Monday, June 4–Riverboat Discovery III, Fairbanks

A beautiful day!  Put away the long pants!
Started with coffee at Subway while I waited for WalMart hair salon to open.  LeRoy was off emptying tanks, getting propane and water.
We had front row seats on the riverboat.  First was the bush pilot demo – take off and landing.
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This is not what I expected to see on this cruise!

The strange thing is I somehow forgot to take photos of the beautiful log homes – think I was too busy oohing.
Next was a stop by the late Susan Butcher’s Trail Breaker Kennel where her husband, David Monson, and daughters still live and raise dogs.

Puppies are so cute.  The young lady holding them, and I will find out her name again, plans to run the next Iditarod. 

The dogs had been standing quite calmly until the started hitching them up to pull the quad……..they wanted to go~


And then a rabbit ran across the trail, the dogs got tangled so after some untangling, they came home

and went swimming

Next was a stop at the Chena Village for some history…

This is a native Athabasca giving us a fish camp lesson.

She also was the guide for our group.  She is a sophomore at the University of Alaska and an absolute delight.  First stop was about how a moose hide is prepared and samples of beautiful clothing.


Second stop had a cabin and she sat on the ‘porch’ of the above ground cache used to store pelts and food showing us different types of animal hides.  This is a timber wolf.

The third stop showed their type of camp and told of their way of life…
This is a baby carrier made of birch bark.  Mama puts moss in the seat, baby does what babies do, Mama dumps out the moss and replaces it.  Who needs disposable diapers?!?
The cooking vessel next to it cannot be put over the fire so water is put in along with hot rocks, then repeated and repeated, until the food inside is cooked.

The view and a fish wheel.

The store and barrel stove


There’s a lightening storm ahead…the sky was really dark.  The wind came up so fiercely that we left our open air seats on the bow!

The best shot I could get because the rain was coming!