We spent three days in Fairbanks. One day was spent going up the Dalton. The last day was spent taking care of some mechanical work and finding out the truck needed new tires. We were lucky we had gone up the Dalton without any problems, given how bad that road was. The road might have made those tires worse. We fortunately were able to get that taken care of the morning we left, and we had a reasonably short day. 

The night before we left Fairbanks, we went to the touristy area of the city. There was a park there focused on Alaskan heritage and history. There was also some cool public art, and a traditional salmon bake. Until then, I thought salmon bakes were an invention of my parents. Every August when the King Salmon were running, a local grocery store in my hometown called Woody’s would get in large whole King Salmon. My father, who was in the Navy in the 1950s, had been stationed at Kodiak and apparently had gotten quite fond of King Salmon during his service. What started out as a small party grew to us complaining that Mom got drunk (she never did) and invited the whole town. 

In fact, one year Myles (my late husband) and I drove from Goderich, Ontario, where we were running a children’s camp, to my hometown, Miamisburg, Ohio, to go to the salmon bake. We then slept a few hours, turned around and drove back to Goderich to take in the next group of campers. I did not realize at the time that salmon bakes were an Alaskan tradition. That fact was never explained to us, so I looked forward to this new experience at a real Alaskan salmon bake. 

The salmon was excellent and plentiful. The sides were okay. My parents’ parties had better sides and the desserts at this party left something to be desired. But it was a cool experience and neat to visit the Pioneer Village Park and see what a city that is not that oriented towards tourism could do to celebrate their heritage, while also inviting tourists to come and share a piece of Alaskan tradition.

The next morning we headed back to Tok, going a different way than we had left. We were going by a suburb of Fairbanks called North Pole. The locals had embraced this fully and had given in completely to the commercialization of December 25th and all the associated icons that go with it. Cheryl and Doug had been forecasting our trip to Santaland and to the Naughty Shoppe. I was pretty sure I knew what Santaland was, but the Naughty Shoppe had me a little confused. Doug and Cheryl are not exactly the kind of folks that find their way into adult toy stores and I didn’t think they’d be taking me there. So what could it be? I was curious and the closer we got, the more they talked it up. I should have known to be suspicious.

Santaland was exactly what we thought it was, with cool gifts and lots of Christmas themed stuff and letters from Santa that will be sent in December. I talked with Santa about my grandchildren and my great-granddaughter and told him that I wanted him to keep a good eye on a couple of them because they might be trying to get away with some stuff. But I also told him they were generally good kids and deserved a nice Christmas this year. We bought a few fun souvenirs as well.

And with that we left North Pole and headed to the Naughty Shoppe. Oh, yeah, I spelled that wrong. Try the Knotty Shoppe — full of beautiful wood items, often with burls or knots in them. This store had made great hay out of its play on names. While we were there,  there must have been 15 cars in and out of the parking lot (for the same reason we were there). If I had more room, I would have probably bought something because I love that kind of wood. But I’ve sworn off of buying extra stuff, so I looked, but didn’t buy.

We picked up the Alaskan Highway Just before arriving in Tok, we found one very large — and friendly looking — bear. I snapped his picture, but no, I did not get out and try to pet it. We spent another night in Tok, again eating at Fast Eddie’s on our way out of town the next morning.

That night, we got to eat at the Klondike Rib and Salmon eatery which was closed our first time through.  The meal was excellent and ambiance was perfect for the Yukon. 

The following day was once again back over road that we had traveled before.  I took a couple of new shots that stood out as the vista was the opposite from before.   The turquoise water was beautiful but the sun and our ability to see it was a challenge, but the pictures below was not a bad capture. 

We spent the night at Watson Lake which was right at the road where we had entered the Alaskan highway on the route up.