June 27,2018

Free in Fairbanks

We have absolutely nothing on our agenda today. This was a day set aside to poke around in Fairbanks and get a sense of the city.  We have been whining so much about the lack of professionalism in our hospitality dealings that we won’t go into our breakfast experience.  It perhaps only signifies that the trend for chain hotels to serve breakfast when they have no food service expertise on site is a good intention with predictable results.  That isn’t whining is it?

There is a huge military presence in Fairbanks with Army Fort Wainwright and Eielson Air Force base south of the city.  Out internet investigation tells us that Fort Wainwright is a great place to spend an hour or two in the visitor center and nosing around.  When we hit the visitor center, a prefab little office building outside the main gate, the soldier in charge has no idea what we are talking about.  She says this is the only visitor center and is designed to present your credentials for official visits.  We tell her that touring must be available because we read it on the internet, and she started to reach for her sidearm.  Not really but she was losing patience with us so we got out of there.

Mary remembered that we saw a promo for a farmer’s market and that is our next stop.  It is a pretty morning with bright blue skies and temps approaching the 70s.  Like the market in Anchorage produce is not the big deal here.  There are a lot of crafty things, canned goods, bakery items and food stands.  The produce that is here consists mostly of the early spring items like radishes and green onions, but what’s here is perfect.  Everyone is in a good mood and we have fun chatting with some of the vendors.

We considered a stop just south of Fairbanks at North Pole, Alaska tomorrow but since that will be a long driving day we opted to do it today.  These folks have their tourist aptitude set on high.  The street light poles are all candy canes (even the McDonalds sign has a candy cane post), streets have names like Santa Claus Lane and Holly Road, the Catholic Church is St Nicholas and the post office is three times as large as it should be.  We spend some time at Santa’s Village just in time to see the reindeer being fed.  When we go inside of their HUGE Christmas store it is suddenly mid-December. Bing Crosby and Johnny Mathis are singing to us as we mill among the decorated trees and check out all things Christmas.  Their new great marketing plan is a set of seasonal letters that will be mailed from here (North Pole) from Santa to whichever little tyke you choose.  You put the kid’s name and address on their list and they will get a summer letter from Santa letting them know how the summer weather is, what the elves are up to and if there are any new baby reindeer.  That will go on seasonally for as long as you are willing to keep the payments up.  Brilliant!  We spotted a little park in town and grabbed a picnic table for a lunch of restaurant leftovers where we were inundated with about 15 kids bringing their lunches and being supervised by ONE adult.

We make one more stab at military intelligence by checking in at Eielson AFB but no go there either.  It is doubtful we could have gotten into either with our Minnesota drivers licenses since the feds don’t recognize them as real ID.  Oh well, there are other places to go.

Back to Fairbanks. On the north side of town is a pretty big bird sanctuary where we stop to enjoy the day, get a few steps in and see of there are any flying critters present.  We take a little stroll around the area and see a few geese and sand hill cranes from a distance.  The Sandies are the bigger deal for us but it is hard to get a good view.

We try a collection of artist galleries that turn out to be something else.  Not to be quitters we go to Fairbank’s Pioneer Park.  This is right by our motel and pretty interesting.  They have moved a lot of the city’s original buildings (cabins) into a little village that now serve as shops and ice cream parlors, some historical presentations. They're joined by a big steamboat and railroad car and a few rides for the kiddies.  There is also a performance area where there is free entertainment every night during the summer.

We managed to fill up our Fairbanks exploration day.  When we get back to the hotel at 4:30 our room still hasn’t been made up.  There must be signs on our backs telling our hospitality brethren to mistreat us.  They do get right on it this time and we only miss a half hour of nap time.

Dinner tonight is at the Pumphouse that is a restaurant in a Pumphouse.  Imagine that.  This is an

old building along the Chena River that was used to move river water into the city.  The restaurant is huge and laid out like our final version at the Lodge.  There is a year-round inside dining room, a seasonal glassed in deck, and an outdoor deck along the river.  The inside dining room and the outdoor deck are much bigger than our version while the seasonal deck is the same. The place is packed and there are tour buses outside so this is the volume option in town.  We are seated promptly on the seasonal deck and enjoy watching the action of a busy big restaurant.  Our server seems competent if a little overwhelmed.  We get a nice bottle of Italian red, we both have a cup of the excellent seafood chowder, John has the scallops with birch syrup (local specialty) and tons of veggies and Mary has the cheese and reindeer sausage plate.  The reindeer did not come from Santa’s Village in North Pole.  They have 19 Crimes wine on their list but our server isn’t aware of the app.

We both try to read for a half hour when we get back to the hotel but it isn’t happening.

Today’s News: Justice Kennedy is resigning and let the wars begin. Just when we thought the bickering couldn’t get any worse…….