Saturday, July 25, 2009

Leaving Fairbanks

We are heading South in the morning. I don't know when I'll get on the Internet again.

Fairbanks has been a great place to visit. I touched on some things in the previous post. In addition, we have been up close and personal with the famous Alaskan Pipeline. Having actually been in and on the territory through which it was built, makes the engineering even more spectacular. There is a really good "Theme Park" here, called Pioneer Park. It is educational, as well as entertaining. The only amusement ride is a "Choo Choo Train", which we dutifully used to circle the park two times. I did spy a pond with two hen Mallards and offspring. Frankly, I did not immediately recognize the Mallards! The typical blue feathers were not clearly visible, the bill was more grey than yellow, and they were swimming so wing colors were not shown. In defense of my failure to immediately ID them, summer feathers are different from the plumage we see in the winter in Louisiana. I took pictures of them and later was sure of the ID by use of Sibley's book. By the way, Brenda and I have greatly expanded our "bird list" while on this trip. Yesterday, we saw three Varied Thrushes.

North Pole, Alaska, is between Fairbanks and Eielson. We stopped to get the appropriate photographs. In side a gift shop, to get a souvenir Christmas ornament, I even got a picture of Brenda on Santa's lap. The grand kids will be envious.

We are headed for Delta Junction (on the Alaskan Highway), then on toward Valdez via the Richardson Highway, with an intermediate stop on the Edgerton Highway to see a copper mine. We'll be in Valdez by the 30th, at which time I should be able to again connect to the "Net.

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