Perkinson Family Alaska Holiday

Friday 26 July

Ross woke up and went to get the pool passes and to see when the room would be ready to go to.  The girl was lovely and said she had shifted bookings around so we could have the room first thing so he came back and got all the breakfast stuff and went and set it up in our room.  We woke the kids and told them we had found a nice place to eat breakfast, to grab their togs, and we will eat breakfast and go for a swim. As we were walking to the room, Danika thought that Ross had found a picnic table to eat breakfast at said she hoped that other people were not helping themselves to our breakfast thinking it was a buffet, all you can eat.  Ross unlocked the door and when they came in and saw our breakfast stuff on the table, they were so excited to see the room, and even more excited when they saw it had two rooms and two bathrooms! We had breakfast and then headed for a swim. Then indoor covered pool used to be the main outside pool. There were 2 indoor spa pools there. The sign said nobody under 18 could go in the outdoor pool which was the nicest one, so we went and asked and they allowed Josh in, may have helped that he towers above Ross now.  The outdoor pool was awesome, surrounded with Rocks with powerful jets as well. It had gravel on the bottom of the pool. We spent a couple of hours in the pool and then came back and had our standard lunch – marmite and chippie sandwiches, banana on bagels etc. Then Tayla and Chris updated the blog while Josh worked through his pilot book and Danika and Ross napped!

We then finished our movie and we went for a swim while Danika cooked dinner in the camper.  On our way back to the room, two moose walked across the road in front of us into a pond to have a drink.  Danika pursued them with the lens until the Moose made it clear that, it was enough and she retracted. After dinner, the double solitaire challenge was on and Tayla and Danika were leading right up and Josh wanted to give up but Mum doesn’t do that and they won in the last round!

Thursday 25 July

We woke up at the Visitors Centre where we had stopped last night and continued on the Richardson Highway from Delta Junction to the North Pole. During this, we passed Eielson Airforce Base which occupies more than 63,195 acres southeast of Fairbanks and has the second-longest runway in North America. The 354th Fighter Wing mission is to prepare the U.S. and allied aviation forces for combat, to deploy Airmen in support of global operations, and to enable the staging of forces to promote U.S. interest in the Asia-Pacific region. We saw all of the military fighter jets lined up and ready to take off in case they were required. Mum was enjoying herself taking photos of all of the planes and the base, when after we had passed it, Dad mentioned the sign which said “no photography”, but only because he wanted the pictures too!

We took the exit of the highway onto ‘Santa Claus Lane’ into the city of the North Pole. The city incorporated the theme “Where the spirit of Christmas lives year-round” with the lamp posts are painted to look like candy canes, and we drove past other roads called ‘St. Nicholas Drive’, ‘Snowman Lane’, and ‘Mistletoe Drive’, to get to Santa Claus House. It was established in 1952 and is the home of the Original letter from Santa. It was everything you would expect the North Pole to be (except without snow). There was Christmas music playing with Christmas decorations, clothes, and toys everywhere! We browsed the gift shop, and Dani was happy as she got some fudge and we also got some Christmas tree ornaments that will always be extra special for us. There was also a Mr. and Mrs. Claus there. But the best part was meeting Santa’s reindeer. We visited the ‘Antler Academy (of Flying & Reindeer Games)’ which was next door to Santa Claus House. We were able to spend half an hour with the reindeer, feeding and interacting with them, and dodging their massive antlers when they turned a different direction. The North Pole also has the World’s Largest Santa Claus standing nearly 50 feet tall!

We stocked up at Safeway supermarket for the next few days and headed out to Chena Hot Springs. Tayla, Danika, and Josh went on a tour of the Ice Museum where we saw many different ice sculptures inside a building lined with ice made to look like an igloo. There were four different rooms in it that you could rent for $600USD a night. It also came with a room inside the lodge as the ice rooms did not have any bathrooms and most people needed that or got too cold. The longest anyone has lasted was 3am. They supply you with caribou hide, a zero degree sleeping bag, caribou pillows and a comforter.

While Tayla, Danika and Josh visited the Ice Museum, Chris went to organise our camping and overheard the lady saying that there was a 50% discount on rooms which included pool passes and towels for two days.   We added up the cost of staying in the camper and two days of pool passes and hiring of towels, it was cheaper for us to hire ‘a family suite’ with all of that included.  The girl was awesome and said we could come in first thing in the morning and do a late checkout so we stayed in the camper tonight but booked the room for tomorrow but didn’t tell the kids.

We had mini fish fillets and battered prawns with baby carrots, cucumber and broccoli dipped in ‘kiwi dip’.

 

Wednesday 24 July

Got up early and finished our audio tour as the Information Centre opened at 8am and we had to return our headsets.  We drove to Claim 33 where they have antique mining equipment on display and Chris fell in love with the rustic cabin and wants to re-create one to Airbnb it at home.  On the way, we saw a fox walk slowly across the road looking at us as he went into the bush, but we didn’t get any photos. We saw Dredge #4 (built in 1912), pulled from the muck of Bonanza Creek in 1992.   It is a huge machine like the one at Chicken. We also saw mining taking place as we drove to the Discovery Claim National Historic Site was originally staked in 1896 (the site of the gold discovery that sparked the Klondike Gold Rush).  We walked around the trail with boards with information and photos describing the story of the discovery, the people and the life during the Gold Rush. There were some mining buckets that had plaques as a memorial to Skookum Jim and Dawson Charlie.  George Carmacks whose wife, Kate Carmack, was Skookum Jim’s sister. George registered the claim. The plaques honoured Jim for the good he did with the fortune he made in the Gold Rush, that still exist today to help his native people. We continued to drive to Free Claim #6 which is open to the public to pan for gold so we stopped and tried our luck with the shovel and pans we borrowed from the camping ground.  There were lots of rocks with Gold Flecks in and also we got lots of little flecks of gold but no big nuggets 😊 We continued to drive up Cheechako Hill until we got to a stream so turned around. We returned the Gold Panning gear and headed back into town and drove up to the midnight dome where the locals for over 100 years have had picnics under the midnight sun and there are still celebrations on the 21st June on Summer Solstice.  The view from up there of Dawson City, the Yukon River, and Klondike River was very hazy from the forest fires that have been burning most of the summer.   We came down and went and looked through Robert Service’s Cabin and asked if we could read “The Little Cabin” poem but the guy wouldn’t give it to us and we had no internet so will read it at home, from our Robert Service book we bought from there in 1996.  We then walked around the Yukon Order of Pioneers Cemetery and then visited the Danoja Zho Cultural Centre and then walked around the town visiting the shops and taking photos. We left Dawson at 4.30pm and crossed the ferry with the plan to drive back to Fairbanks, back over the Top of the World, Taylor and Alaska Highways with an ETA of 2.30am at the earliest.  We crossed the US Boarder and then stopped again at Chicken briefly. We saw a Black Bear cross the road but weren’t quick enough to get photos. Danika was hanging out for a steak and we didn’t want to stop to cook our sausages, so we stopped for dinner at Fast Eddies at Tok at 10pm for a really yummy dinner and got back on the road. We had hoped to keep driving but decided to call it a night at 1.30am and parked in the visitor’s centre at Delta Junction for the night where it was really smoky.

 

Tuesday 23 July

We left the campground early to continue along the Taylor Highway, through Jack Wade Junction until we got to Boundary where we crossed the border into Canada, where we lost an hour due to the change in time zones. We continued on the Top of the World Highway until we got to West Dawson. We crossed the Yukon River on the car ferry into Dawson City. This was Chris and Ross’ favourite place in 1996.

We went to the Visitors Centre where we planned our activities for our time in Dawson. Mum visited the bathroom, went to wash her hands, and while turning the tap off, it came off in her hands, creating an indoor water feature which reached right up to the roof. As always, we definitely made our mark. We then checked into the Bonanza Gold RV Park where we had showers and then went out on our adventure.

First, we visited Dawson’s Palace Grand Theatre, once known as the “prettiest little theatre north of San Francisco”. Arizona Charlie Meadows opened the Palace Grand in 1899 and has been reconstructed since due to the wear and tear on the building caused by the permafrost, which is frozen ground the buildings are built on, which freezes in winter, and melts in summer, causing the buildings to move. We went to the show, ‘The Greatest Klondiker’ at 4pm where there were three past Klondike characters and as an audience, had to vote for our favourite, through stories and competitions. One of the activities required audience participation, and Josh and Dani were pointing at Mum to get them to pick her, but ‘George Carmack’, one of the Klondikers came up to Josh and said, “Oh I see we have a volunteer”. So Josh’s plan backfired on himself as he was selected to go up on stage.

Once this show was finished, we went around the Dawson Museum, which is in the Old Territorial Administration Building. It features the Kings of the Klondike and City Life Galleries, First Nation and pre-gold rush exhibits. The museum also houses a Courtroom which is also used as Council Chambers a couple of times a month.

 We went on a ‘Then and Now’ Downtown Walking Tour at 6:30pm which was an hour and a half, taking us around the town highlighting the history of Dawson City through the eyes of past and present residents (wouldn’t recommend our tour guide). We were able to enter the old Bank, the old Post Office and the Red Feather Saloon buildings as part of the tour, where we were greeted by George Carmack from ‘The Greatest Klondiker’ show, which added to the experience as he talked about how it was back in his days. We headed back to the camper and cooked homemade burgers made out of squashed chicken meatballs in the carpark of the Visitor’s Centre.

We then headed to the Diamond Tooth Gerties Gambling Hall to watch a can-can style performance by Diamond Tooth Gertie and her Gold Rush Gals at 10pm. We enjoyed Gertie’s Garter and Klondike Kate’s cocktails during the show.

We headed down to the Downtown Hotel where we participated in one of the most disgusting things I have ever done. At the Sourdough Saloon in the Downtown Hotel, Ross, Chris, Tayla, and Danika each had a Sourtoe Cocktail, which dares you to down a shot featuring a real human toe at the bottom of the glass. Ross had bourbon and the girls had honey whiskey as it had to be 40% in order to sterilise the toe. He talked us over the rules; you must drink your shot and the toe must touch your lips to be awarded the certificate. If you swallow the toe, you will be fined $2,500 and are banned from the Downtown Hotel forever. People donate their toes from different causes, whether it be frostbite, diabetes, or deformities. While we were waiting in line, we definitely met some characters and had some good chats. Once we reached the front of the line, we sat down at a table with the Captain, who went through the ritual with us, quoting “You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow, but your lips must touch this gnarly toe”, before he put the toe in our drink. If we completed the challenge, we became a member of the Sourtoe Cocktail Club and gained a certificate. The toe that we had, was extremely long and was removed because it was deformed, which made more sense as to why it was so big! We all completed it and it definitely was not as bad as we thought! Why did we do it? Who knows. When in Rome, right? 

As we felt like our walking tour didn’t give us as much information and history of the town, as we wanted, we also got the self-guided audio tour, which had 15 chapters. We each put our headphones on and drove around the town while listening to the narrator giving us some history about the town, which was very good. We decided to wrap it up for the evening and finish it in the morning, as it was getting late. We ended up getting to bed at 2am (this was 1am U.S. time which wasn’t as bad).

Monday 22 July

We got up early and went to get the truck serviced before heading to Dawson.  While that was being done, we walked to Pioneer Park in Fairbanks which is a 44 acre park created in 1967 as the Alaska Centennial Park to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Alaska becoming a US territory.  We walked around and enjoyed that nobody was there and played on the playground.   Then we got on the road towards Dawson City. We drove to Tok on the Alaskan Highway and stopped at the visitors centre and Chris read in the Milepost that the highlight of Tok was Mukluk Land, so we decided to stop in and it did not disappoint!  We were greeted by Beth, who was a lovely older lady who was obviously very proud of what they had ‘created’ at Mukluk land. We started by playing Skee Ball and then did a tour of the park, and were intrigued by the collection of outhouses, buildings filled with dolls, which looked like something out of a horror movie and old cars, snow machines, a bouncy castle a display cemetery, and of course Santa’s Rocket Ship.  Tayla’s love for mini-golf was satisfied with a mini golf course that was as unique as Mukluk Land. We said our farewells, and she took the opportunity to speak positively into Tayla, Danika and Josh as we left, giving us a Mukluk Gift Bag and sweets for our prizes. She was chuffed to hear us describe Mukluk Land as “Alaska’s Disneyland”. We then got on the Taylor Highway (driving slowly with it’s bumps and warnings of soft shoulders, no barriers and 1000ft drops).  Our next stop was Chicken, supposedly named by early miners who wanted to name their camp ‘ptarmigan (chicken like bird)’ but were unable to spell it and settled for ‘chicken’. The town has no electricity, sewer or water and locals have to provide their own water. It has become a really popular town but much to our disappointment we couldn’t get hot chips to go with our dinner. We were not going to make the border in time to cross, so settled on making it to Walker Fork Campground and had BBQ Chicken, Asparagus and pita chips for dinner.  We started watching a movie and then to bed for an early start. There was no cell phone service, or internet from Tetlin Junction, all the way out to Dawson City.

Sunday 21 July

We got up and went into Fred Myer to get some supplies to take to lunch.  We went to Harvest Church where Tom and Suzie Brock visit. The message was great and talked about how just as we all have unique fingerprints, nobody has the same voice as you – it was really interesting. 

We then drove to have lunch with Darrell and Deb Bourne.  Darrell’s son Jason did two YWAM’s (Youth with a Mission that Danika is doing in Mexico) in NZ and on his second one, stayed at the Baptist Tab Hostel and the managers were Faye and John Ainsley.  Kayla was also on a YWAM and staying at the hostel and they came up to Mangawhai and spent the evening with us. We got on really well with him and talked a lot about Alaska. He played the piano while Kayla and I had a spa.  He died in 2014, and at the time I messaged his Dad Darrell and said that when we got back to Alaska we would come and visit him. Darrell is a builder and has built the most gorgeous home – an awesome mix of rustic and contemporary.  We really loved getting to know Darrell, his wife Deb and their dog, Bonsai, and really connected with them and as hard as it was, talking about Jason who was an amazing young man who gave to so many. We hope to see them again before we leave the Fairbanks area but also hope to see them in NZ as they would love to come and meet more people who knew Jason and see one of the places Jason loved.

We then went to the visitor’s centre in Fairbanks which was awesome and they had a lovely man called Bob who was so helpful and recommended things to do.  We wanted to find the campground that we stayed in, in 1996 and caught Salmon and fed the people around us so stayed at Riverview RV Park hoping it was it, but we enjoyed the showers and had our staple of chicken and salad on croissants for dinner.

Saturday 20 July

We got up in the morning and wanted to give Larry and Robin a hand with jobs that needed to be done, so Tayla, Ross, and Chris went out to the hangar and cleared the grassy area of rocks so that it could be mowed – Robin said every time the mower hits a rock she will send it to us!  Josh worked with Larry on the truck and camper while Danika edited photos. We stopped for lunch and then Danika and Josh helped us finish the rest of the rocks. Larry, Robin, and Robbie left for Osh Kosh and we got ready and left for Fairbanks. Chris and Ross cycled this road in 1996 so we had to make some stops reminiscing along the way.  We pulled into Byers Lake campground to show the kids where we camped and swum in the lake to wash off as there had been a sighting of a bear in the campground that day. We stopped at Denali and had subway for dinner. We don’t remember there being a big tourist town in Denali in 1996 but there sure was now, with the flash hotels for the tour groups – Princess Lodge etc and the tourist shops that go with the tourist stops.  We had a walk around and found the cheapest option for dinner – Subway, so got our food and hit the road again. Chris was driving and saw a brown bear cross the road but by the time we got to it, it had gone into the bush. 

We stopped at Nenana and drove around the campground, reminiscing as the little log cabin which was 100 years old back then was still there, and the log shelters were also still there.  The visitor’s centre log building, which is years old, with grass growing on its roof was still there too! We got to Fred Myer at 11.45 pm in time to use their bathrooms and stayed in the Fred Myer car park.

Friday 19 July

Ross, Tayla, and Chris worked on Maths-Whizz work most of the day and sent out an email to our teachers with Term 2 reports while Danika edited photos and Josh went and mowed Carol Perrin’s lawn.  Ross went and helped Larry with the Super Cub maintenance. We cooked up Sausages and mixed with leftover veggie medley and had a salad for dinner with Larry and Robin and had Brownie and Angel Food Cake for dessert (Dani said it tasted like chalkboard cake but still ate it).  We played Double solitaire with Larry, Ross and Josh (the losers) playing on one team, Robin and Chris another, and Tayla and Danika (the winners). Lots of laughs!

Thursday 18 July 

Got up in the morning and went up to Independence (Gold) Mine and spoke to the guy at the kiosk by the gate who “loved our accent” which we get often, and allowed us in for $5 instead of $20. He recommended a hike to Gold Cord Lake. This was the prettiest walk we have done and one of the most picturesque spots we’ve seen throughout our whole journey. We walked up past a cute cabin and then on to some alpine lakes where the water is emerald green surrounded by huge rock faces. There was still a little snow on the ground in patches which resulted in a snowball fight between Dani and Josh, and some really nice photo opportunities.  We couldn’t believe in the peek of summer, often being the only ones there to enjoy it. We stayed at the lake for a while and then headed back to walk around the Independence Mine site (self-guided tours), again getting an insight into life in Alaska during the Goldrush. Apparently, Independence Mine was the second-largest gold producing operation behind another that was based just out of Juneau.

Had some yummy filled croissants (thanks Danika and Josh) before heading back home to Talkeetna.  Robin, Larry, and Robbie are getting ready to go to Osh Kosh, so we picked up a couple of slabs of pork ribs and Ross did his ‘World Famous (with our friends) BBQ’ and they didn’t disappoint.  Tayla made some yummy veggies, homemade garlic bread, and a yummy chocolate brownie! We had angel food cake with cream, strawberries, and blueberries for dessert. The after-dinner entertainment saw an ultra-competitive 3-way double solitaire challenge – Ross/Chris v Tayla/Danika v Larry/Robin/Josh.   None of us expected Larry not to win, but I’m sure this will not be the last challenge!

   

Wednesday 17 July

Woke up this morning and realised that we would have to revise our itinerary and go the long way round to Dawson City (Canada), travelling back to Talkeetna before heading to Dawson as although the girls had their passports, the rest were safely back at the hangar We decided it would be a good opportunity to go through Hatchers Pass which we were going to do later, so that is now where we are heading tonight.   

On the way, we stopped off at the visitor centre in Sutton to find some toilets, and ended up spending some time looking around the site of an old ‘coal washing’ plant, that after construction requiring sizeable capital investment, was decommissioned 6 months after starting, when the army changed from coal fired to oil fired.

It was awesome to look around at the machinery and buildings but the most memorable part has to be the 3 kids playing on a playground – with some memorable quotes, one being from Danika – “I can reach the monkey bars now”.

Many of the properties, probably due to the harsh winter, do not have manicured lawns and gardens, so Danika was pleasantly surprised to see these paddocks and said “Look at all the mowed lawns, it’s the first mowed lawns I’ve seen here”, only to realise there were wrapped round hay bales and it was only mowed due to the hay, not to manicure.

Stopped to refuel and stock up at Palmer and tried for the second time to find their information centre, without success so continued to read the milepost and headed to Hatchers Pass.  The scenery was gorgeous and we stopped at rivers.

Independence Mine was shut so we headed up to the summit for a walk before dinner.   The drive to the summit was fairly hair-raising, and not something Chris enjoyed. It is a very steep unsealed road, that was quite narrow in places. Once we made the summit road (3886ft) we walked up to the summit and the views were amazing, looking both ways.

On our way up we scoped some possible overnight camping spots. There were a number of Parks controlled camping pullouts, where there were long drops, and overnight fees of $15. Found a really picturesque one beside a river, but it was a little too picturesque for a number of members of our party, as just after we entered, a guy hiking was getting changed, and when we saw him he was fully naked, thankfully facing in the other direction.  At that point we decided to move on to the next campground closer to the summit and set up for the night.

Other great quotes from the day;

For dinner we had sausages and salad – “Blue cheese dressing doesn’t taste like blue cheese. Blue cheese tastes like feet. And I know what feet tastes like” – Josh

Earlier Mum had said “That’s a nice sign” and was continually mocked for that.  Tayla then pointed out another ‘nice sign’ and when we started to mock her she said – “I was trying to be genuine” – mmmm  if you were genuine would you have to try???