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Tim's Journal:
 After
a relaxed start we spent the morning at ARCUS doing web maintenance with
Renee. In the afternoon we met with Myrtle Brijbasi, Noa Levanon and Elisa
Maldonado our counterparts from Seward who have been working with river
otters. If you haven't already, click on Myrtle's portion of this web
page, which by all accounts is more interesting than this one.
Renee took the five of us to the Riverboat Discovery for a tour of a
portion of the Chena and Tanana rivers. What a trip!! The weather was
perfect (Renee's doing) and the trip was an information packed four hours.
We learned about the rivers and their history. We stopped at Susan Butcher's
kennels and heard from the famous Iditarod champion about dog sledding.
 We
even saw a dog sled in action! The riverboat stopped at the Chena Indian
Village, which is a historic re-creation. At the village we leaned more
about dog sledding and caribou and reindeer. We also saw Dixie Alexander
at work. Dixie is a renowned Athabascan beadwork artist who has pieces
on display in the Smithsonian.
It was an information packed outing on a perfect day
surrounded by the beautiful scenery of these two formidable
rivers.
One of Dixie Alexander's Athabascan beadwork creations.
AARON'S ADDENDUM:
I really like Fairbanks. It is a different king of city. When we went
up to the top of Ester Dome, it was amazing  to
see the second largest city in Alaska on one side, and barren wilderness
on the other. Elisa, Noa, and Myrtle from the Seward River Otter Project
are a lot of fun. We had a good time on the riverboat and at the Pumphouse
Restaurant. Renee Crain gave us another great tour of the sights of the
town. At the end of the day we took a walking tour of the University of
Alaska at Fairbanks campus. It is very spread out, and very large. Supposedly
people who have to walk across campus between classes must risk temperatures
of 40 below or more! That's dangerous!
Elisa, Aaron and Noa fail to see the humor.
Myrtle and Renee on deck.
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