Sunday, June 21, 2026

Sunday, June 21: A trip to the Arctic Circle

Hello everyone, Mary & I got up around 7 AM and got ready to go to Starbucks so we can get ready for 9:15 AM trip to the Arctic Circle. Went to the Starbucks and we had plenty of time to order our iced coffees and have a sandwich to get ready to go to the strip so we make sure that we’re ready to go. We drove to the place and I bought some swag and paid for the parking. We have to order two sandwiches each for us for 10 bucks each. That’s what they’re offering for food. People are still coming in even though we’re tentatively supposed to leave at 9:15. It’s  now 9:17 and there are a bunch of people here. It’s now 10:09 AM truck that we’re driving in or the coach as he calls it had to check engine light on, and we had to delay for a little bit while called the mechanics. Boy this guy likes to talk. Anyway, he’s been talking about services on the road 6 AM. Talked about the gas station for 100 miles and we’re going to shop which has no hot food because mechanical problems. Internet service is up and down. We still have service. Mary and I are sitting in the front seat. And he’s saying that Alaska is mostly Public land!  He is now talking about trees 🌲 I just wish he would allow for some silence 🤫 

Saturday, June 20, 2026

Saturday, June 20: First Day in Fairbanks

Hi! Good morning and good afternoon and all that to everyone. Well my mornings and afternoons have been to the 21 1/2 hours of sunlight that we had yesterday and today. Anyhow, after we went to bed around two 2 AM after the ball game ended around 1:15 AM wegot up at 1 PM and decided to hit someplace safe that we knew we liked. So we went to Starbucks and hung out here for a couple hours. Apparently drive-through because there’s nobody inside but there’s a whole bunch of people doing drive-through. It’s really kind of strange but we’re digging it cause their seats galore. The people are nice and I got a free refill of iced coffee which you can’t get anywhere else that I’ve been to. So we’re just mellowing out and then we’re gonna head to the museum of the north. I’ve been busy editing yesterday‘s blog posting and waiting for the videos to download. The Internet is very slow here, but at least it does work and we are enjoying our relaxation here. Well, we hung out at the Starbucks till 5:30 PM and realized we need to go to the museum of the north and check it out before it closes around 6:30 PM. Just realized that Kyle Schwarber hit two home runs in the same inning against the Mets in the third inning today. Last I saw they were leading 11–1. Hello well we enjoyed our stay At the Starbucks. Next, we went to the Museum of the North.  This museum wasin a decidedly nicer area of Fairbanks. This is a place where the world famous bus from out in the wild will be stored in 2 to 3 years once they get funding and they do the renovations for it. So we’re a little bit early for that. That museum was pretty cool actually. The building is a cool architectural gem and with the really heavy looking clouds we got some really cool pictures of the building itself. Once we got in, we investigate the first floor, which was exhibits about the culture in the history of Alaska and the north in general. They got had to exhibits that were very scientific very granular as Mary likes to say. We then went to the second floor and they had one exhibit that talked about it addiction. That was really depressing but very eye-opening. The guy said that addiction deaths increased 45% between 2022 and 2023. That is fucked up! Mary then asked the ladies at the front desk what they recommend to go out to eat. They recommended a place called lemongrass. It was about an eight minute car right away. I was looking forward to eating Thai food for the first time in many moons.  Well, the food and service did not disappoint. I had a tofu, green tofu, curry with avocado avocados and that was delectable and Mary really enjoyed her yellow curry with chicken. It was very nice atmosphere and the company that’s in charge of our Arctic Circle trip. We’re gonna take tomorrow at 9 AM.  they’ve been in  business for 30 years. They are very nice people there. It’s now 9:02 PM and we decided to check out the northern Alaska tour company. That’s that’s your organization that’s running our bus trip to the Arctic Circle. We drove down there in the misty old rain and it’s a very gloomy day and it’s the locations in a funky spot. It’s right next to the Fairbanks airport. It was a good thing. We tested out because it’s very strange. Mary went in to check the place out. The door is open, but nobody was working there so she used the ladies room very conveniently enough. Anyhow, we went across the street to the parking lot and they have a little envelope system, we put the money in along with your car information and deposit into this box so we took one of the envelopes and brought it back with us to our humble boat here call the Borealis in.