This is our second day in Fairbanks. We'd be leaving that night to drive a small part of the way to Valdez (to Delta Junction). I'm glad we did this as our drive to Fairbanks on Sunday was long enough without the extra 2 hours.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
We had a 9 AM reservation on the
Riverboat Discovery. This cost the five of us $185, as we had a free adult ticket from Tour Saver. We had our breakfast and packed up and were at the dock by 8:30, as directed. Remember that the dock was just down the street from La Quinta, so we had that going for us.
We boarded and got seats right up front outside, on the third level. I will say that you should sit on the left side of the boat, since a lot of what goes on heading out is on that side. We didn't know this and sat on the right side and had to get up and stand a few times. The TV screens that you can see in the photo didn't help much when it was bright outside.
The staff waving goodbye. Thoughts of Gilligan's Island went through my head, as we were on a "three hour tour" as well.
This is one of the older river boats.
I took some photos of various houses along the way. Mainly due to envy of living so close to the water. 😜
There was a float plane demonstration, which mainly occurred on the left side of the boat. I did snap this photo. We didn't really care that we missed most of it, as we had seen landings elsewhere on our trip and had our own trip in one four days earlier.
Can you see the family of ducks? The boat pretty much looked like it was going to travel straight over them. A lot of us in the front were a bit concerned, and then they went out of site. 😨
Another, earlier boat.
This would be awesome to have, no? Great view.
Phew. The ducks appear to be OK. 😌
As we floated along, we enjoyed some free doughnuts. Can't go wrong with those.
Soon we drew near to Susan Butcher's kennels. For anyone who doesn't know, Susan Butcher is a four-time winner of the Iditarod. She passed away about ten years ago, but her family still owns the kennels. Her daughter Tekla is talking to us and the dogs are pretty excited behind her.
Aw, more puppies.
They looked like they were going pretty quickly.
This was on the left side of the boat. You can tell that I'm standing behind others to see and take the photos.
Moving along, yet another house along the Chena River.
This would work, too. 😏
Awww, more caribou.
We were approaching the Chena Village, where we would disembark and visit the replica of a functional Native village.
Demo of how that drying fish got to that point.
You can see the fish drying in the background.
And again, all of this is on the left side of the boat.
We disembarked and were broken into 3 groups. Each group would travel to one area to hear a bit more about the life in the village.
This was a replica of a house.
Here we heard about the various animals which could be trapped for fur and food.
Next stop on our quick tour was an area where we could hang with the caribou. We heard about daily life here.
Last stop was talking about the clothing. Her coat would have taken 6 months to make. 😵
After the formal tour was over, we were free to check out other parts of the village (e.g. there was another area with dogs) or go back to spend more time at the stations we had already visited.
We checked out the interior of one of the homes.
Went back to the caribou to try to get a photo of the kids with them when no one else was around. This one might be
You could also visit the post office. Tekla Monson, Susan Butcher's daughter, was there signing copies of her parents' book about Granite, Susan's lead dog in the Iditarod races. Of course we had to get one. I figured they'd be a nice souvenir.
All too quickly, it was time to reboard the boat. They let us sample a salmon spread, which was super good. You could purchase cans of salmon for about $13/can to make your own at home.
Going back, we were seated on the "correct" side, although there wasn't as much chatter then. I got a nice clear shot of the kennels.
Just a lazy day on the river.
And finally, we were back.
It looks like a few of the staff were back to welcome us. We survived our three hour tour just fine!
We poked around in the gift shop for a bit, and then ate our lunch. There is a lunch you can purchase where it's served family style, which included stew and some other items. We decided that the kids probably wouldn't love that, so we just ate what we brought.
One last shot of the dock before we departed. The bus is the first one arriving for the 2 PM tour.
There is still more for Fairbanks!
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