Denali

Got up today about 5:45. Needed to get our bags outside our door by 6:30. Ate leftover pizza for breakfast. Went down to meet up with the tour. Turns out that Paul our assigned tour guide , is a bit of a comedian. Lots of energy, crazy with kids, likes to tell jokes making our bus kind of the party bus. We first took a little tour of Fairbanks and were shown options for lunch. Then drove out to the Chema Riverboat and took a cruise down the river. Fairbanks is one of the wealthiest places and all the wealth had homes along the river. People obviously took great pride in the appearance of their property as they were very pristine. We stopped along the shore in front of Susan Butcher who was the famous woman dog sled racer. She died of cancer some years ago but her daughter still runs her kennel. We got a demo of dog shedding and saw some puppies. After that, we continued down river to the Chema River camp where we saw a village of native peoples and how they lived. After the cruise, we went to have lunch at the best BBQ restaurant in Fairbanks. We both had brisket sandwiches which were excellent. Then walked around that part of town along the river to an antler arch. Got back to the bus and headed to Denali. Checked into the hotel. Then headed to do a little White Water Rafting. Sue was quite nervous about going but had a good time once she realized she wouldn’t fall out of the boat. Got back to the Hotel about 10:30. There are no pictures of us rafting because the wet suits they made us wear was the most unflattering thing to wear. You felt like the stay puff marshmallow man. That was a ‘what happens in Alaska stays in Alaska’ moment.Read more