This morning we took a 3-½ hour ride on the Riverboat Discovery, an old sternwheeler. We saw a bush pilot demonstrate a take-off and land on the river and also on a sand bar in the middle of the river. He only needed 150 feet of space on the sandbar to take off or land. The pilot grew up on an island so learned to fly as a teenage but didn’t learn how to drive a car until he was 25. We toured an Indian village with Athabascan Indians as guides to explain their cultural traditions and how the families live. There are still many villages in Alaska that still live this way. Part of the tour was a stop at Susan Butcher’s dog kennel. Susan won the Iditarod 4 times before dying of leukemia at age 51. Her family still raises and trains sled dogs and her daughter is now starting to compete. We will take a bigger interest in the 1100-mile Iditarod in the future. The Riverboat Discovery tour was super and a definite “must do” if you are every in Fairbanks. After the tour we went downtown to the Ice Museum and saw several carvings and a demonstration. The last few days the weather has been wonderful, clear skies with highs in the mid 70’s and lows about 60. The long days take a little getting used to however. Thursday is the longest day of the year with the sun setting at 12:20 a.m. and coming up again at 2:57 a.m. It’s quite a celebration here but we are going to miss it as we will be at Denali National Park that day.
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