Pioneer Village

June 26, 2007

This day light is really getting to us. We forget what time it is and just keep going. Doug said he could really get a lot done up here because you keep telling yourself I’ll work until it gets dark!!! Last night he worked until 11pm. I was busy on the computer and did not realize the time until he came in and told me. We would sure have a sleep deficit if we lived here. Guess you make it up in the winter!!! That is why everything is opened so late also.

Another interesting thing about living up here; if you do not live in a city you most likely do not have a well. The ground is so frozen and/or rocky that the cost is very prohibitive, so people either have water delivered in tank trunks, or they haul there own. We see many pick-up trucks with huge round plastic water containers. What we take for granted!!!

Today we went to Pioneer Park. We have been passing it almost daily and thought it was just an amusement park. Then we read a bit about it and so decided to go see. It is a wonderful park run by the city. The have brought in a lot of original Fairbanks cabins and made a Gold Rush City. Each cabin has the history of it and the location it had originally been in, including the original Presbyterian church, the first church in town built in 1906. They have a very large art museum for local artists, a food area with local food including a salmon bake, a gold mine operation, the best air museum we have ever seen and a small native village. There is also a locomotive that drive you around the park. We were just amazed, as it is run by volunteers except for the maintenance is done by the city. Of course they have flowers everywhere!!!!! We thought we would be there not more than an hour and spent the whole afternoon.