July 5 Fairbanks

After a typical “free” hotel breakfast, we headed to the University of Alaska at Fairbanks campus.  Our first destination there was the Georgeson Botanical Gardens.  These were run by the agriculture school and were there for experimentation as well as beauty.  One experiment was to test a practice used by many farmers of heating irrigation water before applying it to crops.  Last year’s tests on tomatoes failed to show a difference.  This year, they are testing beans which are known to be very sensitive to cold soil.

They had an herb garden that had over a dozen kinds of mints growing.  Jim took tiny samples from a few of them.  He found that the Macho variety was quite powerful, but really loved banana mint.    He will look for those for his garden.

The children’s garden was lots of fun.  Jim liked the fact that a large portion of it was based on math, designed by a math teacher who loves gardening.

They had several contemporary sculptures.  Jim enjoyed the one representing a crab.

Pollination was important and they kept several hives in 2 different styles at a reasonably safe distance from the garden.  The bees were very active, but there was plenty of nectar available and they were much more interested in that than people.

Of course, very few people would go to a botanical garden that didn’t have flowers, and this one surely did not disappoint!

The stars of the show were the peonies.  They were huge, varied and beautiful.

 

We headed downtown to explore and to find a place for lunch.  We headed toward the Ice Museum, but heard some nice jazz.  We followed our ears to the nearby park and saw that the sounds were coming from a combo from an Army band.  Their music was quite good and we stayed in Golden Heart Park and listened for the rest of the concert, about an hour.  Jim was taking some pictures while they played.  Ardith pointed to the reflection in a puddle of a monument to the first settlers in Fairbanks. 

Jim said he already had taken a picture of that, but that inspired a thought – why not get a picture of the combo reflected in that puddle.   Ardith said “that won’t work” and that was all the inspiration Jim needed.  He had to lower his camera to about an inch from the ground, but it worked.

We went to lunch at a nearby cafe where you order at a counter and then can eat outside.  Jim usually drinks a diet cola, but noticed on the signboard that they had a wide variety of Italian sodas, including several sugar-free varieties.  He decided to pass up on extra caffeine and ordered a sugar-free English toffee Italian soda.  The girl asked if he wanted whipped cream and he said “oh, sure” then watched her make it using non-diet Sprite from the fountain.  So much for sugar-free.  He enjoyed a sesame chicken salad while Ardith had a BLT.

They unloaded several tour buses within sight of where we were sitting and decided that since it was such a nice day (sunny and mid 70s – Ardith hot in long sleeves) and lots of people went toward the Ice Museum, we would skip that and drive to Pioneer Park.  This is a really fun, 44 acre city park filled with a mixture of free and inexpensive things.  We started with a train ride around the park ($1 for seniors). 

 The place where the train ride begins has some artifacts and information about the Tanana Valley Railroad.  They have restored the first engine used on the line, but they only run it a few days a year.  It was impossible to get a decent side view of the engine.

They had an old photo we both loved.

There was an area with a lot of old gold mining equipment, some displayed ascetically, using dredge buckets around a pond into which water was being sprayed through a nozzle used to wash ore.

One piece of equipment was a mill where local miners could crush their ore for free in the early 1900s.

The idea for the park came in the 1960s when urban renewal was in vogue.  There were several old houses and log cabins in downtown Fairbanks that were to be destroyed.  People pressed the government to preserve some of the city’s heritage and they were moved to the park.  The houses and cabins form a village-like setting.  Many of the places are shops, some are museums that have no fee but ask for a donation.

Jim went for the place that offers a taste of Alaska’s winters.  They advertise that you go down to 40 below zero.  They have nice warm coats, so you can play dress-up with a practical twist.  The thermometer inside the cold room actually read 50 below!  Since there is almost no humidity, it didn’t feel terribly bad.  He stayed in for about 5 minutes, but knew others were waiting for their try.

The Pioneer Museum is run by the Pioneers of Alaska.  It has a wonderful assortment of object largely from the first half of the twentieth century.

The former home of the first District Judge in town provided a nice glimpse of life that wasn’t as harsh as for many.

We both had fun playing on the Nenana, a steamboat that had plied the local waters.

A true gem is the private railroad car used by President Harding when he came to drive the golden spike commemorating the completion of the Alaska Railroad.  It even included his toilet!