We were able to sleep in since our bus didn't leave until 9:00. Also, it was nice to be able to have all of our suitcases and to be able see some of the clothes we'd packed away for "storage".
Shawn was even able to do some proper laundry last night since this hotel had a coin operated laundromat. I've been washing socks, underwear, and jeans in the hotel sinks all along the way. I figured it was easier to have a few ounces of Tide than to haul 20+ underwear, and 20+ socks, and multiple turtle necks, and jeans. Also, I only packed one t-shirt because I knew that I'd buy some here. Pretty smart of me, right?!
And so just for a change, I wore my denim skort, a white short sleeved sweater, white zip up hoodie, and took a break from the red scarf by switching to tie-dyed blue. A change of clothes is refreshing!
We had our breakfast at the hotel (another buffet) and got ready to board our bus to take us to the Alaska Pipeline and the gold dredging experience. Once we got to the site we heard a little history about the Pipeline and got to actually touch the real pipe because at this point, the line runs about 7 or 8 feet above ground.
From there we took a train that stopped along the way to view giant gold dredging artifacts, bits of historical reenactments and a how-to demonstration for panning for gold.
A sample section of what it looks like inside the Pipeline. (Capitalize the "P" in
Pipeline? One word, not two... Alaska or Alyeska?)
Needless to say, we panned for gold. Nicholas bolted off the train and ran up to two cute girls holding bags of rocks for us to use. I told him to get his bag from the red-haired girl because red-hair is lucky and kind of like gold. (I don't know where I came up with that one, but the girl smiled and Nicholas seemed confident with his bag selection.) Then, we dumped our gravel into the pan, added water, and started swishing the slurry to separate out the "pay dirt".
Looking for a "flash in the pan" was harder than I thought it would be since a lot of the mica is also shiny. We all made out pretty well with between $5 and $18 of real gold bits. Summer got a cute locket/pendant filled with her gold plus Grandma and Grandpa's gold too. (When we were in Vancouver I saw a lady in the hotel elevator who was wearing the gold nugget locket and commented to her about how pretty I thought it was. So, I knew that was going to be available for purchase at the end if the gold dredging experience.) I really liked the locket but they didn't have anything "boyish" so Nicholas decided to just keep his in a small black cylinder like a film case. We decided that we'd get him a special clear box once we got home and he was ok with that.
Then, back in the train to finish our gold dredging and mining history lesson with fresh cookies in hand. (Nicholas had two!)
Once we were back to our pickup point, it was time to get back onto the bus which was to take us to downtown Fairbanks for lunch and shopping. As I got on the bus I noticed that almost every female was proudly wearing her new gold locket. I thought that was really cute that a bunch of oldish ladies were like kids with their new necklaces...hoping someone would notice.
Lunch in Fairbanks was a slight disaster. We chose a locally owned restaurant although our guide warned us that the owner had a reputation of being quite gruff. Well, he was fine. It's the wait staff that could have benefitted from a little lesson in customer service. Sadly, the food was very ordinary and so we ate and were off to do some shopping.
It turns out that although the waitress was super fast getting our orders...we only had about twenty minutes for shopping. Oh well, 'cause there wasn't much shopping to do. As we walked out of the restaurant we had to step out of the way of four drunks pouring out of the bar next door. They looked like "locals" with long black stringy hair, tanned faces, and shabby but not "homeless" looking type clothes. Two of the women stumbled down the sidewalk arm in arm and I could overhear their conversation. One was consoling the other about some wrong done by someone else. It was a sad scene, especially for noon on a Wednesday.
Whirlwind shopping in downtown Fairbanks consisted of two shops. The first shop I went in was between the restaurant and the bar. It was a fur and leather store. Some of the furs were clearly manufactured in house. They had whole (empty) critters hanging by their eye sockets up for display. It was kind of fun to stick my arm up the rear end and have my hand come out the mouth, fingers wiggling in the eye sockets. We felt pelts! (I couldn't resist.)
Onward to a bead shop. I had no intention to buy beads but I was mostly interested in seeing their local goods. There were three "local" looking women sitting in the store. One was making a very complicated seed bead barber pole necklace. That type of bead work is very common and not my style because of the extreme precision one must use when stringing the tiny beads into a tiny thread that is the same color as the beads. And then you can't mess up the color pattern! No thanks! I commented on how hard that piece was that she was making. With a nearly toothless smile she accepted the compliment and then showed me some other pieces she had done with a bead size that was even smaller! Bravo lady! Bravo for learning a craft and for perfecting it and bravo for being industrious and for making something beautiful. As we walked around the store, I commented to my kids that this was just like being in "Miss Holly's" (my local Tampa bead store owner) except that this bead shop also had fur and antler remnants for sale. Ew!
Back on the bus to go to the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. We had about an hour and a half to meander through the displays. Although the kids were a little bored, I could have stayed there longer.
When we did our Denali school bus tour the driver/guide told us of a program called "Artist in Residence" where an artist gets to live in a cabin inside the park with the sole purpose of that person's role is to be inspired and to create art influence by their experience. One caveat is that they must submit one piece if their art to the park. In between ancient artifacts were paintings which were created by those artists. Then, upstairs was an entire gallery just devoted to local artists and works inspired by Denali. I really enjoyed seeing that. Much of the art we have been exposed to on the cruise ship and in hotels is horrid and this was such a nice mixture of native looking scenes and icons, mountain creatures, landscapes, and funky recycled/found art, with movies to explain about the artist or the technique...even just a movie of sights and sounds of Alaska displayed in a soothing sequence across five or more panels. That was nice.
Can you guess where Summer is?
Hint: She needs privacy!
Outhouse art! It kind of goes along with the pooping family obsession.
Then we went into the gift store only to find another gallery devoted to Denali's climbers. But, it was time to get back in the bus and we couldn't linger too long there. Summer found an interactive section which asked for folks to write on a sticky note where they were going after the museum. She took pride in writing California!
We had dinner in the hotel and had a great time messing around with the practice putting green, the porch swings over looking the river, the bucket of stones for tossing into said river, and the fire pit. Needless to say, I built a roaring fire...with only one flick of a lighter and no "fire starter log". (Thanks to Mr. Carlos and Boy Scouting for teaching me.). I was even able to complete the task while wearing a white sweater! Damn. I'm good. I'm ready to be an Alaskan sustenance homesteader.
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