Alaskan Saga, continued, Day 3

In the morning, our tour bus took us to Fairbanks University where we got to see their experimental gardens and took a hayride around the farming area of the campus. The Fairbanks area has 22 hours of daylight in July, (and only 2 hours of sunlight in January!) so although their growing season is only 3 months long, it is very intense, allowing them to grow cabbages that weigh over 100 pounds and the most beautiful flowers you could imagine!

Next we stopped and checked out the Pipeline. My husband is over six feet tall, and he had to stretch to reach the underbelly of the pipeline in this area, but about 100 yards from there, the pipe went underground. We were told that about half of the pipeline is buried underground. Here is some info I found online about it. The 800-mile-long Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) is one of the world's largest pipeline systems. Starting in Prudhoe Bay on Alaska’s North Slope, TAPS stretches through rugged and beautiful terrain to Valdez, the northernmost ice-free port in North America.

On our way to Denali National Park we stopped at North Pole, Alaska, so I had to have my picture taken with Santa to show the grandkids! Then we headed on down the highway and arrived at Denali just in time to see a very entertaining show about Alaskan history at the Cabin Night Theater. The delicious food was served roundhouse style. Afterwards, even though it was almost nine o'clock, it was still bright daylight so we settled into our cabin then walked to the lodge and back.

They Almost Always Come Home by Cynthia Ruchti...
...will be finding a new home with Karen K. who is the winner of my monthly drawing. The drawing for this month will be for a gently used autographed copy of Colleen Coble's Alaska Twilight which just travelled over 6,000 miles with me to Alaska and back. To get you in the mood to read this book I will be posting some pics from our Alaskan adventure each week this month, so be sure to check often to see the pics, and the more times you post a comment, the more chances you have to win this great book! Rules are the same as usual--everyone with a US mailing addy who posts is eligible except for the previous winner--Karen K.

Our group of mostly farmers, retired farmers and retired teachers arrived in Fairbanks on the evening of the 20th of July. The next morning we boarded our tour bus for Chena Hot Springs, a resort and experimental farm about an hour out of Fairbanks owned and run by Mr. Bernie Karl, a man with more ideas than Einstein! We toured his hydroponics greenhouse and geothermal building, and also went to extreme temperatures when we toured the Ice Palace where it stays 20 degrees year around and then got in the hot springs which is scalding enough to burn at the edges, but very relaxing and soothing in the middle. My husband and the other farmers also enjoyed the old farm machinery around the place.

After leaving there, we drove back to Fairbanks for an Alaskan Salmon Bake and musical about life in the frontier of Alaska at Pioneer Park. We were joined for this meal by another Harrison County-grown young man, Nate Thornton, whom we have known since he was born and who is now serving in the Army there. We were also glad to see his wife--Stephanie, another HC girl. A great first day! Be sure to check back for this continuing saga.