Oil - Fairbanks and indeed the whole of Alaska live on their oil

Moose Antler Arch

Oil

What to focus on as the element/mineral for this blog post was a difficult choice. The most obvious element would be Gold, given that Fairbanks was founded on gold, and its development from the 1901 trading post into Alaska's second largest City (32,000) was due to Felice Pedroni (an Italian known locally by the hispanic name of Felix Pedro) find of Gold in 1901. The trader E. T. Barnette established a trading post at 'Chenoa City' (named for the river here), later changed to 'Barnette's Cache' and finally to Fairbanks in honour of soon to be Vice-President Warren Fairbanks.

Oil refining and delivery - Fairbanks

However, with all that reason for choosing Gold, I'm keeping that element back, in case an elusive bridge, in another city, makes an appearance at the end of the week. So today's natural resource is Oil. I choose this as Fairbanks is the centre of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline of 800 miles starting at Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean and running to Valdez, the northernmost, year-round ice-free port in the USA. 

Oil's impact on Alaska

Construction of the pipeline started in April of 1974 and the first oil flowed through it on June 20, 1977. The pipeline transformed Fairbanks and the state of Alaska in many ways. Most significant of which being the Alaska Dividend, paid to every citizen of the state. This was $1,600 last year.

Enough about Oil, on with the day we spent in Fairbanks.

Mass

I awoke at 6am and showered and left the hotel at 6:30am for the walk (1.2 miles) to Mass.

Like most of the places I've stayed during this holiday Mass is at the early time of 7:30am. 

The temperature as I got to the Church at 7.00am was 44F, amazing to think that this time last Sunday I was walking through temperatures of 84F - 40 degrees is a lot to lose in a week, But today's brisk walk to Mass was easier than the walk in the heat last week. I clearly am acclimatized to lower temperatures than Waikiki.

Immaculate Conception Church

The Church is dedicated to the Immaculate Conception and has a lovely Lourdes Grotto outside the Church 

Our Lady of Lourdes

Soon after I arrived at 7am the people began to pray the rosary before Mass. This led into a lovely celebration of Mass, with hymns with which I was familiar and with many of the women at Mass wearing mantillas, a practise which has died out at home.  

The altar with the image of Our Lady of Persecuted Christians in front

There was a 12 member choir and an organist to support the singing and the small church was full for this morning's Mass. Fr Tom, the pastor, led the prayers and a deacon preached on the theme of the persecuted church, in the light of the image of Our Lady of Persecuted Christians in front of the altar.

Brief history of the Church

Breakfast

Holiday Inn Express, Fairbanks - with Drew waiting for his breakfast

Mass concluded at 8:35am and it was a 25 minutes walk back to the hotel to meet Drew for Breakfast at 9.00am,

Turkey Sausage Patties, Pork Sausage links and cheese omelettes

I had my, by now familiar, choice of Turkey Sausage Patties, Pork Sausage links and cheese omelettes.

Egg white and peppers omelette with patties and links

Drew had a egg white and peppers omelette with Patties and links and finished breakfast off with a Danish.

Fairbanks

We went back up to the room after breakfast were I completed Saturday's blog post and posted it. 

We left the hotel at 11am and walked the 1.5 miles to Fairbanks. 

As we walked down towards downtown seven planes flew over in formation a large Bomber and six fighters. Unfortunately we didn't have the camera ready to take the shot into the sun, but they made an impressive noise. <<Co-pilot: We couldn't, dear reader, have taken a good picture due to the blue nature of the sky with no clouds, so the camera couldn't focus on them. It was one of those things you had to see with the naked eye.>>

Polaris Art Work

As we approached the City we stopped at the Polaris Artwork which is intended to bring together the theme of the Gold Rush, the Northern Lights, the Midnight Sun and the North Star all of which represent Fairbanks.

Regimental Flags on the Veterans Memorial Bridge

As we leave Polaris we come to the Veterans Memorial Bridge with its regimental flags celebrating all those from Fairbanks who have served in the forces of the USA.

River Chena - bursting its banks

The River Chena, below the bridge, is not just high, but overflowing. The riverside cyclepath is under the river this weekend, reflecting the heavy rain the area had last week - we have head weather warnings about it for the last few days. Thankfully this has passed over and today is a bright day with the temperature reaching 62F as the day progresses.

Golden Heart Plaza

Mile and kilometer marker from here

Once across the river our first call is to the Golden Heart Plaza, this small riverside park celebrates the Dawson Highway which during World War II was built to link the contigueous USA with Alaska via Canada. It runs from Dawson Creek, British Columbia to Delta Junction, Alaska, via Whitehorse, Yukon. When it was completed in 1942 it was about 1,700 mi; but in 2012 it was 'only' 1,387 miles, due to constant reconstruction and rerouting of the road as technology allows. Fairbanks was point 1,532 on the original road, and the idea of distances to many places started from here. As usual the full set of pictures can be found here on Flickr

The Statue of the Unknown First Family

At the centre of the Park is the statue to the Unknown First Family designed to celebrate family life in Fairbanks.

Immaculate Conception Church from Golden Heart Plaza

The park also provides a great view of the Immaculate Conception Church across the river. 

Chime Clock - Golden Heart Plaza

Further into the Plaza is a chiming Clock. As well as playing the Westminster Chimes at quarter hourly intervals it plays other tunes in between. Today it was playing the Alaska Flag song just before the hour chime. We were there for the full twelve chime at midday. 

Lend-Lease Memorial

Lend-Lease Memorial

the next item of interest as you move along the river is the Lend-Lease Memorial. The lend-lease was a program under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom (and British Commonwealth), Free France, the Republic of China, and the Soviet Union with food, oil, and materiel to support them in the Second World War. 

Lend Lease from Alaska to Siberia

Here in Fairbanks the memorial commemorates the Alaskan Siberian connection as part of Lend-Lease. 

Moose Antler Arch

Moose Antler Arch

The sign for the Moose Antler Arch doesn't say: 100 Mooses died to make this piece of art, and indeed Moose shed their antlers on an annual basis, but there is something morbid, and almost horror film about the effect. It does tell you that it is made of 100 moose antlers from various parts of the state were brought together to construct this memorable 'Gateway to Downtown Fairbanks' and indeed it seemed the most popular of the various Fairbanks sights.

Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Centre

Morris Thompson

The Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Centre is a well designed centre outlining the culture and heritage of the area. It also feels like a memorial dedicated to Morris Thompson a business and political leader from the Athabascan native community who spent most of his life in this area.

At the conclusion of the visit to the Centre (full photos here on Flickr) it is clear that Fairbanks is famous for its Midnight Sun Festival and for Winter sports activities. We are here in August, so neither are going on just now!

Downtown Fairbanks

River CIty Cafe

We stop for a coffee at the River City Cafe and progress around Downtown Fairbanks with its many murals.

An Example of a mural in Fairbanks more on Ficker

We walk up to Seventh Avenue to Veterans Memorial Park with its images of valour, including of the Alaska Territorial Guard.

Alaska Territorial Guard

We complete our tour of downtown at City Hall.

Fairbanks City Hall

And return to the hotel at 2:30pm.

Afternoon in Fairbanks

After uploading our photos to Flickr we decided to do a few of the mundane tasks associated with holidays. The first was a visit to Splash&Dash, the nearest Car Wash, to get most of the red mud off the side of the car before its return on Tuesday.

The second was a visit to Walmart, even with the exchange rate changes clothes are still cheaper here in the USA than in the UK. Especially here in Alaska where there is no State Tax (and in Fairbanks no town tax either) due to Oil Revenue funding so much of state and local Government. We have bought clothes here since 2009, so we did the same today. 

Dinner

Tonight's food goes from the sublime of Lavelle's Bistro yesterday to big chunks of meat today. As we eat at Big Daddys Bar-b-q in the centre of town. The strap line of the restaurant is 'The Northernmost Southern BBQ'

We always treat ourselves to a bit of southern barbeque when we are in the US, and this was our opportunity this year. (Vegetarians may want to look away.)

Big Pig Out

We went for the dish with the lovely title of 'Big Pig Out'. Though to be fair we didn't eat two, but had it to share. 

It included all the favourites with beef brisket, pulled pork, smoked chicken, smoked sausage, pork loin, St Louis spareribs and Texas Toast and was served with four sides fries, onion rings, corn on the cob, rice and beans.

it is not elegant food, it is not picturesque food, but it is wholesome and filling - we managed to eat the lot between us. 

Back to the Hotel

Bike Path Closed due to High Water

On our way back to the hotel we noted that the flooding continues and were amused by the sign above. I suspect most cyclists would have realised the path was not accessible without the sign!! <<Co-pilot's note: I'm surprised, dear readers, he hasn't mentioned the large number of cyclists in Alaska compared with elsewhere in the USA.>>
(A fair point, in Homer, Anchorage and here in Fairbanks we have seen large numbers of cyclists, both tourists and residents. Something you barely see anywhere outside New York (where they are used to dodge traffic). There are well laid out cycle paths here, which make it feel more like Canada than like the contiguous USA.)


We got back to the hotel at 8:30pm and began our packing for tomorrow. Going to bed at 10:00pm.