Welcome x2! If the weather has you regrouping in FAI for a couple days, the kids might enjoy the Large Animal Research Station. The Museum of the North at the University is good too.
-DP

What a fantastic trip and trip report! I know the places you have been well. I grew up in Fairbanks and Anchorage, I sure do get homesick at times. Consider a trip down to Homer, that is a pretty flight and out on the spit is kinda cool, probably wouldn't take the kids to the Salty Dog saloon though.

Keep the post's coming!

Kurt

denalipilot wrote:Welcome x2! If the weather has you regrouping in FAI for a couple days, the kids might enjoy the Large Animal Research Station. The Museum of the North at the University is good too.
-DP

Headed there today! Also doing the train ride to the old dredge.


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G44 wrote:What a fantastic trip and trip report! I know the places you have been well. I grew up in Fairbanks and Anchorage, I sure do get homesick at times. Consider a trip down to Homer, that is a pretty flight and out on the spit is kinda cool, probably wouldn't take the kids to the Salty Dog saloon though.

Keep the post's coming!

Kurt

Hehe! Yeah probably not. But we are planning on heading down that way next week!


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If you spend a day or two at Homer, consider taking the ferry over to Halibut Cove, the island is covered with boardwalks and the back of the restaurant wall is a rock! Lot's of history there!

Little John wrote:If you spend a day or two at Homer, consider taking the ferry over to Halibut Cove, the island is covered with boardwalks and the back of the restaurant wall is a rock! Lot's of history there!

Cool! Thanks John.


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Day 6: Fun day. Large Animal Research Station to see reindeer and musk ox. Then a fun afternoon seeing the oil pipeline, riding a train, and panning for gold at an old dredge site. It was so much fun and the kids loved it.

Gold panning results:
1st place = Allen Macbean & Stan Macbean at $24.
2nd place = Adam at $21
3rd place = me at $12
4th = Dee Wolf and Sadie at $9
5th = Tyler at $6

Skipping rocks on the float plane parking area.


The kids loved the musk ox and reindeer. Cool presentation where they got to learn about each.





The Alaska Pipeline


The train ride to see the dredge and pan for gold.

The old dredge.


See helping Sadie pan for gold. Yes, a little touristy, but a ton of fun for everyone and a highlight of the trip so far!


Almost there!


Dee and Stan panning for gold.


Flash in the pan!


Weighing our gold.


Allen's haul.


Spaghetti night in camp.



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If you make it all the way to Homer, and if you think your family could tolerate a 15 min walk into town (plus the walk back), consider taking a quick 10 min flight to Seldovia. There aren't many food options there, but the Kings might be running and people often fish from the bridge over the slough.

Also, probably easiest from Kenai, consider a flight across Cook Inlet to Tuxedni Bay where you may see many brown bears roaming the grassy flatland.

Congratulations on making it to Alaska and on up to Fairbanks. That Fairbanks campground is the best in Alaska so enjoy while you can. Others are a bit more primitive, but all lead to adventures. Here at McCarthy you can camp right on the airstrip or visit any of the backcountry strips in the area. Keep up the great travel log and continue to be safe.

Squash wrote:If you make it all the way to Homer, and if you think your family could tolerate a 15 min walk into town (plus the walk back), consider taking a quick 10 min flight to Seldovia. There aren't many food options there, but the Kings might be running and people often fish from the bridge over the slough.

Also, probably easiest from Kenai, consider a flight across Cook Inlet to Tuxedni Bay where you may see many brown bears roaming the grassy flatland.

Thanks Squash. Seldovia is on the list. I'll check our Texedni Bay. Thanks for the suggestion!


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Nizina wrote:Congratulations on making it to Alaska and on up to Fairbanks. That Fairbanks campground is the best in Alaska so enjoy while you can. Others are a bit more primitive, but all lead to adventures. Here at McCarthy you can camp right on the airstrip or visit any of the backcountry strips in the area. Keep up the great travel log and continue to be safe.

Thanks Nizina, we will. We hope to see you in a week or so!


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There's a pretty neat little collection of flying machines in a little museum at Pioneer Park. We were there one year in March. It was closed but the curator was coming out the door so I BS'd our way in for a private tour. Really nice fellow there.

gbflyer wrote:There's a pretty neat little collection of flying machines in a little museum at Pioneer Park. We were there one year in March. It was closed but the curator was coming out the door so I BS'd our way in for a private tour. Really nice fellow there.

Nice! I never made it in there and always wished I had. Something else I'll add to the list of must-do's when we go back for vacation next time.

Yeah! BCP is back up. Here is yesterday's update.

Day 7: Wow! Hard to believe we've been on this adventure for a week already. The weather finally caught up with us today and camp had to be relocated. It started raining at 1am and hasn't stopped. Luckily we have a huge cabana to camp under, a wood burning stove with a bunch of firewood, and hot showers.

So today was low key. Church in the morning. Do laundry. Lunch. Move camp and visit a Pioneer Aviation Museum. Return one car and hang out at camp and watch the rain come down and try to plan the next few days. Tomorrow might be low key as well, but we knew we'd have times like this and have plenty of time.

Wash day.


The pioneer aviation museum.





It rained all day so we moved camp under the cabana.


Dinner by a cozy fire.


A very wet 24+ hours.


We ended the day with brownies. Love the oven!




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Hey, not sure your plan, but if you swing through Wasilla this weekend, you are more than welcome to borrow my little car a few days (as long as you don't mind a stickshift) and my wife and I can provide laundry/shower/dinner and a guest room. If you want to roll to church with us, that's cool too, we go to Wasilla Bible Church.

I'm actually in Seattle right now for work, but I'll be home on Friday, so any time this weekend works for us. Message me for my cell phone number if you are interested, otherwise, happy travels!

schu

Great! Thanks! We will keep it on mind as we head south in a few days.


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Yo are a lucky man, without that wife this trip would not have been possible - awesome experience for those kids!

Grassstrippilot wrote:The pioneer aviation museum.

Very interesting, that they would display a Cub with a standard(-ish) wheel on one side, and a Whittaker tandem gear set-up on the other. Seems like it might be pretty tricky to operate in that configuration....

SDPilot wrote:Yo are a lucky man, without that wife this trip would not have been possible - awesome experience for those kids!

So very true! She's the best!


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Day 8: Another rainy day in Fairbanks. We took it easy in the morning and then went to the University of Alaska Museum in the afternoon. We thought we might get some flying in when the weather broke in the afternoon, but a line of thunderstorms brought more rain. I found out my plane needs to be resealed around the windows!





Kids activities at the museum.




Nasty line coming towards camp.


Adam found our birch wood burns really well!


Game time in camp.



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