Alaska Review! Day 6--Fairbanks (Part 2)

I had read about the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors' Center while we were on the trip.  There was a post on Trip Advisor which said that this was better than the Museum of the North.  Since we were planning on visiting the museum later today, I figured it might be worth it to visit the Morris Thompson Cultural Center as well, just to see the comparison.

I don't know if it's necessarily better, because the museum has more displays, plus artwork, plus movies, but I would say it's worth a stop...plus it's free.

Around the outside of the center, there are some mosaics.  You actually have to walk around the entire building to see all of them.

There was also this interesting arch of antlers and the like that the boys enjoyed.

 There were many displays depicting life in Alaska, as well as a fair amount of Native Alaskan items.

Chretien discovered a workshop where Native teens were creating different artwork, including bracelets and earrings.  You could sit with them and make your own jewelry.  Trust wanted to do that, so we let her.  She made a bracelet for $15.  She said she really enjoyed that, as she likes to do artsy things, and it was fun for her to talk to kids her age.

It's hard to see, but it's the gold bracelet above her Fitbit.

It did take her awhile to string the beads, in part, because there was a dancing demonstration at 1 PM, and the teens that were helping with the bracelet were also presenting the demonstration, and the whole workshop shut down during the performance.  So we all went to the performance and then she finished the bracelet at the end.

 Where the different tribes are located.

 Each of the teens told us where they were from and what native food they liked the best.

The did several different dances.  At one point they came into the audience and pulled volunteers up to the stage to dance with them.  Does anyone spy Imp in the photo below?

 When they told him he was free to go, Imp hightailed it off the stage!

By the time we finished at the center, it was after 2 PM and we were hungry!  We went back to La Quinta and made some sandwiches and ate them in the breakfast area.  We relaxed for awhile and then set out again for our next adventure.