fish trap in the river and salmon hanging to dry in the shelter to the left of the cabin. 

On Wednesday we did some shopping in downtown Fairbanks.  Now this is absolutely the place to find cold weather gear.  Hats and gloves and boots and coats of all kinds.   We're finding that it's really interesting to shop in places where the climate is so different from our own.  You see so many new things.

While in downtown Fairbanks, we went to the Ice Museum  

(http://www.icemuseum.com/).  We saw numerous ice sculptures and watched a film about the World Ice Art Championship held each year in Fairbanks (http://www.icealaska.com/).  We also watched a demonstration by one of the sculptors.

The girls and I spent some time at the Farthest North Girl Scout Council office.  We visited with the staff, bought some Farthest North Council patches, and received information on some of their badges.  For example, they have badges for ice fishing and dog mushing, just to name a few. The girls are working on the dog mushing badge now.  They thought it was really interesting to see the different badges available in this area. I think it has helped to renew their interest in badge work.

We did the El Dorado Gold Mine Tour outside Fairbanks (http://www.eldoradogoldmine.com/) on Wednesday evening.   This was a great tour with a train that took you through the mine where you could see the different layers and old gold mining equipment.  We also saw an operating sleuth.  The material that's left at the end of the sleuth process is called concentrate.  This concentrate is what we're using to pan for gold in the picture below.  By using concentrate, they guarantee that you'll find gold in your pan or they give you more concentrate. And sure enough, we all found gold.  Hannah did the best, she found $ 21.00 worth.

On Thursday we visited Denali National Park.  It was cloudy again, as it usually is here.  And you can only drive in 15 miles along the park road in your own vehicle.  There are bus tours that take you in farther, but with the weather, we opted not to do that.  It was disappointing to be here for a second time and still not get to see Mount McKinley.  It's been so rainy here that even the locals are saying "It's like we didn't even get a summer."

We did see a moose in Denali and that was exciting.  Sure made me wish for a larger zoom lens though.

Sophie continues to be a great little traveler.  She enjoys going and is very disappointed whenever she does have to stay behind.  Here's a picture of her settling in for a nap in the back seat.