Heading North-A Day Exploring Fairbanks

We had started our time off in Fairbanks hanging out with our friends the Crabbs and watching firefighting planes scooping water at the nearby float pond. That evening my friend BJ happened to be flying into Fairbanks for work, so I headed to the airport to pick her up.

BJ had recently met a new gentlemen, and after a short time chatting she had us both convinced he could quite possibly be her soul mate. BJ, who is a bright rainbow of a soul herself, described him best as finding her “rainbeau”. I dropped her off at her car still in a romantic daze with the plan to hang out the next day if she didnt get called into work.

The next morning we woke up, ate some breakfast, then headed to Lulu’s Bread & Bagels for treats and coffee. BJ hadn’t got called in so she met us there.

On our flight to Fairbanks the day before, I had spotted a big lake and what looked like a big beach. I looked it up and showed it to Amy Crabb, who helped me determine that it was a new park called Tanana Lakes. BJ was up to exploring it with us, so while Woodsen took Eska back to the tent for a nap, the older kids, BJ and I, headed to Tanana Lake.

At one end of the lake there were Kayaks to rent. We rented three kayaks and enjoyed paddling around the lake.

The kids enjoyed paddling, but after we paddled close to the other side of the lake, where there was a playground and lots of kids swimming and playing, they decided they were done kayaking and ready to play.

We returned the kayaks and headed to the other side of the lake, but not before taking a group photo.

On the other side, there were two parking areas: one near the larger beach and one closer to the small peninsula filled with playgrounds. The small peninsula also had benches in the shade, so we opted for the smaller parking area near the Rotary Pathway Playground.

There was water to play in, playgrounds to climb, benches with shade for the adults, and BJ even brought fingernail polish for manicures.

BJ’s friend Joseph met us there, and we hung out till we were all worn out and melting in the hot sun.

Next stop was Ice cream. Hot Licks was closed so we headed to Golden Heart Treats.

After Icecream we parted ways with our friends and headed back to the airport. This time to Airport pizza to enjoy wood fired pizza while watching airplanes take off and land.

At this point, we probably should have headed back to the tent and called it a day, but there was one more thing I had seen that I thought might be fun for the kids to enjoy before we left.

Pioneer Park seemed to quite the variety of historical exhibits so we headed that way.

Our time was a bit abbreviated thanks to tired kiddos, but we made sure to enjoy the train before heading back to our camp to put worn out children and adults to bed.

The next day, we planned to make the long flight from Fairbanks to Council, a small community outside of Nome. We were excited to see friends and spend a few days with them around the 4th of July.