Alaska Trip Day 13 Fairbanks The End of The Road

 Day 13 The End of The Road

 Fairbanks is the last stop before we head back to or normal lives. First stop of the day was the Alaskan Pipeline, not overly thrilling but interesting non the less.

After the pipeline we went to downtown Fairbanks where we ate lunch and visted the Yukon Quest Education Center where they had puppies up for adoption. 

 I wanted to take them all home so badly, but alas it was not to be. After some puppy cuddling and therapy, we were off to our last outing before going back to the hotel. The Riverboat Discovery Center was the next stop where we boarded the boat Discovery 3.

 The shops had some good last minute gifts and when we pulled in a person came on board to tell us what was there. Our person forgot to mention that Lance Macky was there so we did not find out until it was time to board the Discovery. We missed a chance to see him and his lead dog but I was able to buy his autographed book.

The river boat tore was intrasting you ride this big boat past all thes hoses then they tell you stories about the Alaska families that live by the river. We saw Susan Butcher's kennel which her husband and family now run. They talked and did a little demonstration with the dogs before the boat took us to the main destination which was an  

re-creation of the Alaskan native villages. It was informative but being an animal lover I did not take that many pictures because of all the fur everywhere and the main attraction was a beautifully crafted coat displayed by one of the guides that had a wolf fur hood. It was beautiful but since wolves are my favorite animals it did make me a bit sad.

An interesting house along the river.

After we returned from the riverboat tour, we headed to our last hotel before departing the following morning. We had dinner at the hotel in Fairbanks and then we went to hear Ken Anderson share his stories about mushing. It was a very good presentation.

Lance Mackey

We then went back to our room to finish packing and left early the next morning for a long day of travel back to our home in Florida. Thank you for following my blog of our trip to Alaska. I hope it was helpful to any of you who are traveling or are considering travel to Alaska. We had a wonderful time and I'd love to go back!

The difference between a reindeer and caribou is a that a caribou is wild.

Alaska Trip Day 12 Denali: Just Something Else

Our Train

 

    Day 12 Denali

This was one of the many things I had been looking forward to when the trip started and for the most part it lived up to my expectations. 

 I didn't get to see my wolf that I wanted to but other than that it was great. After we got off the train we took the long windy road up to our hotel which seemed precariously perched on the side of the cliff. After getting settled in, we had a quick dinner in the hotel before leaving for an excursion to see Jeff King's kennel where we got to hold and pet yet more puppies. 

 After letting us hold puppies, they showed us some training methods that they use, then we went into their barn, watched a short film, and listened to Jeff King talk about his experiences in the many races he has entered. Over all a good experience.

 That was all for the first day in Denali. The following morning we boarded the Denali bus, the only bus that can go through the park, and began our venture into the unknown that is wildlife. It was pretty tight in the bus and a little annoying and scary at times.  

We saw a good amount of wildlife and had two bathroom breaks, one on the way to the education center and the other at the education center, both of which are porta-potties. The education center has some really cool antlers that you can pick up and get a really close look at. 

A golden eagle