June 14-Fairbanks

After checking and rechecking the weather yesterday, we decided that today, would be the best day to take the Discovery III boat trip.  The weather was suppose to be nice in the morning with sunny skies in morning and clouds in the afternoon. This is one of the top ten must see/do attractions in Fairbanks.  It is a three hour stern wheeler boat trip down the Chena River and includes a demonstration of the Susan Buchard sled dogs and a stroll through a Athabaskan village.  Sand bars have developed on the river so the boat cannot go as far as it used to, so the owners decided to develop the Athabaskan village.They have hired young people who do an excellent job of presenting and narrating their culture.  The weather man was correct it was a perfect day for boating.

                                   The Discovery III.

Like so many businesses in Alaska, the Discovery III tours are a family owned business.    The Brinkley's have been conducting boat tours for 30 plus years.  The grandson of the owner was the pilot of the boat, and he had been practicing since he was five years old. I was in Fairbanks about 15 years ago and took the Discovery tour then.  We went much farther on the river back then  and the village wasn't part of the tour back then.

We watched this guy take off and land on the water.  You can see part of a landing strip behind them.  There are more private planes in Alaska then in any other state.

The dogs are in training and they pull a tractor and complete a training run in just a few minutes. .  It was amazing how fast they went.  They truly love to run.

We were treated to a demonstration on how salmon was prepared for smoking and which salmon are best.  The Chum salmon is used mostly for feeding the dogs.  The King salmon are the best for eating.

Do you know the difference between Reindeer and Caribou?  Reindeer can be domesticated, according to Garth, our guide.

Garth, is a high school senior and spends his summer giving demonstrations in the Athabaskan village.  Josie is spending her first season at the village.  She is modeling a traditional costume.  Some of the bead work, which doesn't show up in the picture, would tell which village she came from.

These items are all made out of moose hide. The triangle object is actually a moose caller.  Even the twin is made from moose hide.

Portable tent.  Hides were draped over willow branches and kept the structure warm and dry.  When it was time to move on, they packed up the hides and reused them at the next place.

Canoe held two men and all of their gear for hunting  It is made out of hides.

That's a lot of smoked salmon.  Ymmm.  They had some for sale in cans for $9.00 for 4 oz., so I didn't buy any.  The samples were really good though.

The old and the new.  The red machine is an older snow machine.  They were called snow machines before the term  "snowmobile"  became popular.

This is a fish wheel.  The current of the river turns the wheel and it scoops up the salmon and dumps them out in a container.  The river is so muddy to fish can't see the wheel.

This is the sand bar the keeps the boat from going much farther.  The river is pretty shallow and gets even more shallow at this point.

After our relaxing boat trip I had to go about the business of doing laundry.  Was I in for a shock.  The first laundry mat I went to was $5.70 per load to wash and another $3.90 to dry for 30 minutes.  Needless to say, I decided to shop around.  There are lots of laundry mats in Fairbanks and I checked out a couple  and the least expensive ended up being $4.00 per wash load and $1.25 for 30 minutes to dry.  I've never had to shop around for a laundry mat before.  It might have been less expensive to just buy some new clothes! LOL