Tuesday, August 16, 2016

The Great Alaska Trip - The Beginning

For starters, I splurged and flew first class to Fairbanks.  That was a treat! 13 hours travel time, so the extra space was appreciated.

We are spending two nights in a Bed and Breakfast.  That's a loosely defined term here in these parts, but it's perfectly fine for two nights.  At least there is indoor plumbing! The weather is surprisingly warm, but a great relief from the heat of Florida this time of year.

The first evening, I didn't nothing but chat with my traveling companions Kathy, Pete, and Chris (I didn't arrive at the B&B till after 9:00.) Alaska is 4 hours earlier than my part of Florida, so I was pretty beat.

Today, we walked Fairbanks.  There is not much here, which is a bit surprising, but the flowers are just amazing, as are the many vegetable gardens we saw.  Everything is huge.  
We visited the Museum of the North at Alaska University. There are some marvelous exhibits, including many about the women that are a big part of Alaskan history and development. The size of the whale bones was a surprise to me.  
You know in your head that they are huge creatures, but still - you feel quite small standing next to the bone that is in their head.

There were also many dinosaur bones, and of course bears and moose.  Again I was surprised at the hugeness of the moose - they're enormous! I hope we see some "on the hoof" as we continue our adventure.

As we wondered back into Fairbanks, we stopped at the Cultural Museum, which was also interesting, but not as much as the one at the university.  The Cultural Museum had fabulous gardens, though, and an adorable outhouse.  


Speaking of adorable, one of the first things I saw today was this great door on an antique shop,
and one of the last things was this tiny house that is so charming I'm sure a faerie would want to move in and call it home.

We enjoyed a good dinner at the restaurant in the Marrriott hotel.  I had fish and chips (halibut - of course), and I enjoyed a really good IPA from Seattle along with my meal.  It just seems wrong to have anything but beer with fish and chips.  

After a lovely day enjoying the weather and the outdoors, we came back to our little B&B. We fought with the mosquitoes along the way, but emerged mostly unscathed - except for Pete.  They are really attracted to poor Pete! Tomorrow we pack up and move to the Princess Lodge to join up with our tour.  I'm looking forward to that experience.  

Random pics from the day.

The Bears I encountered today.


Cabbage growing at the cultural center.

Incredible woven grass baskets at the Museum of the North.

A jade Boulder.  Amazing!

This archway is from real antlers and heads. It's spectacular, really.  

Mastodon and mammoth bones. So gigantic!


Stay tuned! And thanks for stopping by.


4 comments:

  1. Love your Blog, Gale!!! Looking forward to your Tour adventures in Alaska!!! ENJOY!!!

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  2. Good to see you have met so many bears that aren't hungry!!!! Glad the scenery is so pretty with all the beautiful flowers and cute places. Have fun.

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  3. Glad you are enjoying your trip. The best is yet to come. Hoping Denali will be out of the clouds

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  4. Glad you are enjoying your trip. The best is yet to come. Hoping Denali will be out of the clouds

    ReplyDelete

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