Fairbanks

Got up and had breakfast. Checked out of our hotel. Arranged for a cab to take us to the Bear Lodge which is the hotel we’re we join our cruise tour. Since it was too early to check in, we arranged to have our bags stored until we could check in. Just to pause for a moment for an aside comment. The people in Fairbanks are some of the nicest people I’ve ever encountered. Minnesota nice has nothing to Fairbanks. The people at the hotel we’re helping us plan our day. Giving suggestions. The plan for today was to catch a city bus out to North Pole. They told us we’re to catch the bus and we’re to transfer. We caught the bus and the driver was very friendly. He told us this weekend in Fairbanks was their solstice party. They close down all downtown and have a big party. The big event is the rubber ducky race. You buy a rubber duck put you name on it and everyone throws them into the Chena river and see who makes it to the finish line about a mile downstream. Winner wins $10000.
We had to wait about an hour to catch the next bus out to North Pole due to things have a tendency of closing down during break times. When breaks were over services resume. So we bummed around town a little. Problem was nothing opened until 11am and it was 10am so we window shopped until we happened upon an open shop. We returned to the bus station just as break time finished and service resumed. The bus driver took one look at us and determined we were going to North Pole. I asked if we had tourists written all over us to which she said yes. We laughed and she said she would take care of us. She dropped us off and said she would be back in 2 hours to pick us up. So we shopped around the store then went out to see the reindeer. We met up with a couple who was on the trip yesterday. Small world Alaska is.

Got back to downtown Fairbanks and shopped around for a bit . Decided to go to a place called the crepery. And yes they served crepes. We both tried the crème brûlée with berries. I thought Sue had died and gone to heaven. They were delicious. After we went to the ice museum. That was a lot of fun. Headed back to the hotel and got checked in. Met our guide Paul who gave us all our information we would need for the duration of the land portion of the trip. We went to an Italian restaurant for dinner and had pizza which was delicious. Settled in for the night was we got a thunderstorm. Most of the day was sunny and warm but did get some a couple of short showers.Read more