Departing Tok set a new record for early wake up. We had to
have our bags outside our hotel room by 6:30am. Marc, our tour concierge, said
he felt my glare when I told the group our wake up time. He has quickly learned
I’m a little slow in the mornings. Since we were back in the States and had
phone signal I was buzzed out of my sleep by a text around 5am…apparently
someone at home forgot I was 4 hours behind them. I was awake early enough to
get in a little souvenir shopping before the bus departed at 7:30am.
As we set off toward Fairbanks, Eric
played a PBS movie for us about Alaska’s history. The Holland America tour
directors and drivers have the schedule down to a science because soon after
the movie ended we arrived at our morning coffee stop. We pulled off on a dirt
road toward Rika’s Roadhouse. The roadhouse was set on the banks of the river
and had a café, gift shop, historic cabins, and views of the Alaska Pipeline
crossing the river. Marc and Eric planned a game of Moose Migration once we got
on the bus. This bus game everyone starting with a piece of paper and drawing a
body part of the moose that Marc called out. Once that part was drawn each
person passed their papers in a specified direction and then another part was
called out. Eventually we ended up with complete, but crazy looking animals!
Our next stop was a surprise and is not
included on every Holland America cruisetour. We went to the North Pole! North
Pole Alaska is right outside of Fairbanks so we made a brief stop on our way in
to Fairbanks. The town has truly embraced their name and created a children’s
dream town. The street lights are in the shape of candy canes. There is a road
called Santa Clause Lane. We stopped at the Santa Clause House where there was
a 3 story tall Santa to greet us outside. The shop had an enormous variety of
Christmas ornaments and decorations and plenty of gifts from the “North Pole”.
I finally took my first picture with Santa Clause. As a kid I refused to sit on
Santa’s lap each Christmas so finally, at age 24, my Mom will have a picture of
me with Santa. They had a post office where travelers can mail post cards back
home from the North Pole. I could have spent hours inside the Santa Clause
House browsing all the Christmas goodies, but Marc limited us to 25 minutes. However,
that was plenty of time to buy Christmas presents for friends and a few other
souvenirs!
We arrived at the Steamboat
Discovery in Fairbanks just in time for lunch. There were 8 busloads
of hungry people waiting in line. We were seated family-style and ate a
“miner’s lunch” of soup, pasta salad, biscuits, and blueberry crumbcake. We
boarded the Discovery III steamboat with all 8 busloads of people and paddled
our way down the Chena River. I have heard many a client say the Steamboat
Discovery is their favorite part of Alaska aside from their time in Denali
National Park. The paddlewheel tour was 3 hours and the narrator gave great
insight on the Fairbanks culture and life along the Chena River. They had a
float plane demonstrate take off from the river and landing alongside the boat.
As we moved further down the river, we stopped in front of David Monson’s
house. David and his late wife Susan raised and trained Iditarod dogs. Susan
won four Iditarod races in the 1980’s and today David and their daughters
continue to train dogs and compete in Iditarod races. They demonstrated how
they teach the new puppies and then they harnessed some of the older dogs and
the dogs pulled David on an engine-free four wheeler around their property. We paddled
on down the river and stopped at the Chena Indian Village. We actually got off
the Discovery III at this stop. They recreated an old Indian village and had
native Alaskan employees talk about what life would have been life a hundred
years ago in a fish camp village where temperatures can get to below 40
degrees. Back at the base of the Steamboat Discovery we browsed the visitor
center and gift shop and I braved the “40 Below Room”. I think I had brief
moment of insanity! Group by group we stepped inside a smaller room and then
into a freezer –like room where they maintain a temperature of below 40
degrees. You go into the room without a heavy coat, just “as is”. I will admit
that I lasted all of 1 minute in there! Long enough for the lady outside to take
a picture of me shivering! I don’t know how the Alaskan’s deal with those
extreme temperatures! It was such a dry cold that it was almost painful. Roy
just laughed at me when I walked out of the room. At least I can say I tried
it! We transferred to our hotel, the Westmark Fairbanks. This was the nicest
hotel since the Fairmont Pacific Rim in Vancouver. We grabbed dinner in the
hotel and talked to my Mom and headed to bed early.
