Aurora what?

After dredge 8 we made our way to University of Alaska Fairbanks, Museum of the North. This magnificent $42 million building was completed in 2006 and houses an impressive collection of art and artifacts relating to north Alaska. They had a collection for each major segment of north Alaska, including a 8'9" grizzly named Otto and a mummified blue mammoth ox. We watched a pleasant but short movie on the aurora boreal is, which is a major attraction here. It was truly breathtaking and maybe someday we will have the chance to return and see it in its glory. The days are so long now that it is difficult to see the lights when they are around.

 

Some of my favorite surprises about this museum were located in the upstairs art gallery. One was a bag made out of recycled plastic bags. My mother in law, Charlotte, makes these bags! It was awesome to see it in a museum (and hers are better). Then we saw the worlds best outhous. Ok, it wasn't really used as an outhouses but was clearly designed as one. It had crazy elements all over and a list of things to find while you are on the pot. True Alaskan humor.

We tried to visit the large animal research center that is part of the university but it was not open for tours on monday.

So, we headed  downtown fairbanks to see the ice museum. The goal of this exhibit is to highlight the international ice carving competition held each spring in Fairbanks. The intent is great. The execution.... Not so much. The host was a young ice carver from China who spoke broken English. The movie that started the presentation was ok and honestly the best past of the entire experience but certianly not award winning. It is located in an old theater in downtown, which is very run down in the first place. Mix in low budget atmosphere and hoaky movie and you have the ice museum. A father the movie the lights came up on a handful of ice carvings behind glass. They re honestly a bit of a let down after seeing the true works of art on display insuring the ice festiva itself, but we're fun to see lit up in person in middle of august. The worst part was when the young chinaman actually carved a block of ice himself, in front of the audience. Hmmm.... Is it a bunch of  c
carrots? A flower? A bunch of potatoes? Still not really sure and had the feeling we were being punked the whole time.... After some reflection we think he was carving the state flower, the forget me not. Yeah, we won't be forgetting that anytime soon....

After waking around town, we stumbled into the local farmers market, where Mary bought a bunch of carrots so ripe we all ate the bunch. Serious yum! We bought more for tomorrow. We spent about an hour in alone timeout and then went to dinner at the Turtle Club, a quaint and packed restaurant outside of town. Definitely where the locals hang out. We dined on prime rib, king crab legs and coconut chicken. It was phenomenal in all aspects. Now we are back at the hotel while the guys are  returning the van to the rental company. Big props and thanks to Alamo, who did make things right in the end.