Alaska - Part One

I hope you are ready for some of my photos.  I had three other friends with me with cameras but I have yet to get their photos.  So for now, here are mine.

If you remember, I was flying to Fairbanks, Alaska to be in the wedding of one of my best friends.  We attending high school together in Fairbanks.  I was not raised in Alaska but moved there the summer before my Freshman year in high school and left after I graduated.  We moved there because my dad was an electrical engineer and maintenance superintendent of a gold mine there.

After we went to one of the many drive-through coffee places to get some much needed caffeine (quite a long plane ride to Fairbanks) we did some reminiscing.

This is a road that I drove on almost every day when I lived there.  Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior of Alaska and is nicknamed the Golden Heart City.  There are a lot of trees, some hills, rivers, and permafrost.  On very clear days, you can see Denali in the distance even though it's some 120 miles away.
 

We drove by my old home, awww.

Since we had a couple friends from Kentucky who had never seen a moose before, we decided to drive up to Chena Hot Springs.  It's only 56 miles north of Fairbanks, such a short distance in Alaska terms.  Along the way what did we spy?

Yep, she was having a grand ol' time wallowing in the water and eating from the bottom.  I snagged my friend's camera lens and got a closer look.

We also noticed a mama and baby in the woods nearby.  Apparently they did NOT want to swim.

But the moose wasn't the only one in the water.  We also saw this little guy:

We finally got to Chena Hot Springs and looked around.  Locals like to come to Chena Hot Springs in the winter to get a relaxing dip.  In the winter when it's 20, 30, 40 below zero, people sitting in the Hot Springs will be all nice and toasty while their hair is frosted and frozen.

Chena Hot Springs also has an ice museum.  Now, being from Fairbanks I thought it was a bit cheesy ( and maybe because it was during the summer) but it might be something I can wow my husband when I drag him back here to experience a 40 below winter).  The ice museum has ice bedrooms you can stay in and an ice bar where you can drink martini's from an ice glass.

I was more impressed with other things.  Like sod houses (not as rare as you think in the Fairbanks area).

Or the old school snow machine (snow mobile for lower forty-eight people):

Beautiful flowers:

Or an old school vehicle with beautiful flowers

On the way home we had to watch out for moose on the road.  Like this one:

Ok, that's it for the first day in Alaska. Hope you enjoyed the photos, more to come!