Wanderung 29

Alaska or Bust

July 2014 - August 2014

3 AlCan end
Fairbanks: River Cruise 4
Index


 

July 20: Museum of the North, Fairbanks, Alaska

Bob:

Our guidebook had good reviews about the Museum of the North on the University of Alaska campus and the steamboat ride on the Chena River up to the junction with the Tanana River. Both activities sounded worthwhile, but the weather was threatening so we deiced that the indoor museum visit might be the best bet. Driving over to the museum we swung by the riverboat landing to check it out, and coincidentally came by just as the morning's tour was leaving, signalled by a long blast on the ship's steam whistle! We watched it pull away, and then went inside to purchase tickets for the next day.

As the ship had (literally) sailed, the gift shop was empty and that was a good time to look things over. Monika found a nice pair of earrings, and we both picked up some sale-priced blue fleece jackets as the weather was turning colder and we needed one more layer of warmth.

Monika:

Today and tomorrow we were going to spend in Fairbanks since there were two things we wanted to do, the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska and a river cruise on a paddle wheeler. Since today the weather looked not too promising and tomorrow was supposed to be better, we decided to do the museum today.

But we did drive down to the riverboat to make reservations and check it out. Today's 9 o'clock river cruise was just leaving and we got great pictures. We then went into their large store and made reservations. But I also found a wonderful fleece. They had them in both Bob's and my size so we have a nice matched pair. I wore mine immediately, since it was rather cold.

Bob:

The Museum of the North was located on one edge of the University of Alaska's campus in Fairbanks, but we were there during the student's summer vacation and thus had no trouble finding a parking space! The first floor of the museum featured the main permanent exhibit of artifacts from all over Alaska plus explanations of typical animals, native cultures, and early European settlements. We were greeted by a stuffed grizzly bear, one of many displayed animals like arctic foxes, seals, polar bears, and such.

Monika:

On to the museum, it was a rather strange looking building at the top of the ridge, as if designed by a committee of architects that all wanted to make a statement. Inside there were two stories: on the first floor was an art gallery and the main rather large room that was all about Alaska. It started with an introduction to Alaska's history and then was divided into 5 sections: southwest coast, west, southeast, central, north.


 

Bob:

The collection of stuffed animals was a taxidermist's dream, but I was far more drawn to the artifacts of native cultures as they intrigue me. The bead work of the Native Americans was exquisite, but the sculptured ivory created by the Innuit/Eskimo natives were pure, almost crystalline white and hauntingly evocative.

Monika:

In each section there were facts about the natives, the European settlers, and stuffed animals from those sections. There were also several biographies of remarkable women of that section, but it was missing the stories of men.


 

Bob:

Unlike museums in Germany, the Museum of the North did not have an attached cafe, so we had to find a place where we could take a break for lunch. Fortunately Fairbanks is not a big city, and we drove East to a newer commercial section where we ferreted out a Subway for lunch.

Returning to the museum for the afternoon, we took in the second floor that had a gallery of more modern artwork. We saw some beautiful paintings but also nice sculptures, some kind of in the traditional mode we had seen in the historical first floor exhibits but some were also distinctly modern. We finished up the day with an exhibit about a deep-sea exploration ship that included pictures of some mighty curious denizens of the deep!

Monika:

After a couple of hours of reading everything, we were getting hungry. So we drove over to a section of town were all the big box stores were as we thought fast food could not be far away. We were correct and stopped at a very nice Subway. Since it was cool enough for things to keep in the car, we each got a 12 inch, ate 6 inches, and thought other half of it would do nicely for dinner.

We returned to the museum to look through the art gallery on the second floor, and then a special exhibit on a research vessel. But what intrigued our "inner children" was the make-your-own-bookmarks activity, where they had nice museum bookmarks that you could cover with stamps of different animals. Such fun!


 

Bob:

But we finally dragged ourselves out of the museum and drove to our motel for the evening. We were by then too tired to go out to eat, so it was nice to have the last 6 inches of our afternoon sandwich for dinner!

Monika:

That was about all for one day. The left over Subway sandwiches made a great dinner.



Copyright 2014 by R. W. Holt and E. M. Holt


 

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