Fairbanks ALaska

Sunday July 15th 2012

It’s a perfect day to catch up on my blog posts.  We are on the spit in Homer, with the front window of the MH looking out at the ocean and the mountains in the distance. The wind is blowing, the fog has rolled in and we have a light rain falling.  The furnace is running and we are toasty warm.  Hope I can get a few blogs done before nap time. 

Fairbanks is known for its seasonal temperature extremes. Average January temperatures range from minus 19 to minus 2 degrees and average July temperatures range from 53 to 72 degrees, while temperatures have been recorded as low as 62 below zero in mid-winter and as high as 96 degrees in summer. The warm summer days are also long more than 22 hours of daylight when the solstice arrives on June 21. The winter days are as short as 3 hours of sunlight.  In Fairbanks they play semi-pro baseball games at midnight without the aid of artificial lights and golfers can hit the links even later.

Fairbanks is called "The Golden Heart of Alaska," a reference to the character of her people as much as to the location in Alaska's interior, or to the discovery of gold in 1902

Our first stop in town was the visitor center inside the Morris Cultural Center.  

  

 

Built before 1910, this cabin is still in it’s original spot.  Many of the old building have been moved to other locations for displaying.  The cabin is next to the visitor and cultural center

 

The arch is also on the grounds of the visitor center.  The center has a beautiful park area surrounding it, with sculptures and gardens.

 

 

Pioneer Park was built to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the purchase of Alaska from Russia, this theme part includes a mock gold-rush town with authentic pioneer log cabins, mining equipment, museums, a replicated Native American village and a huge, dry-docked sternwheeler open for tours. Many of the original buildings of Fairbanks were moved to Pioneer Park. This is a great place to visit to see what old Fairbanks looked like. There is also a show that depicts the creation of Fairbanks as a town in Alaska during the Gold Rush Days.

I love this sign, rules for the teachers in town.

Gardening is big in the interior with the long summer days. Mike and Donna took tons of pictures at the Grorgeson Botanical Garden .

  

 

Flowers are everywhere in Fairbanks as most of Alaska, with the short summers everyone wants color in their life while they can.