Sleeping on the ice bed in the ice house!

The artist at the ice museum showing us how they make the ice sculptures

Weekend in Fairbanks

This past weekend Vanessa and I had a 3 day weekend to go into Fairbanks. There was enough room on one of the flights that left Coldfoot on Thursday, so we arrived in Fairbanks on Thrusday afternoon. We stayed at a place called Go North Hostel, which is where a lot of Coldfoot employees stay when they come into town. It was really nice; they had a bunch of cabins, a kitchen, and an internet lounge. After we got settled into our cabin, we rented some bikes and went to explore Fairbanks. One of the first things we did was get some Pizza Hut, and then we went to see a movie. These are some of the things I have missed while being so far away from civilization! Then we rode our bikes to the store to get a few snacks. On Friday, we went to the Museum of the North, which is a huge museum at the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus. They had exhibits about the Native people, climate, and wildlife of Alaska. It was really interesting. They also had a stuffed brown bear, which was cool because we got to see how big the bears up here can actually get. We ate some Chinese food for lunch, and then went to walk around downtown Fairbanks. We found the ice museum there, and went in to look at all of the ice sculptures. They had one of the artists do a demonstration for us of how they make the sculptures. Then we went to see another movie before going back to the hostel for the night. I woke up early on Saturday so I could skype with Mom and make some phone calls. I never realized how much I missed my cell phone until I could use it again! Saturday was our shopping day; we went to Walmart and Barnes and Noble to stock up on stuff before leaving town. We ate dinner at Chili's, and then headed back up to Coldfoot. It was a really fun weekend and a nice break from being in the middle of nowhere :)

Vanessa and I modeling in our bug headnets!

The pile of moose legs sitting outside of Jack's cabin...only in Alaska

On the bridge over the Koyukuk River that separates the south side and north side of Wiseman

Wiseman Tour

Tonight Vanessa and I went on the tour to Wiseman. Even though both of us have been to Wiseman with Teslin, we had never gone with the Northern Alaska Tour Company and figured we should take advantage of our ability to go on any of the tours for free. While we were there we walked to the cabin where Jack, a resident of Wiseman, has lived since 1971 (before the Dalton Highway even existed!). He told us all about how he makes a living in Wiseman, hunting and living off of the land. It was really interesting, and we even got to wear the stylish bug headnets while we walked around. It was really funny watching all of the other guests that came in from Fairbanks complain about the mosquitos; at least there is no Westnile or anything like that up here, so all we half to worry about is having itchy bug bites.