Day 18

Fairbanks is an interesting city. There seem to be many hippie types out and about. We woke up and went to the local Farmers market. It is a good sized one with many booths and all sorts of local jams, vegetables and the like. We went little nuts with treats, popcorn and veggies. They were all tasty. We got lunch at a local falafel place and it was good. Amy had read about a fun day at the racing grounds of the Alaska dog mushers association, so we decided to head over and check it out. Unfortunately by the time we got there, the races were over. A few mushers and dogs were milling about. There was a Fairbanks fire engine and one of the fireman dressed as a dog. Grant thought this was cool, but when he approached Alex she shrieked in terror. From there we went to the arena and attended the scissor long jump event of the Eskimo Olympics. It was cool watching all the Eskimos interact and peruse their arts and crafts. We bought a few things. From there we went to the museum of the North on the campus of the University of Fairbanks. This was a good museum. They had many exhibits on local culture and wildlife. They even had an exhibit on the Alaska Highway. I learned an interesting fact. The highway was constructed in WWII as a means to move war material to Alaska by land if needed. It was built in about a year from 1942 to 1943. It was also built by mostly Black soldiers as the white soldiers were being sent to the front lines. They were the 97th engineering regiment and were mostly from the South. I chuckled when I imagined a Southern Black man thrown into a harsh wintered wilderness complete with grizzlies and such. They also had a nice art gallery. There was one room that was very cool. It was a white room with subwoofers. There were soft toned lights and all of this was connected to photoreceptors and seismographs at the oceanographic center. The room creaks and groans and the lights change to coincide with mother earth. It is truly the sound of mother earth only brought into the range of our hearing. We then left and went to a Wal mart to re-supply. Food is very expensive up here. It reminded me of Hawaii. The Wal Mart also had a huge gun section. I guess up here everyone has utility guns. I admired some of the bush pistols. We went and got the car washed after that, as the dust from the road can be corrosive to paint. We came back and had supper and then took Grant to the park to play. There were many other kids there and he had a blast. He did fall and bite his tongue so hard it bled. Some idiot parked directly in front of the tongue of our trailer. What is wrong with people? They better be gone by tomorrow or I will call to have it towed.