USA Hockey - the Alaska Train - Day 6

08.27.2010
Taking the Alaska Train from Fairbanks to Anchorage through Denali. It was a 12 hour ride leaving around 8am from Fairbanks and getting into Anchorage around 8pm. There was some beautiful scenery along the way going through Denali Park and Reserve. We didn't see Mt. McKinley as it was too cloudy but we did check out a wicked bridge called Hurricane Gulch.
http://www.alaskarails.org/route-map/hurricanegulch.html

Mike the train guy.

Police Officer Joe and his wife, Kathy, picked us up in the unmarked police car... I think that he brought her with so I couldn't play with the buttons:) He dropped me off at the airport, I picked up the rental car and picked Tara up. She flew in to work the seminar. We grabbed some food and went to bed as we had an early morning seminar.

USA Hockey - Fairbanks, AK - Day 5

08.26.2010
Today we slept in a little (FINALLY!! Right Tara!?!) then we ran a few errands and had lunch with Skip, Rachel (Skip's girlfriend) and John.

Then we headed over to the permafrost tunnels. This was super cool as they are the only ones in the world that are in tact and are not open for tours to the average person in Alaska. After the tunnels we went to the most Northern brewery and head back into town.

We hooked up with Dean and went out on the boat on the Chena River to the Tanana River. He has a super SOLID boat and can run in only inches of water as well as turn and stop on a dime. I was totally impressed because he launched and loaded the boat as a one man crew. Thanks Dean!

Tara and I also took a walk around Pioneer Park (was Alaska Land) and somewhere in there we stopped by the Alaskan bowl factory.

Look out! Tara found a man!!!

OK so we totally paid $8.00 per person to go into a freezer that was at 40 degrees below and throw water into the air... it evaporated.

We returned the rental car did a little shopping and went back to the Tara's house and watched the USA vs. Canada Gold medal game.

USA Hockey - Fairbanks, AK - Day 4

08.25.2010 Over to Chena Hot Springs and paid $15 / per person to visit the ice hotel.

We hiked a little and saw some great scenery at the beaver pond.

We stopped at Angel Rock on the way back and met John for lunch and rushed over to the seminar to finish up and take the closed book tests. After we headed over to get some food.

Tara was a super, solid trooper tonight driving me up to Cleary Summit to try and see the Northern Lights, but the moon was too bright for viewing.

USA Hockey - Fairbank's, AK - Day 3

08.24.2010
We got up early again and went to the El Dorado gold mines for a tour. We went on the train and Earl (Tara's hockey friend...) sang as we moved over to the panning set up. We got off and learned about how they miners worked, watched some panning and went to do it ourselves. I panned up $14 worth of gold (little flakes) and Tara panned out $4.

We stopped and took some photos climbing on the pipeline...and waited for the people to come out of the woods...

Then we went to the North Pole and visited the Santa Clause house, complete with reindeer and Santa. And ate at Pagoda, a Chinese restaurant, with super huge portions, that was featured on the TV show, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the food channel with John and Skip.

We then headed over to the classroom and started the level 3 and 4 seminar. After a few hours in the classroom we went to the rink and got to the on-ice testing. I borrowed a pair of rental skates from Joe (I played softball in high school with his sister; small world) and some odd helmet. Note: passed my level 4 skate in rentals! After the clinic we stopped for a bite to eat.