Fairbanks

Before we were "delivered" to the hotel in Fairbanks, we were taken to the Riverboat Discovery , a sternwheeler paddle boat for a cruise along the Chena and Tanana rivers. 

 It stopped by an authentic Athabascan village which demonstrated authentic native lifestyles.  It also stopped by Iditarod winner Susan Butcher's home and saw her team of Iditarod dogs.

Caribou in the village

   After the river cruise, we loaded onto the motorcoach -with the rest of the herd-to the Fairbanks Riverside Lodge was very nice, not too crowded but ridiculously priced menus at the restaurant.  And the noise level was unacceptable to me.  Some people are just so loud!  We opted to walk next door to a more casual restaurant....Ronnie could watch the ballgame and I enjoyed eating my chicken.

Curtains kept flying out from the a/c

Monday, we spent sleeping in and then sitting down in the lobby waiting til time to go to airport.  We were able to check our bags right there in the  hotel and not worry about them again.  We read and just relaxed  for a few hours.  But.....had to get on another motorcoach to get to airport....one last time!!

We were able to get an upgrade at the gate for the first leg of our flight on Alaska Airlines

(had tried online, but couldn't get it to work).  I had already used points for the American Airlines flights for the next two legs.  It was worth every penny!   All night flying is hard on old people.  We left Fairbanks at 5:30 p.m. and arrived in LR at 9:00 a.m. the next day.