June 25, 2016 Anchorage and the Farmers Market and June 26, 2016 Trip to Wasilla and the Iditarod Museum, Scottish Games and Aurora Borealis Movie

Saturday, June 25, 2016 Anchorage and the Farmers Market

We stopped on the road to see if we could see Denali at the North View and the South View but she was in the clouds.  At one time we did see her peak but that was it.  We arrived at our campground before noon.  Mike and I have stayed at this one before and this time they were really packed with just a few sites available.  We had lunch and off we went.  Mike and I had a few vendors that we wanted to see again and Jim and Terry had a very good day seeing the talent a lot of these vendors had.  We all did some shopping. 

Sunday, June 26, 2016 Trip to Wasilla and the Iditarod Museum, Scottish Games and Aurora Borealis Movie

We woke up to it raining pretty good but we are still going and play in the rain.  We made it to the Iditarod Museum just in front of 2 buses and then they left and 3 more buses rolled in so it was a popular place.  Wasilla is where the Iditarod started in 1973.  The trail that is used is the same one the Athabascan used before the gold rush.  The movie that was shown gave you a good look at understanding the dogs and the mushers. 

As we headed out we heard that there were some Scottish games going on at the fairgrounds in Palmer.  So off we went to see them.  The clouds were hanging around but we got to watch some different games and then the rain decided to show its ugly head and that ended our afternoon. 

After dinner we headed downtown to see the Aurora movie.  This was very well done by a local person David Parkhurst.  He has been taking pictures for over 30 years of the Aurora Borealis.  No one can predict these lights.  They appear after the sun has had an eruption of a solar flare. The charged particles are drawn into our magnetic field and the gases emit the light we see as aurora.  The color can be green, pink-red, blue and purple and the rarest of color is red and red orange.  We all enjoyed the film.  I stated that it was a good way to see these Northern Lights without standing out in the winter’s cold. 


                                             VIEWS ALONG THE WAY

FARMERS MARKET IN ANCHORAGE

IDITAROD HEADWUARTERS

THE SCOTTISH GAMES WITH BILL "KAZ" KAZMAIER-WORLD'S STRONGEST MAN

SPIRIT BRIDGE 

June 23, 2016 NO POST and June 24, 2016 On the road to Anchorage, AK

Thursday, June 23, 2016 NO POST FOR TODAY

Friday, June 24, 2016 On the road to Anchorage, AK

We took our time getting out of the campground due to the fact that we were only going to drive halfway to Anchorage.  We did find a nice and pretty quiet rest stop where we could open our slides and relax.  We are going to get an early start tomorrow so we can have time at the huge farmers market as Terry and Jim haven’t been here yet.

OUR CAMPSITES AT FORT WAINWRIGHT IN FAIRBANKS

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SOME PICTURES OF RAILROAD TRUSSELS

OUR OVERNIGHT STOP

THE RIVER IS REALLY FLOWING

NICE MOUNTAIN RANGE

June 22, 2016 Visit to the Knotty Shop and at Pioneer Park

Wednesday, June 22, 2016 Visit to the Knotty Shop and at Pioneer Park

Our first stop of the day was to The Knotty Shop.  We all like wood items so we thought we would have a look.  The animals in the front are made from the burls in trees.  Someone did a good job.  I liked the mosquito the best.  You find a lot of this type of log around and they make all kinds of things from tables to poles.  Looks pretty cool.  I love to find traditional stuff that has been handed down from one generation to another.  So from time to time you will see something that has a story behind it.  Look at my picture and you will see what I am talking about.

Everyone stated that Pioneer Park was a must.  This park was very unique.  It opened in 1967 as the Alaska 67 Centennial Exposition. The exposition celebrated the 100^th anniversary of the purchase of Alaska from Russia. The park Museums and displays showing the history of Fairbanks and Alaska. They have move some cabins and houses from around Fairbanks to the park and they are used as shops and restaurants. Most of them were built around 1900. One of the shops belonged to Loomis the founder of the security company Loomis.  It is a very cool place with some very unique shops. They have shops with homemade Christmas items, shops that make wood carving and one shop carved figures out of ancient walrus ivory.  He was very talented man. This place  encompasses 44 acres.

Happy Birthday to my brother Paul.

                                    THESE PICTURES ARE FROM THE KNOTTY SHOP

THIS IS A NEAT WAY TO KEEP KIDS INTERESTED IN THE STORIES

                                        THESE ARE PHOTOS FROM PIONEER PARK

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LOOMIS SECURITY CABIN

OUR LUNCH PLACE

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THIS WAS MY FAVORITE SHOP AND THE ARTIST JUSTIN DOES AMAZING WORK  SEE FOR YOURSELF            

HIS SMALL DOG CHARLIE

HIS SHOP

CHECK OUT THE DETAIL AND THIS IS ALL DONE BY HAND

PRESIDENT HARDING'S RR CAR

SOME PRETTY GAZANIAS-THANKS FOR RESEARCHING

June 20, 2016 Trip to the North Pole, Alaska and June 21, 2016 Ice Museum, Mushers Museum and the Visitor and Cultural Center, Fairbanks

Monday, June 20, 2016 Trip to the North Pole, Alaska

Terry and I started our morning by doing some much needed laundry and the boys went to replace the broken belt from yesterday and other repair things. 

 After lunch we headed to the North Pole.  I expected it to be much bigger than it was.  It was a nice store with a lot of Christmas things.  We bought some items but didn’t find that special thing.  Still a good day and we headed home.

 Tuesday, June 21, 2016 Ice Museum, Mushers Museum and the Visitor and Cultural Center, Fairbanks

We were going to go to Pioneer Park but the weather had other ideas.  It started to rain and was expected to rain most of the day so we changed our plans to do inside stuff. The place was the Ice Museum.  We thought that we were only going to see sculptures.  The first 25 minutes we watched a movie explaining how the Ice Sculpturing first got started in 2005 in Fairbanks.  Now Fairbanks has the title of The Ice Sculpting Capital of the World!  The Competition occurs in the month of March and people from around the world compete.  Some of these sculptures are 20 feet tall.  Last year they actually cut 1500 blocks of ice and they measure 5’x8’x3’. 

After the movie lights came on and we were allowed to walk into their freezer rooms with their ice displays.  Temperature was 20 degrees.  They were nice enough to supply us with nice winter coats. There was an ice bar, a snowmobile, a house with table and benches, dog sled and the best part was the ice slide.  I screamed as I was going down it but it was fast and it was fun.

Then we went to the Musher’s Museum and saw a short film of an Yukon Quest race as lunch was served from the restaurant next door.  There was a lot of memorabilia and information about the mushers, dogs and the races.  Terry was looking for a shirt but no shirt for her. The Yukon Quest Race goes from Fairbanks, AK to Whitehorse, YT. This is not to be confused with the Iditarod which starts in Anchorage and goes to Nome.

Jim had an idea to go and find the antlers arch.  We went around a couple of blocks before we got a map and it turned out to be at the Visitors and Cultural Center.  Terry had wanted to see this place so we did both.  We saw a dance performance done by the Alaska Native youth. We saw a lot of Cultural displays as well as the antlers arch.  Moose and caribou antlers were donated from all over Alaska to form this arch.  This wasn’t such a bad day in the rain after all.

Santa's House at the North Pole AK

Terry and Jim

Check out this map of Fairbanks-see the sleigh?  The interstate was planned like this

STATUE IN THE PARK

ANOTHER SIDE OF THE STATUE




SHOTS FROM THE ICE MUSEUM

THIS SLED WAS USED IN THE 2008 YUKONQUEST AND IDITAROD

MIKE LOVES THIS PELT

INTERNATIONAL ANTLER ARCH

June 18, 2016 Trip to Hurricane Gorge, local shops and Dog Sled Show and June 19, 2016 Travel day to Fairbanks, AK

Saturday, June 18, 2016 Trip to Hurricane Gorge, local shops and Dog Sled Show

Well everyone we didn’t hit the jackpot today.  The clouds were over Denali so no sighting today.  We started our day with a short 30 minute ride to the Hurricane Gulch.  It is just a big bridge going across the gorge.  We couldn’t stop when we were in the motorhome on the way here so we thought we would check it out in a car.   It was a pretty setting.

We then headed to the shops which was 30 miles in the other direction from our campground.  So it was an hour or so ride to the shops.  Mike spotted a moose in the water so Jim turned around and we oohed and ahhed at a moose in the water.  Before you knew it there were about 6 cars doing the same thing. 

We continued on to the shops.   It was just a strip of shops but Mike liked some pelts (grey fox, wolf and lynx) and Terry and I found some gorgeous jewelry but neither of us bought a thing.  Nice to look at but over our budget just a little bit, oh well.  We then had a quick lunch of pizza and headed back to the campground. 

As we headed back we started looking at the place where we saw the moose in the morning.  Well she was still there and as a bonus there was another cow with her calf.  We enjoyed watching them for awhile and then we continued on our way.  We didn’t get to far when Mike spotted another moose.  Again this was another cow but this time there was 2 calves with her.  We stayed until she decided that she was going to take her little ones into the woods. Mike is sure getting his fill of moose. 

Sunday, June 19, 2016 Travel day to Fairbanks, AK

We headed out about 830 am and it was raining.  Not my favorite condition to drive in. It was just a little over 100 miles of traveling today.  We weren’t very long on the road when Mike put on his brakes quickly to miss us hitting a moose.  Moose can run when they want to!   Well that got our blood flowing.  We were 22 miles out of Fairbanks when Jim radioed us to say that he was overheating.  We pulled over, put on flashers and triangles out to find out what the problem was.  It was a BROKEN SERPENTINE BELT.  Mike and Jim had discussed before leaving the east coast what spare things to bring guess what that was one of them.  Within 2 hours the boys had replaced the belt and we were back on the road.  Thank goodness we had some handymen.  

We checked in to the campground at Fort Wainwright and decided that we were going to go downtown for the Summer Solstice street party.  The bands were good especially the steel drum band.  We tasted some spinach bread that was very good and we came back to the same place for dessert which was blueberry/rhubarb cobbler.  We had dinner and walked around a little more and headed home.  Terry and I were extremely tired.



                                                         HURRICANE GULCH

MOOSE IN THE NATURAL SUROUNDINGS--WATER

CARLO LOOK THEY NAMED A CREEK AFTER YOU!!!!


DOG GONE IT SLED DOGS / THE WOLF'S DEN KENNEL

OUR SITE



SCENES ON THE WAY TO FAIRBANKS