We didn't have to have our bags out until 8:00 am so we got to sleep in just a little! We had the breakfast buffet at the hotel. We loaded the bus at 10:00 am to head for the Fairbanks airport. It took us forever to check in and it was only our group checking in! Our bags weighed 40.5 lbs and 44.5 pounds so we're still in pretty good shape. Security was a joke. We had to go through the full body scan machine and then the woman patted me down. I know she had to have looked at everything backwards because she said it was my right shoulder and left knee. (I had rotator cuff surgery on my LEFT shoulder and replaced my RIGHT knee!) After all that, she looked at me with a grouchy face and said there was a wrinkle in my jeans behind my left knee!
Anyway, we had a 727 for just our group of 44! Everyone had a window seat. It was just about an hour flight to Dawson City. We flew past the Alaska Range and were able to see the top of Mt McKinley, above the clouds, from our window! It sorts of blends in with the clouds but it's there!
Leaving Fairbanks
Mt McKinley above the clouds
We lost an hour and are now on Pacific time. We landed on a gravel runway in Dawson City. It was a little rough. We got off the plane on the tarmac and walked over to a little metal building that was the immigration office. We walked through, had our passports stamped and got on a bus. While sitting on the bus, we saw a dump truck go out on the runway and dump some gravel in the hole we made landing!
Getting off the plane
We met our new bus driver, Vanessa, who will be our driver until we get to Frasier on Thursday. We were taken on a short tour of the town and it looks like a town right out of the Old West. We got to the hotel, took our stuff to our room, then took off to check out the town. All the streets are dirt except for Front Street and it was paved a few years ago and it was a very controversial move. Nothing can be built in the town that doesn't look original. Our hotel was fairly new but didn't look like it.
Front Street in Dawson City
Our hotel - Westmark
More of Dawson City
There was a great trail along the river and we walked most of it. We crossed the street and checked out some of the stores there. At the grocery store it cost $9.49 for a 12-pack of Coke and bananas were $1.19 a pound. We stopped at Sourdough Joe's for a beer. Then the server brought us some fries and said we couldn't have alcohol on the table without food since it wasn't a bar. She wouldn't let us pay for the fries.
The trail along the river
The Yukon River is glacier fed and on the top so it is
murky and the Klondike River is fresh water, clear, and on the
bottom. These two rivers meet here in Dawson City.
After walking around for a couple hours, we went back to the hotel for dinner. For dinner we had a salad, pan seared salmon with a maple syrup butter sauce, grilled vegetables and baked pasta. For dessert, Conrad had apple pie and I had a mixed berry cobbler.
After dinner, we headed over to Diamond Tooth Gertie's for the 8:30 show. They have a great show with Gertie singing and the can-can girls dancing. After their first number, they came out to the audience and one sat on Conrad's lap and gave him a kiss on the cheek! He was a little embarrassed but I thought it was great!!
Gertie's Can-Can Dancers
Gertie and her girls
We walked back to the hotel after the show and visited with some of our group before heading up to our room. It was about 10:45 when we went to bed and it was still SO light outside! Before I go to bed and when I get up in the night, I always have to look outside to see how light it is! It's been a great day and this trip has been simply awesome! So glad we decided to do the land tour.
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