Fairbanks #3

Bruce took a two hour ride on a Segway.  Rode through the outskirts of Fairbanks, along with three young fellas.  These fun transportation devices move along at 12 mph.  In Fairbanks, you can ride them whereever you can ride a bike.  A good time was had by all, as evidenced by pictures and videos soon available here.  BTW, you can find city tours on Segways in many cities.  One of several companies offers "Guided Segway tours in Paris, Munich, Chicago, Washington DC, Atlanta, San Francisco, Budapest, Vienna and Berlin!"

We spent several hours at the University of Alaska's premire Museum of the North.  They offer exhibits on Northern culture and environment, including a moving exhibit on the Army's forced relocation of Aleutian Island Natives during WWII.  Many Natives died living in deplorable conditions far from the environs they knew.  Most tellingly, German POWs fifty miles away in camps lived better than these American citizens.

The museum also contained exhibits on Native crafts and the effects of climate change on the Arctic.  We stayed till Bruce got cranky.

We returned to the Fairbanks Visitors Center for Athabascan dancers and dog mushing.  The dancers hoofed around in barn dance fashion, accompanied by a fiddle player and guitarists.  The Natives adopted these instruments brought over by the Hudson Bay Company (!).  While they didn't say, we figured they also learned the folk dancing from traders too.  We could have been watching folk dancing in Arkansas, where we once lived.  Some of their dances did portray their lives as hunters.  They invited the audience to join them on stage, which we did.

Tomorrow we leave Alaska for Dawson City, Yukon.

Bruce