Today (Saturday) was quite a relaxed day. In fact, I didn’t get out of bed until 11am. Mind you I was watching TV until midnight. The various channels and their take on their President-elect is quite fascinating. There are more right wing media forums than just Fox, although Hannity is certainly promoting himself as Trump’s Number 1 media supporter. Still trying to see what Bill O’Reilly’s view is. Anyway, I’ll leave that up to them.

When I got outside, it was clear that Fairbanks had received some snow whilst I was away. I went for a walk to the Cooperative / Grocers a few streets away. It was very much into organics, and the prices were no different from ours. I bought a few goodies to try. I got a packet of rice cakes topped with 68% cocoa chocolate. Who’d have thought you’d melt chocolate onto a health food? Well, apart from strawberrys etc. I also bought some cashew brittle (lighter in colour than our peanut brittle but still as tasty), and some pork rinds (like our pork crackling) in a chip sized packet. Now that is something I’d love to import into Australia, instead of only being able to buy really small bags at the local bar.

I then went for a wander around a few streets just to snap a few photos and see how the snow had impacted the houses. I realised my gloves (not the mittens I have used most as they are great) were really not of much use in the cold. I’m pretty sure I bought them in London so I’d have thought they’d keep out the cold. Anyway, I then walked to the local bus terminal to catch a bus to the museum. Sadly I had missed it by 5 minutes and the next one wasn’t for an hour and a half, so on my way back to the hotel I hailed a taxi to take me there. The trip cost US$22, around AuD$33 which was pretty reasonable for the distance, and only about two thirds of what it cost to drive from Port Hedland airport to my home when I worked there.

The Museum of the North is based at the University of Alaska. It has three main areas; an art gallery; a “Place Where You Go To Listen” (which was unfortunately closed); and an area like a usual museum, with the history of Alaska, from the time before it was “discovered” when it was occupied for many thousands of years by various indigenous peoples, and how they lived, through to European arrivals, to its sale from Russia to the USA in 1867 for $7.2m, through the goldrush and the oil pipeline, etc through to relatively near the present (there is a new wing being built to update the history and bring things through to various changes that have occurred over time).

Here are a few photos of the artworks in the upper gallery.

This last photo was an “Outhouse Experience” you could open the front swinging door (with the antlers) and go into and sit down on a bench. The whole article is made up of found pieces inside and outside. Below is the explanatory sheet attached to the right hand side. I remember we had an outhouse when we lived in Kenny Street Bassendean (until I was 7 or 8 years old). That was too long ago for me to remember much, but I recall that it was sometimes scary to head out at night!

Here are a small number of photos from the downstairs museum section.

I was particularly interested in the display on the Permafrost, given what I’d heard about its effects during the trip up to the north.

There were also three display tables out in the corridor to the entrance of the museum, each with what looked to be University Students at them. There was one table that had a whole lot of instruments and items made out of wood. It was something I would have liked to spend more time on except I knew it was unlikely that anything they sold at the shop would have been been treated to the level acceptable to Australia’s customs officials.  So I spent some time talking to the young lasses at the table that displayed the deforestation of trees in Fairbanks over the previous 100 years. We got to talking about it around the world and then onto climate change. One of the ladies asked me where I was from and so I said Western Australia. So she asked me about the two things that everyone has asked me about when wanting to know about Australia – are there really lots of snakes and spiders! And how scary are they? Personally I’m more worried about spiders than snakes, certainly the ones I have seen. I explained how sometime we catch a spider on a piece of paper and take it outside to shake it off, rather than killing it. She said she go straight at it with a shoe. It’s always interesting to hear overseas people and their view on our killer insects and reptiles. Then I had to get to the shop to buy a couple of gifts before the bus came.

I really did enjoy visiting the museum, and although I have been reading up on the history over the past 12 months, getting details from a personal level rather than just at a country level, is enjoyable and educational.

I then went to catch the bus back to the hotel. I took one photo of the “sunset” behind the clouds across the road from the museum (the sun did rise a little above the horizon in Fairbanks).

Unfortunately, the bus came about 5 minutes early so I didn’t get a photo of the museum building itself. It was quite architectural. I caught the bus back to my hotel and fired up my Surrface Pro to transfer across all my photos from the Coldfoot trip and update my blog. For dinner I was thirsty but not hungry, so I headed off to the Red Lantern Steak and Spirits restaurant for a half sandwich / half soup meal (Cuban sandwich / clam chowder soup) and a glass of Chateau Ste Michelle Reisling (Columbia Valley). A sweet wine, thinner than but with the same lemon honey taste of a Botrytis Semillon dessert wine. I liked it so much I had 3 glasses. Then off to bed.