Riverboat Discovery Cruise

This cruise was about 3 hours long and goes along the Chena River. It was really entertaining.

This pilot demonstrates how planes take off and land on water. Very cool. They don't need very much room. In the winter they change the skis and take off and land on the ice.



This guy is the husband of the late Susan Butcher (4 time iditarod champion). Their house is right on the river and so are their dogs and their kennels.


To train in the summer they hook the dogs up to a 4 wheeler that they've taken the engine out of. He demonstrated for us and they go really fast. I was surprized.


This is an Athabascan fish camp. They cut and dry all of their fish to feed themselves and their dogs thoughout the winter.

This is the wheel that catches all of the fish.

We saw how different tribes survived in the harsh winters








Here is our boat

Father's Day and Summer Solstice

In Fairbanks they have events all weekend for Summer Solstice. This is the longest day of the year and it is light all day long. The actual day is June 21st. The events start at Midnight on Saturday and go all through Sunday. They do a midnight sun run (10k) where they wear costumes, a semi-pro baseball game without lights (because they can), or a round of golf. I really wanted to do the midnight sun run but didn't prepare for it. The whole community lines the streets, cheer the runners on, and even squirt water in them. Sunday we went downtown and saw all of the booths that were set up.


Madi and Bryn got to sit in a fire truck. They thought that was pretty cool.



Madi followed this pony around for a while and loved it!



We crossed the bridge.


And sat along the Chena River.






Happy Father's Day to my wonderful husband. I couldn't ask for a better father for my children. Our girls love their Daddy!

Denali and Mt. McKinley, Again

The whole time John's family was in town he had to work. He told us to wait for him to get off work Saturday night and he would drive with us to Denali National Park. We all thought it would be a faster trip than it was. We ended up leaving Fairbanks around 9 PM and didn't get home until 4 AM. It was quite the trip. This picture was taken around 11 PM.

We saw a Mom and her baby. I was actually getting bored of seeing moose all the time but this was really fun to see!


I couldn't believe it because the first time we went (May) it was like winter with snow on the ground and this time it was beautiful weather and very green.




And we saw this little moose

I love Denali. I love Alaska.

Here we are at Mt. McKinley. It was a couple of hours further than Denali. We drove all the way there only to find out that it was too cloudy to see the Mountain:(
We got some good pictuers though. It was probably 1 or 2 in the morning when these pictures were taken. The second camera makes it look dark but it really wasn't.





Amanda was a trooper and drove most of the way home. We were all so tired. I was out most of the way home but I do remember waking up and see Amanda with her sunglasses on at about 3 am. Ha ha only in Alaska. I will miss the sunlight. It gave me so much more energy and I didn't sleep nearly as much.