Alaska Review! Day 5--Denali/Healy to Fairbanks (part 2)

We weren't quite done with Denali, so we headed back the way we had just come.

And took some more photos:

 I'm guessing that the folks who rode to Eielson this day also got to join the 30% club.

 For all the talk I saw about the Alaska Railroad and the train online, we didn't really ever see the train in this area.  But here is evidence that it parallels the Parks Highway.

 

We saw these folks and thought to ourselves "next time".  😉

 And look who we bumped into again.

 This time, though, she was a little more brazen, and decided she needed to cross the Parks Highway right in front of us.

And then she was gone. 

We're still talking about this incident when people ask us how Alaska was.

Anyway, we kept going and did finally stop for the iconic family-in-front-of Denali-sign photo.

 We needed to return the backpack at the visitors' center, which we did.  We visited the gift shop and did a little shopping, and then hopped on a bus to get to the kennels. 

We've already established that Imp loves puppies.  This day, Earnest really enjoyed them as well.

 If the dog is in its cage, you can't approach it.

 Such beautiful dogs.

There is also an area with historical exhibits.

So many dogs over the years.  We learned that the names of puppies born in a given year are themed.  With the 100 year celebration last year, all the dogs had names related to celebrations (e.g. there was a dog named "Party".)

There is also an area with historical exhibits.
 

Some of the previous dogs.

  

 It was then time for the show, with a lot of information given out (positions in the sled for the dogs, what happens when the dogs retire, etc.) and a lot of barking from dogs who weren't chosen to pull the sled.  🐶

 After the show, each one was told to go back to his or her cage, and they all went, one by one.

 After the tour, we paid a quick visit to the Murie Science and Learning Center, near the park headquarters.  We found that this was really more suitable to younger kids, and didn't stay long.

I did think this was interesting, though.

 It's a quilt of the park, color coded with what sort of ecosystem is found in each area.  Impressive.

We then stopped at Riley Creek Mercantile and got ice cream--$10 for four of us.  Chretien wanted a hot dog from Denali Doghouse outside the park.  I think he got fries as well--$11.50 for that. 

After our snacks, it was time to leave Denali for good. 

 This train track photo is visible from inside the park, along the part that private vehicles can drive. 

We were headed to Fairbanks, which was roughly about 2 hours away.  I did the driving, so there aren't a lot of photos.  It's not nearly as scenic as the southern part of the Parks Highway, but here is a representative photo.

We arrived in Fairbanks around 6 PM.  We were staying two nights at La Quinta Inn and Suites near the airport.  Fairbanks is very easy to drive/get around, and this location put us right near Riverboat Discovery, so if you are doing that, it's even walkable from the hotel.  (I didn't plan it this way, but I figured I'd mention it.)  This is not a Choice brand hotel, but it does give a free hot breakfast and had room for five of us (with a rollaway).  We spent $368 for two nights.  Again, I booked this in September.  This was a clean, new looking hotel.  There was no pool, which was a drawback, but we'd stay here again.

We unloaded the car and then decided to try Brewster's for dinner.  There are two locations, one of which was about 5 minutes from La Quinta.  We were so pleased with the food.  It was your typical burger, sandwich, pub fare, but I think we were all hungry and it hit the spot.  Our bill here was $87, and did not include dessert (and I don't think beer, but at least a few beverages.)

By then it was around 9 and we were pretty tired from our long day.