Fairbanks

Fairbanks is a strange little town.  It is pretty much a strip mall with a lot of tourist spots interspersed.  At least, that is my first impression.  I so far do not mind that the sun goes down late.  It really doesn't interfere with my sleep too much, although I still expect it to be dark after nine and am always surprised when it isn't.

Sandhill Cranes and Greater White-fronted Geese

I met up with one of the other field assistants while in Denver, as we were on the same flight here.  So, Saturday, after getting the truck and some equipment with Joe, we walked around Fairbanks for probably 6-7 hours.  We went on the river trail on the Cheena River, all the way to Fort Wainwright.  Oddly, they don't have a gate for foot traffic and also oddly, there is an RV campground in the base.  Maybe that part is open to the public though?  Regardless we walked around there and went back to the visitor's center on the river.  There I scored a map and we decided to walk to Creamers Field.  We walked through some marsh and saw Sandhill Cranes, among other birds.  I also found moose scat, but did not see any moose...

Alaska has the highest per-capita consumption of 
ice cream of any state in the country, go figure.

After a little ice cream excursion, we went back to the hotel and then walked around downtown so I could take some pictures.  First stop was the Ice Museum, very cool.  Pun intended.  It showcases ice sculptures in a historic theater.  Normally, they charge $12 to get in, but we happened to come in on "Free Museum Day!"  The artist is from China but goes by the name of Andy.  He took us in to the museum and was very nice.  There is a room you can go in to and look at the sculptures up close, but he told the same spiel to everyone that came in to the building, which was quite humorous.  "We please to not touch the snow.....Mobile."  I was unsure if we were allowed to touch the other sculptures, and just not the snow mobile sculpture, or what.  There was a bar you could go behind and a sculpture you could put your face through.  So maybe you just weren't allowed to touch the snowmobile.  The building used to be a theater and has some interesting history as well.

Ice Museum marquee

Ice bear

Ice bar

"We put faces to take the pictures."

A look at the room you can go in.

We found a few other strange places on this trek.

Arming America

Two things that dawned on me this day; hiking in hip-waders in the Tundra will be freaking hard, and I like birds but I am no birder.  I feel I am really good at identifying birds, but most "birders" are super obsessed about it and know every little thing about every little bird.  Which is how Jonathan was all day on our walk.  I really hope that not all of the other field crew members are as avid of birders as he is.  (Having written most of this on Saturday, I can safely say, that they aren't.  The two girls I am rooming with at the hotel, had the same thoughts I did about that.  I also really like them, since they want to do more things than just go birding.  Which makes it a heck of a lot easier to make conversation.)