Smidgeon on history/trip planning:
Spice Girls Travel Club planned this trip to Fairbanks, Alaska
back in February.
Fairbanks is located in the heart of Alaska’s interior on
the banks of the Chena River and the Tanana Valley.
Connie is originally from Fairbanks and lives (primarily) in
Colorado. She bought a cabin in Fairbanks several years ago and spends the
summers there.
Lisa, Denise and Deb live in WA. As you know, I'm in Phoenix, AZ.
Connie had found an Airbnb for us and booked it
February. Last month she received a
message that they had to cancel due to a plumbing issue that was going to need
extensive repairs. Adrenaline rush ensued.
She hopped right to it because being the busy tourist season and needing
a house that sleeps five could have been an issue. Mission accomplished. She found a house that had recently listed as
an Airbnb so it was available. It is the former governor’s house right on the river. Pictures at the end.
Thursday August 10, 2023
I had an easy but long travel day from Phoenix, connecting through
Seattle to Fairbanks. The WA girls left
earlier so Connie picked them up and they had lunch and did a little
shopping. Connie and Lisa dropped Denise
and Deb at the grocery store and came to pick me up. Back to the store to finish up shopping, then
into the liquor department for some libations!
Connie had made Salmon Chowder for dinner so we went to the
Cabin to pick it up, plus some other food she was bringing. The other girls met her husband G (I had met
him previously in CO) and we met Tinker, their adorable little dog. Their cabin is super cute! So bummed I didn't get a picture of the cabin or Tinker.
We went to the Airbnb, unloaded all the food and luggage, called dibs on our sleeping spaces, got settled in, poured some cocktails, and chit chatted for a while before dinner.
:CHEERS: Blueberry Mojito (IIRC) |
They made
a salad while the chowder was heating.
Two thumbs up for Connie’s Salmon Chowder. It was completely delicious. Cleaning up and more catching up before we
turned in for the night.
Friday August 11, 2023
Connie had purchased tickets for the bus tour at Denali
National Park. It’s about a two-hour
drive from FAI so Connie thought we should leave at 8 a.m.
We arrived and had a little bit of time before our bus
boarded.
No filter and check out the blue sky. Rain had been predicted. |
All aboard |
They are leopard print birds that turn white in the winter. They hang out year-round, they do not migrate. |
There were a couple of raven squawking. |
Back on the road where we spotted a caribou. |
Cropped |
Connie's photo - zoomed |
We hitched a ride on another bus back to the end of the line. When we got off the bus we were a little lost but finally found the right bus back to our starting point at the bus depot. We bought a few things in the gift shop before heading out. We stopped at a little cluster of artsy gift shops on the way to dinner.
We had dinner at 49th State Brewing.
For many years Connie has mentioned
Deep ! Fried ! Halibut !
in her blog during her summers in Alaska. I couldn’t wait to try it and it did not disappoint. It was amazing!
Connie’s pic |
Lisa and I shared an order of Deep ! Fried ! Halibut ! then we helped Deb finish her ribeye which was also delicious. Connie and Denise also had the Fish n Chips.
We were going to stop at Skinny Dick’s Halfway Inn on the way back but they were already closed.
Saturday August 12, 2023
We started off making breakfast. Scrambled eggs, bacon and sausage, bagels, and fruit before we hit the road.
Love that industrial stove |
We went to the UAF Large Animal Research Station and had a little time before the tour started.
We saw musk ox and reindeer.
Reindeer and Caribou are in the same family but Reindeer are from Europe. |
In America they say Caribou are wild, Reindeer are domesticated. And that’s your zoology history lesson of the day.
We left there and went to a Farmer’s Market. Connie bought us Cream Rolls which are little waffle like pastry rolled up and filled with cream. M-M-Good.
Connie zoomed her in |
Next stop was the Santa Claus House.
It’s a super cute gift shop and Santa was there waiting for a photo op!
We had to take a selfie with the creepy ginormous Santa outside |
Next stop was the Artic Harvest Distillery. We ordered some cocktails. They have a food truck out front so the girls had loaded fries. One order of Chili Cheese and the other was Nachos. We walked in the field and took pics.
A Ravishing Raven |
Caribou Cutie |
Then we headed to Skinny Dick’s Halfway Inn!! I mean, how could we not squeeze in a trip to Skinny Dick's?!?!? It is a bar and adult humor gift shop. And by adult, I mean lots of porn. This place is not for the modest!
When we got back they were still kind of full-ish from the
fries earlier so we had salad and heated the leftovers. After dinner Connie offered us some fudge she
had bought at Santa's House. Very good.
Sunday August 13, 2023
We had cheesy eggs, bagels/toast, fruit for breakfast. Connie got in the hot tub, only
to discover there are no steps to get and out of the above ground spa. Up and over, over and out, is the only way to
go!
We took the Riverboat Discovery Cruise which goes down the Chena to the Tanana.
**ETA - correction, Susan was actually the second woman to win the Iditarod. Libby Riddles was first in 1985. Susan won in 1986, 1987, 1988, and 1990. Thank for Connie for setting the record straight (see comment from Connie below) and sorry Libby for not giving you credit as the first woman to win!!
Anyhow they did a dog mushing demonstration.
Oh. And. There was a PUPPY. Too cute.
We left there and stopped at the Chena Village which has cabins and guides who do demonstrations about how they survived over the years.
On the river cruise we saw our house! It's the two story.
After the riverboat docked we shopped around the souvenir store for a while before heading to dinner. The place Connie had in mind was packed with a long wait time so we ended up at the Red Lantern. I had Beer Battered Fish & Chips, this time made with rock fish (cod). It was very good but it wasn’t
Deep ! Fried ! Halibut !
After dinner we went to Hot Licks and had ice cream.
Monday August 14, 2023
I don’t remember breakfast but I’m sure we ate. I think it was DIY. Up, dressed, packed, kitchen cleaned out, and out of the house around 10:45 to drop me off at the airport around 11. Let the games begin. This is where the wheels fell off the bus for me.
ETA: Update from Connie, they all went to breakfast and then went downtown and shopped for a bit before heading to the airport. Denise bought a raven print.
Connie's pic of the pic |
My turn in line and the agent tells me my flight is
departing late so I will only have 15 minutes to make my connection (should have
been almost 2 hours). She said the
incoming and outgoing planes were in the same terminal, two gates apart if I
wanted to chance it. Yes. I’m sitting up front and if the gates are
right there I will be able to make the connection. I get upstairs and sit down at the gate and
get a text that says “Flt xxx from SEA to PHX has been cancelled. You are now booked on flt xxx from SEA to PHX
Tuesday 8-15, departing at 1:55 pm, arriving in PHX at 4:45 pm”. Tuesday!! Well shit.
I text the Lisa and she says I can spend
the night at her house and she’ll take me to the airport the next day. So back down to the ticket counter to see if they
can retrieve my bag that is checked through to Phoenix since I have to stay the night. I checked to see if I could get on the later
flight with Lisa, Denise, and Deb and she says no. I was able to get my bag and recheck it to SEA
(TYJ), along with a new boarding pass for the flight home Tuesday. Flight to SEA, albeit leaving late, was okay.
I got my bag and waited at the Lost and Found which I thought was fitting! LnF was actually just right there at the baggage carousel. I had about a four hour wait until they
arrived. I was reading a good book so it
didn’t seem too long.
We got to Lisa’s around 10 so it was off to bed.
In the morning, we sat around a while enjoying our morning
coffee before going out to breakfast. Afterwards
we sat out on the patio for a while. She
has the most adorable patio. The past
two times I was there it was earlier in the year so the weather was not cooperating for us to sit outside. Tuesday morning
the weather was beautiful. We hung out
for a while before she dropped me off at the airport. Oy, the airport departure/arrival traffic is ridiculous! The night before Denise’s BIL picked us up at
departures because the traffic was so congested at arrivals. Tuesday Lisa dropped me off at arrivals
because the traffic at departures was hideous.
Anyhow, that flight was uneventful.
Departure and arrival was right on time.
I got to baggage claim and waited, waited, waited. Bags were coming down and I waited, waited,
waited. FINALLY, 45 minutes later, my
bag took a leisurely trip down the baggage chute. It had a bright orange PRIORITY tag on it and
it was almost the last bag off. What’s
up with that Alaska Airlines?
Finally Home-Sweet-Home.
Overall we had a great trip. Connie was the best travel guide showing us around her home town. We packed a LOT of things into a five day trip. The Airbnb had a few things that Connie was going to text them about but it was in a perfect location and was great for our needs. We did rearrange some of the furniture to make a conversation pit though.
Another ETA - I forgot to mention how lucky we were with the weather. I had checked the weather app for the entire week prior. It kept changing daily. Rain three days, to one day, to two days, back to three days. Fortunately we had beautiful weather the entire trip. We only had a tiny bit of rain on Denali day, and it waited until we finished dinner on the patio. We were waiting for our check when it started to rain. As it started to come down a little harder we went inside to wait for and pay our check. By the time we got back on the road it was already back to a drizzle which didn't last very long. It was too cloudy to see the Northern lights but it also doesn't quite get dark enough at night yet. Connie said sometimes around 1 or 2 am if it's really clear you might be able to see a little bit this time of year. I woke up and checked in the middle of the night but no luck.
Spice Girls Travel Club is going to plan another trip in May 2024, but first, I need to vacay with the hubs.
This picture is off the listing. The other photos are mine. You can search Airbnb - Governor's House on the River for more pro photos. |
See the buckle in the area rug between the foot stool and the fireplace? I think we all tripped on it at least once or twice! |
2 comments:
Love reading about our adventure. It was such a wonderful trip ❤️❤️
They don't mention this on the Riverboat Discovery tour, but Susan Butcher was actually the second woman to win the Iditarod. Libby Riddles was first, in 1985. Susan had to drop out that year after a moose got tangled up in her team, killed two of her dogs, and injured 13 others. Susan went on to win in 1986, 1987, 1988, and 1990. That made the T-shirt ("where men are men and women win the Iditarod") especially cool because two women won in a row. But no woman has won since then.
I love the blog recap, and it is very accurate with good photo selection! So fun!
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