Three Days in Fairbanks!

Not the traditional Spring Break someplace warm and beery, but Fairbanks - 18 degrees below zero this morning!  Fortunately, it hasn't been quite that cold since we got here on Wednesday.  We flew up on a 7 am flight, and it's less than an hour to get here.  We already posted about Day 1, so Day 2, Thursday, we went to see the ice carvings in the morning, "ice art" - we published them all on Facebook but will give you a couple of them here.  We went back at night to see them lit up, and that's what we included here - it will be hard to choose the ones to show you -- go to Facebook and see the whole album if you can!

In between our two ice carving trips, we went skiing again - this time on trails behind the university -- really nice cross-country trails, all groomed for skate skiing and classical skiing.  We came back tired and cold and had soup in our microwave and salads we picked up on the way back before going out for the "evening viewing!"  We also found a place to watch the Northern Lights both this night and Friday night, which made the trip for Judy -- she's been dying to see them!

Friday we went to the Museum of the North, a very nice museum at the University of Alaska Fairbanks that houses an art collection, artifacts and stories of each of the geographic areas of Alaska, and other Alaska Native artifacts and features of the wildlife here.  Then we drove to North Pole, Alaska, which is quiet this time of year but must be wild during tourist season!  Santa Claus Dr., Mistletoe Lane, St. Nicholas Drive, and all of the other accompaniments that go with Santa Claus!

We had lunch there, and we had intended to ski again, but we got lazy when the temperature stayed below 10 degrees, with a light wind.  Instead we went out to dinner at the Pump House and then to an Alaska Native event with fiddlers and dancing for all ages from babies to the almost-90 Native man, an elder, who was as lively and dancing as anyone and a lot livelier than most people there! Wish we had taken pictures!

We'll have to make sure we do something today before we leave on a 3 pm flight - who knows when we'll be back in Fairbanks!  We'll be back in Anchorage at 4 pm, just in time to have a ski there (where it's warmer - about 26 degrees today)!  It's been a great trip to the interior and a look at another aspect of Alaska - it's such a big place to explore!