Day 13 - 08/04 -Fairbanks

 Today is our last day on this sea/land trip.  Tomorrow afternoon we fly back home to Seattle.  But what a nice day it's been.  We boarded our bus which was driven by Robin, winner of Miss Alaska Congeniality 2022.  Our first stop was at the Riverboat Landing by the airport.  We boarded the river boat and we're counseled to sit on the left or port side.  I knew why as we did this same cruise last year.  We departed and began our cruise down the river.  A float plane (SuperCub) did a take-off and landing demonstration on the river and a bit later we stopped for a sled dog demonstration at the kennels of the now deceased 4 time winner of the Iditarod, Susan Butcher.  Her husband operates the kennel and training facility and did a demo for us.  We cruised down the river and turned around and stopped at the Chena Village which is a recreation of a typical Athabaskan village.  We had 3 guided demonstrations and were then allowed to roam around.  Jakob and I found the sled dogs and the stuffed moose pair that died when their horns interlocked.  It's an informative cultural stop. The trip continued back up the river past many houses of various quality levels ranging from a school bus to multi-million mansions.



Back at the main landing we were treated to a really nice miner's lunch of meat stew, salad, and a brownie for dessert.  Afterwards we did a little shopping and unfortunately the chamber that allows one to experience -40f was broken.  We did it last year and it was a very cool experience (figuratively and literally.


Robin then took us to the #8 Dredge where there was a short presentation on the Alyeska Pipeline which runs through the property.  We then boarded the Eldorado wood fired train that took us through a series of displays about mining back in the day.  We ended up at the dredge where we first panned for gold.  I panned out $18 and Jakob and Angela panned $28 which we had put into a keychain for Jakob.  Jakob and I then climbed through the dredge and thoroughly enjoyed it.  We were then taken back to our hotel and enjoyed a very nice dinner that was included as part of our tour fare.  We could order off of the menu a starter, an entree,, and dessert.  The total for the 3 of us was nearly $200, and all paid for!






We're spending a quiet evening in the room and will do a short visit to a local museum before getting taken to the airport for our late afternoon flight.


It's been a great trip to spend time with our grandson and give him some experiences with us.  He does like cruising and his top 5 things are:  Puppies, whale watching, pool, Club Hal, and ice cream.  I think the trip has been a success for him.


Stay tuned for more travel tales.  We have a major trip coming in Oct-December.


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