Day Eight

After yesterday's rest day, today was another early start. Up by 5.45am and ready to leave just after 7am. Ann's hand still looked like Popeye's after he had had some spinach. We were heading to the airport so decided to take the bus. As we were about to leave I looked at the app to judge when a bus was coming but noticed there were no buses. Looked at the bus timetable and saw that on Sundays the buses didn't start until after 8am. Had to get an Uber instead.

Arrived at the airport and having already checked in online went straight to security and through. Got a drink and waited for the plane. Boarded and we set off quite swiftly. When we were looking for things to do in Alaska, we looked into the possibility of driving north to a small airfield and then catching an aeroplane tour of Denali, the tallest peak in North America. Ann contacted the tour with the best reviews but they said there weren't running any tours this year, so we didn't bother pursuing it any further.  Anyway today the flight went past Denali and we got a brief view of the peak out of the window.

Poking up above the clouds

Thought we at least we got to see it. Within forty five minutes we had arrived at Fairbanks. We chose to fly there as if we had gone there and back by train or car we would have spent two days travelling. Deplaned and headed for the car rental desks. Picked up our car for the day. It was a Ford Fusion.

Fusion

Headed out in to Fairbanks and towards our first stop. Got there twenty minutes before it opened so decided to go and find a place to get a drink. Ann decided on here buckoscoffee-ak.com

Menu

Decided on two medium bandits, a cinnamon roll and a chocolate chip muffin. Had to queue for a while as it was quite popular. Chatted to the server about where we were going today. She seemed to agree with our choices of places to visit. Headed off to eat and drink back at our first stop. When we finished we headed in. fountainheadmuseum.com

The woman on the till asked us where we were from. We told her. She said 'I couldn't decide if it was the UK or Australia'. Wanted to point out it was actually quite easy to tell the difference but instead just laughed politely.

Walked around and saw lots of cars. Here are some of them.

Yellow Car

Another car

Light blue car

Dark blue car

Beige Car

Red car

Car with bonnet up

Blue round nose car

Parasol car

Four poster bed car

Old car

Red car 2

There were plenty more than that selection. It was a typical American museum. Very clean and well designed and we enjoyed seeing the cars. Got a fridge magnet. 

Once out we got in the car and tried to find somewhere to eat. Went to one place but it was very busy. There was a twenty minute wait just to be seated. Decided we didn't have that time to waste so went looking for somewhere else. Eventually ended up here cjsdriveinfairbanks.com

Menu

It was fairly empty. I had a grilled cheese sandwich and fries. Ann had something. From there we headed downtown to the icemuseum.com 

Arrived just after the 2pm show (If you could call it that) had started. Woman told us we could either go in as we had only missed two minutes or wait for the 3pm one. Told her we couldn't wait and would go in. She said the ice sculptor, Andy, would show us in. Andy was Chinese and spoke very little English. Doubted his name was really Andy. Went into a cinema which was very, very dark and there was a screen just showing some pictures of ice sculptures. 

As it finished 'Andy' did a big reveal and switched on some tacky coloured lights which revealed some ice behind some glass. It was very underwhelming. He then told us that we would have up to twenty minutes to go into the cold place and look at the sculptures and take snap snaps. We borrowed some jackets to wear and then went in. It was -7C. The first sculpture we saw was a moose which had one antler missing. That set the tone. It was very un American in terms of the quality of the place. Still we were there so we larked about taking snap snaps.

Broken Moose

Bear back riding

Muppets

Cheap lights

Husky?

Snow mobile

As cold as ice

There was an ice slide. Ann refused to go on it. I gave it a go.

It was the best thing about it. Eventually we left the cold bit and then sat in the cinema part to watch 'Andy' carve some ice. It was naff. He drilled some holes into a block and then filled it with some food colouring. We thought he would get a chainsaw and carve the Venus di Milo.

Left as soon as we could. Headed to Pioneer Park  We weren't really sure what to expect. It is basically an old village featuring historic buildings. There were quite a lot of people but wasn't much we were interested in doing. Wandered around a bit. Saw an old paddle steamer.

SS Nenana

Also saw a Pullman railway car which was used by President Harding on his Voyage of Understanding in 1923. The trip did go to well as he died whilst on it. 

Eventually we got bored so drove back to the airport. Returned the car and went through security. We were the only people there. Even so, Ann still got stopped as she tried to smuggle a bottle of water through the bag scanner. The security guy poured the water away and returned the empty plastic bottle to Ann. Bought a Fairbanks fridge magnet. 

Headed to our gate. It was empty. The screens for Alaska Airlines at the gates give you information about the number of seats on the plane and passenger numbers. Noted that there were only forty six passengers going to be on the flight. When we boarded it didn't take long and the plane pushed back early. Now the plot thickens. The Captain then gave an announcement and said we were leaving early so as we had time to kill he was going to do a fly by of Denali on the way. We thought that would be nice, as the weather was now nicer, it might be a little clearer. We took off and then waited. After a while he announced that he could see Denali and it was visible with a little bit of cloud. He said we are going to fly 3000m higher than it and pass it from about five miles away. Then he said will do the right hand side of the plane then we'll turn around and give the left hand side a view as well.

As we approached the cloud started to part and then suddenly there it was. We were so close it was unbelievable. Everybody on board including the stewardesses tried to get a look.

The money shot

If we had paid a shed load of cash to get on a tourist plane as we had originally thought about, I don't think we would have got such a great view. Sometimes fate gets it just right. 

Soon we were back at Anchorage and then made our way back home to start packing as we leave tomorrow on the next leg.

States visited - 2

Mountains buzzed - 1