Fun in Fairbanks

Pulling into Fairbanks was a welcome relief. We were supposed to stop at Tok and spend the night, but after getting into Tok, we decided to press on. It seems Tok really is as small as I had thought. I had one hotel that looked ok to use to spend the night, and about 2 gas stations. Other than that, it did not have much. We pressed on and drove another 2 ½ hours to get to Fairbanks. The drive was not too bad, and we were happy to get into a larger town.

We stayed at the Regency Fairbanks. This was a very nice place. It had a refrigerator, stove and microwave right in our room. This made eating quite simple compared to what we had been doing. The staff was friendly and always ready to help at a moments notice.

Our first real meal was breakfast the next day. I woke early (very strange for me) and decided we needed to go to breakfast. I forget the name of the location that we ate, but it was very nice and seemed to have quite a few locals. We sat down and were immediately greeted by our waitress. She was very pleasant and helpful with our selection. The only thing that unnerved me was when we sat down there was something the size of a large wasp that landed on her hand. She looked at it, let it land and then…..Wack!!!! At first I thought she had killed a small bird. I was a bit horrified, but then realized it was a mosquito. I figured it was the largest mosquito that I had ever seen….I would later recall that mosquito as being “average” size…. Seems they have some really large mosquitoes up here. The locals seem to be used to them and are not as bothered by the large size and bird like structure. I must admit, after 4 days, I did start to have fun with them. When I would have one land on me, I would grab it by one of its legs, and act like it was carrying me away. Dianne did not find this nearly as humorous as I did. She really didn’t like it when I would grab one and attempt to give it to her as a gift. Seems we do not have the same sense of humor….

Fairbanks is a small town, but has a thriving arts community. They seem to have every hobby, or interest that one might want to get involved with. They even host the national Ice carving championships here. It is a pretty big event, and the contestants fly in from all over the world to compete in this elaborate show of ice carving skill. The carvings are amazing and the work is flawless. We were able to see some examples of there work, and actually able to see an ice carver in action. It was quite impressive.

Mosquitoes aside, the town is extremely friendly and very open to strangers. Everyone we met was willing to help in some way, and they all wanted us to say in Fairbanks. It is a very nice place with some incredible people.