We were rather exhausted to say the least. It was 0200 by the time we made it to our lodge & to bed. Our Monday started nice & early with a Riverboat Cruise down the Chena River. Along the way we saw a bush plane land on the water next to our boat, we saw a four-time Iditarod winner's dog sledding camp complete with the dogs :-), and we got off the boat to tour the Chena Village establishment. On the way back up the river, we enjoyed lunch & snacks. We ate smoked salmon on crackers, which I loved & Chris even ate a reindeer hot dog!
In the afternoon we headed on the City of Gold tour. We rode a train into a mock gold mining village where we learned how gold used to be mined, how it's mined today, & then we panned for our own gold. I ended up with $8 worth of gold & Chris had $4 worth. On the way back to the lodge, we stopped and saw a portion of the Alaska pipeline that spans 0ver 800 miles across Alaska. They managed to construct that entire pipline in just over 2 years! Because of the oil revenues in Alaska, residents do not pay state taxes & each year receive a check from the state with an interest payout from the oil profit of the year...how nice! Here are pictures of Chris & I panning for gold & the Alaska pipeline.
We finished the evening off at an Alaskan Salmon Bake. They had all-you-can-eat prime rib, grilled salmon (delicious!), fried cod & hallibut, a salad bar, baked beans, hush puppies, & of course desert. No sweet tea though...that's all we were missing. I only found sweet tea once while we were gone & it still wasn't sweet enough for me. I survived though!
Off to Denali...
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