Then went and sat in the the pipeline.
The Riverboat Discovery III was a wonderful trip. We highly recommend it. Did you know that Alaskans eat more ice cream per capita than residents of any other state? We just learned that, we don't know why that is though. The narrator on the Riverboat claimed it was because they don't have to worry about it melting in the winter on the way home from the grocery store. I am sure he was joking.
The boat tour was great, we can't say enough about it. Make sure you go early to Fairbanks so you can do this. Steve got some souviners for the back yard and we found another ornament and a cool photo album. We actually plan to print some of the photos this time and make a scrap book.
The ship offered free coffee and homemade doughnuts on the cruise, but trying to stick to our diets we had juice and a bagel. Again we could tell this was the first cruise of the season. The help was very friendly, but clearly didn't know where everything was. On our bus over to the riverboat, it was just the four of us again. The same couple from Florida was with us, and about a half a dozen new grayline employees learning the ropes. On the boat itself there were only about thirty people. It was great! The boat can hold 900 people, so we practically had an entire deck to ourselves. A definite advantage of traveling early in the seasion.
We saw some amazing homes on the river. Most of them were log homes. One home had a wood burning jaccuzi. That was one of the most unusual things we saw. There was an air strip at the waters edge and a lot of planes in peoples back yard. Alaska has the largest percentage of licensed pilots per capita. Because most of Alaska is inaccessible by land, the only way to get most places is by boat or plane.
We stopped and talked with Susan Butcher. She is a three time Iditarod champion. She talked about her kennel and how she trains her dogs. It was very cool how they had a wireless microphone for her that was linked to the speakers on the riverboat.
Further down river we saw a fish camp. This is where the natives would capture and clean fish. The indian was able to "dress" a 15 pound salmon in under one minute. It was quite impressive.
Just before the boat was turned around to go back up the river, we saw a nest of ravens with lots of little baby ravens. Hopefully the pictures will come out. It was really hard to see from the boat without binoculars.
The boat turned back up river and stopped at a native Alaskan village. We learned how the native Athabascan indians lived before they met civilization, after civilization found them and how they live today. We met Dixie Alexander, she is a very famous clothing maker who is famous for her bead work. Some of her work is in the Smithsonian.
After our visit to the village, we boarded the ship and headed back to the landing. After the boat trip we browsed the gift shop. Someone said it would not be Alaska if there was not a gift shop on every corner. We had already bought our stuff from the gift shop, so we were just hanging out until it was time to board the bust.
After the riverboat we headed over to the Gold Dredge 8. We had a hearty beef stew lunch with some really good biscuits. Steve forgot to ask for the recipe. After lunch we toured the gold dredge.
Gold dredging is a lot like strip mining in the lower 48 states. The day that Alaska became a state, the gold dredge shut down on the spot. They basically just walked away from it. There is still some gold in the rock piles. A few years ago, someone was walking on the piles and found a $29K gold nugget.
At the end of the tour, we were given a chance to try our hand at panning gold. Man, gold panning is hard work! We now know why this was a hard living. Steve only got one grain of gold (about $2) and Angie got approximately 5 grains (about $9). It didn't exactly pay for the price of the trip - ha ha.
After the gold dredge, the bus took us to the Alaska Pipeline. We were happy
since we had lost the pictures from the day before. We snapped all the same
pictures we had previously taken. This time they had brochures which they
didn't have the day before. The rest of the bus passengers must have thought we
were crazy when we took off to the end of the pipeline to stand on it.
Then went and sat in the the pipeline.
After our brief stop at the pipeline, we headed back to the hotel. The dinner cruise that I spent five months trying to get booked was cancelled because of engine problems. I am not sure I believe that. We had to get a refund. This in itself was quite the experience. Basically, all of the help was just starting, so they were very green and did not know what to do. I was quite patient and helped them through their difficulty. When Angie went to our room, we had another person's tour packet in our room. Also, we had no train boarding passes.
We had a couple of drinks in the bar and some appetizers while we watched the Padres lose yet again - this time to the Atlanta Braves. Since we had an early wake up call the next day (6am), we headed to bed.