Day 1 - Aug 31, 2000 Last updated: 8/31/00 9:30pm AKDT
The daily travel reports probably won’t be updated til the end of our day. 9:00pm Alaska time is midnight Central time. For those of you who live in paradise, I’m not sure if Hawaii follows daylight savings time or not, so you’re on your own. 🙂
Limo driver was 20 minutes late. Not a good start, but with some aggressive driving, we actually ended up at the airport at a reasonable time. We were in a “shared” limo (pay about half if you let them pick someone else up). The someone else was the first pickup. The limo was 20 minutes late to pick up the first person. The first person had an 8am flight. We got to the airport at 7:45. Didn’t look good for her. We had a 9am flight. No problem.
Flew out on Alaska Airlines. Departed the gate on time, but sat on the runway for a half hour before becoming airborne. Must have taken a short cut however because we landed 15 minutes early! Got exit row seats, plus only four people in a row of 6. Plenty of leg room at coach prices. 6 hour flight (actual air time, not gate to gate). Breakfast was served, some egg-like substance with rubber potato wedges. Toward the end of the flight, they served a tiny little sandwich, which was needed really bad. I looked around and it seemed like we were all trapped on Survivor Island and we were given a scrap of real food. Everyone seemed to devour the sandwich rather quickly. Maybe it was because the sandwich was only 2 inches long.
Hopefully this won’t be the only view we get of the tallest mountain in North America. (Mt. McKinley). According to many guidebooks, usually you don’t get a chance to see it very often due to weather.
Checked in to the Super 8. No pictures. Its rooms are rather small, but freshly painted and quite clean.
Dinner was at Pike’s Landing. Skip the fancy restaurant ($$$$) and eat at the bar. Actually they have a nice outdoor deck on the Chena River. We had the Fish & Chips (fresh Halibut). Very tasty. Way better prices.
After dinner we went to Alaskaland. No where near as exciting as Disneyland. It’s pretty much a bunch of old log cabins that existed from the early settlement of Fairbanks. These cabins were restored and relocated to this park that was built in 1967 for Alaska’s centennial (100 after becoming a territory of the US, as they didn’t become a state until ’59). These cabins are now food stands or gift shops.
In Alaskaland was the Civic Center. It houses some art, but was closed. This steam shovel helped build the Panama Canal, did some time in Hawaii and helped dig sections of the Davidson Ditch, which brought water to operate huge hydraulic gold dredges in the interior of Alaska.
Oh No, a Bear!!!