Dang is it hot here! Near record highs of 88 degrees today. With 23 hours of sunlight (near solstice), this glowing orb is just not letting up.
I’m sitting at the Captain Bartlett Inn in a sweltering lounge at the lonely Internet console with a fan blowing the steamy air around me. They say this heat is a good thing, since if it was cooler the mosquitoes would be out in force. Alright, heat!
We’re doing some of the overpriced touristy things that tourists do in these parts…
We took the Alaskan Rail up from Anchorage to Fairbanks passing by Mt. McKinley and getting some beautiful views of the Rockies. It was a good ride, especially hanging out in the dining and bistro cars. Some folks saw two or three mooses (plural of moose?), but our only wildlife spotting turned up a few bald eagles. We did get scenery overload about half way through the trip, though, along with the others in our train car. Twelve hours of a train ride gets a bit tedious towards the end.
We checked out the Malamute Saloon show in Ester and decided that it was beyond or kitsch tolerance, but the old folks seemed to be enjoying it.
And we hung out with the tour groups on a Riverboat Discovery steamboat this morning, complete with a stop to watch some dog sledding training by the four time winner of the Iditerod, Susan Butcher, and a stop to watch a bush plane do a short runway take off and landing on grass.
And finally, we checked out the University of Alaska Museum. A natural history musuem with all sorts of dead stuffed creatures. It had a good set of mamoth tusks, a fine leg of bones from a dinosaur and an extinct mummified steppe bison. The museum was rather good, and was a good respite from the heat outside.
We maybe offline for a few days, since I don’t think they’ve put Internet and power connections in the woods out here yet. We’re off for some camping after the downtown Fairbanks Midnight Sun solstice festival (woo-hoo! Let’s get those deep-fried twinkies cookin’, folks!). We’ve got our fingers crossed that our tent will be cool enough to sleep in and the sun not setting won’t diminish our ability to sleep. We’ve got a few doubts about that right now. What were we thinking… camping in the middle of summer in Alaska?
Sure is dang pretty out here, though.
