July 4, 2009

July 4, 2009

Dear Uncle Sam, Happy Birthday. We are in Fairbanks, Alaska helping your 49th state celebrate its 50th birthday. It was too cold to do it on the actual date in January, so we thought we would celebrate it today. I hope you don’t mind sharing.

To get immersed in the old culture of the Alaska’s interior, we took a morning cruise on the riverboat Discovery. This paddle wheeler is run by the same owners as yesterday’s gold mine tour. Both are elaborately staged “adventures” along supposedly wild territory. The owners must have been schooled by Disney. Despite the hokeyness, we had fun again today. The cruise took us past a float plane taking off and landing, and a dog sledding operation. It was amazing watching how excited the dogs got when they were strapped in to pull a four-wheeler around. We then disembarked at an Indian village where we learned about salmon smoking and fur trapping.

This afternoon, Uncle Sam, we are going to relax, BBQ some fresh salmon and toast to your good health. Unfortunately we will miss the fireworks this year. It never gets dark enough here to shoot them off. Best Regards, Mike and Aimee.