Cooling our heels in Fairbanks.....

Today is our third day in Fairbanks, and the weather has been gorgeous.  Yesterday we did the Walmart thing, then went to the downtown area for awhile.  Fairbanks has a mixture of modern buildings and antique log cabins.  Really is a clean town, with the Tanana River running smack thru the middle of it.  Our CG is on the banks of the same river.  Lots of people kayaking, but I haven’t gotten out yet.

Last evening we took a long drive up thru the mountains that surround Fairbanks, and saw a lot of expensive looking homes that are built back in the woods….quite a few of them are of log construction.  I would guess that they are within 15 miles of the downtown area.

We saw a really nice restaurant up in the mountains…will try to go back up there sometime this week.

We are having 19 hours of daylight now, and it is quite disconcerting to look out the window at 11:30 p.m., and see bright sunlight.  People out washing cars, etc., mowing lawns…..quite different.  We have black felt curtains over the bedroom windows to block the light, probably would be difficult to sleep without them.  Last night I had to get up and place the insert (velcro fastened) up into the shower skylight….too much light coming in.

After we got back from the drive, we stopped over next door at Chena’s Restaurant and had dinner. I had baked halibut with garlic mashed potatoes, and a cream sauce of some kind…really great!  Halibut and salmon are the most common fish on menus.  Shelby had pork loin with mashed sweet potatoes…she thought most of it was not cooked enough, and gave it to me.

We got up late this morning…I slept until almost 6:30 which is unusual for me.  Shelby finally made it up an hour later.  We had planned to go to the local farmer’s market, and thus got a late start.  We finally made it up there, and what a treat!  A lot of the stands were selling local grown veggies, mostly root vegetables, cabbage, lettuce, carrots, etc. No corn though (shucks!)  Local tomatoes are green house grown (due to the short growing season), but they have a really nice flavor.  Expensive though….$3.00 a pound.  Flowers just outdo themselves here, probably due to the lengthy days of full sunlight.  We bought a nice bouqet for the MH, first flowers we’ve had for quite awhile.   The downtown streets, businesses, have these huge hanging baskets of flowers.  We wondered how they ever got that big in 3 to 4 months…..lady selling plants at the Market clued us in:  they take them to local greenhouses, pay rent for them during the winter, then pick them up in the Spring.  Result:  ever growing hanging baskets.

Kind of nice to have a long rest after all those days of driving…..

After the Market, we went up to the University of Alaska Historical Museum.  Lots of displays, pictures, eskimo kayaks, fishing gear, etc.  We spent a couple of hours, then came home for lunch.  We bought a baked chicken at Fred Myers the other night, ate half of it, then made chicken soup out of the rest.  Had that for lunch, along with some of that crusty bread that Safeway sells.  Still haven’t had any dinner.  Crock pot really comes in handy.  On the way up we put the crock pot in the sink, connected it to the inverter, and made soup while we travelled….nice to have hot food at lunchtime.

We are thinking about just extending our stay here until we meet the kids down at Denali.  They still are kids, aren’t they?  Thought about moving down closer to Denali, but looks like there is a scarcity of CG’s down that way.  May call one of them before we make a decision.  Don, Sharron, Bill and Barbara are heading on down to Anchorage, and we will hook up with them later on.  Bill just told me today that he made reservations on the Ferry that leaves from Haines AK, and goes down to the Seattle area.  Takes three days, but cuts considerable time off the land route.  Guess he’s seen enough of the Alaska Highway.

Tomorrow we take the MH over to the Alaska RV Center to have the refrigerator repaired.  The other problems have solved themselves (I  hope!), so it should be a short trip.  Trying to figure out how to get it washed on the way back…it is completely covered with that grey mud/dust that people call “schmulk”.  CG doesn’t allow any washing on site, they want you to use their wash facility (fed by quarters).  I took the CRV over there, and barely got the soap off before my quarters ran out.