Fun First Week in Alaska

While we still had Clifton and Brandon here we went over to Pioneer Park in Fairbanks. They have a lot of the older cabins that used to be used as homes that they now use as mini stores there at the park. They also had an aviation museum with many old helicopters and planes etc. We toured them all. The first photo is of an old ship used to go up the river. They now have it there at the park as well to get to tour. We saw all of these and then even road the little train around the park. The engines they trade out during different seasons, and they will even decorate them up for different themes and holidays. After the train ride we went and grabbed a cool treat. Javin wanted the LARGE ice cream cone and he actually did pretty good with it.After our treat we actually went to a place called Forty Below. It is basically a cabin up front and a big cooler in the back that they have running to -40 or less. That way visitors can see how cold it actually gets during the winter. With the fans blowing it made it really loud and being closed in a box made the boys nervous. But they dressed up and were there for a couple minutes. Inside they had a table with a few items to show how they react to such cold weather. One was a banana that was completely frozen that you could use as a hammer and actually hammer a nail into a board. Another was a jar of oil and another jar or two of something else. It was interesting to see how the guys facial hair got frozen crystals on the ends. Their eyelashes and all. Clifton even braved it enough to open up his coat for a photo shot. When we went in the thermometer read -50! I noticed as long as my nose and mouth were covered I was alright. It wasn't too bad but we were only in there for 10 mins or so.

Another fun thing we did was went fishing. We rented fishing poles and equipment from post and went looking for a spot to fish. While driving around we happened upon a moose! We were so excited. It was too busy eating the grass and weeds to mind us. Clifton even got brave enough to try to get close enough to get it to give us a nice photo without it eating. I was surprised at how close he actually got and it didn't mind. We finally got to a place and I think Brandon was the only one that caught anything big enough and brave enough to actually get hooked to stay. Kenn and I got a few small fish but they would get away before making land. The boys loved fishing and they seeing what was caught. We really enjoyed the week.

Kenn, Clifton and Brandon even went golfing a time or two. It was weird to be up here and the sun never go down. That took a bit of getting used to. The kids had a hard time sleeping at night with it light out still. (In fact the photos of the fishing were after 8 at night!)