Day 10

Today is our first full day in Alaska.  We spent the night at the Walmart in Fairbanks. It was loud.  Also, we have arrived at the beginning for a five day heat wave.  85+ degrees each day this week. 😢. We were hoping for 60-70.  Oh well.

We worshipped in Fairbanks at a local CB church -- Bethel Church.  They had a banjo as part of the worship team!  The service was a much needed grounding and refreshment for the whole family.  Afterward, we spoke with two of the pastors and the tech team.  We really enjoyed our time there.  

We moved to a campground -- Tanana State Fair Campground.  It is fair to okay, but we were glad to get showers and have electric for air conditioning, although the shower part was a bit more of an adventure than expected.  (There are keyless entry locks on the doors, and the battery died on the men's side - so the entire campground was using the ladies restroom and shower for the evening as the camp manager had gone home for the night and there was no contact number to call)

We had lunch at the campground then went to Creamer's Field for some hiking. Our timing was perfect as we arrived 15 minutes before their annual "Dairy Day" ice cream social and history presentation.  The children loved the presentation about the history of the dairy and walking through the 100+ year old farm buildings.  The dairy has been a bird sanctuary since 1967, and two of the Creamer grandchildren were on hand to help with the dairy day talk.  It was really nice!

Then we headed to the Fairbanks visitor and cultural center and saw a film on the Northern Lights and took aquifer walk through the display.  We will go back there to stamp our National Park Passport books.  But everyone was hungry and Ken had been craving Thai food, so we headed to Thai House.  The service was slow, but the food was delicious!

Photos from today are mostly on "the big camera" so will have to wait a bit.