Fairbanks, where it has been very hot

We slept; we slept off the fifteen hours of travel, and we somehow adjusted to the four-hour time difference.  We awoke feeling a lot closer to being humans than we had the night-less evening before this, when we crashed at 10:30 p.m., Alaska time, or 2:30 a.m. Florida time.  In the summer, the sun shines brightly in Alaska for approximately 20 hours a day.  Midnight sun is not an expression; it is a reality, and it is weird.  On the balcony of the suite we will occupy for four days, the sun blasted down in the middle if the night as if it were late afternoon.

It has been ridiculously hot in Fairbanks this summer, so much so that the dryness has resulted in massive brush fires, yielding smokey air that is both a respiratory and an olfactory nuisance.  In short, the fresh, crisp air of Alaska has been replaced, albeit temporarily, with the kind of air to which we are accustomed in Florida when the Everglades burns.  It was unexpected, but it is one of those unpredictable aspects of nature that we accept.  As for the heat, it seems to be abating.  Though the highs had been in the 90s (Fahrenheit) the week prior to our trip, it was in the 70s today.

The tour books warned of Alaskan Mosquitos.  There is not much wind here in the summer months, and conditions for the nuisance bugs are said to be ideal.  Apparently those ideal conditions apply to size, as these things are honestly the size of small hummingbirds.  Huge.  And ubiquitous.  We have resigned ourselves to smelling like bug repellant for the duration of the land portion of the trip.

Today, we rode the resort's shuttle into downtown Fairbanks to get a feel for the city.  Fairbanks is a small city with a quiet and Alaskan-folksy downtown.  We walked along the main streets and stopped for lunch at Soupy Smiths, a favorite of locals.  There, Albert had a Fairbanks-brewed beer, and Steve had an Alaskan crab burger.  After lunch, we walked throughout the old, somewhat decaying little city, and eventually came upon the Cultural Center.  What a beautiful place!  There were very well done exhibits chronicling Alaska's history, wildlife, and people.  The day ended with dinner at the Bear Lodge, on the grounds of the Wedgewood Resort, our home in Fairbanks.