Fairbanks and the Pioneer Park Salmon Bake

We go to a Farmers Market which is identical to farmers markets anywhere, even to having a booth with beautiful produce grown by a guy who went to UCD.  I don't know how they grow such good looking stuff here.

We prowl around trying to find downtown Fairbanks but are detoured because of complicated trench work in the permafrost.  Finally we get to the downtown on the banks of the Chena River, but it consists of just a few blocks of 1950s-type buildings that have had better days, many vacant.  The visitor center, however, costs nothing and has some great exhibits on Alaskan history. 

That night in a light drizzles we enter Fairbank's large Pioneer Park for a dinner of all-you-can-eat salmon, cod, and prime rib.  The park is full of mining and construction equipment from early Fairbanks.  The food tastes like mass-food and the prime rib is far from prime (Mike questions even if it is beef), and the follies-type show after dinner is predictable.  The park, however, is a treasure-trove of equipment, including an old steam shove that was used in the building of the Panama Canal, projects in Hawaii, and then here in Fairbanks.  A huge sternwheeler sits on the ground in one corner of the park – I don’t know how they got it here.

This steam shovel helped dig the Panama Canal, worked in Hawaii, and trenched for the Alaska water pipeline. 

Nanci from Capistrano Beach.  An accomplished ukulele player and singer with an infectious laugh.