Our first order of business in Fairbanks was to take the van for a maintenance checkup. After a thorough check-up, they replaced the fuel filter and the rear brakes and rotated our tires.

While the van was in the shop we took a cab to Pioneer Park. It’s a great little park complex close to downtown Fairbanks that has restaurants, playgrounds, and museums on airplanes, trains, and sternwheeler boats.

Not quite beach weather, but still fun!

This area is really shutting down for the season. Only stragglers like us are left in the RV parks, and most of the attractions, including the train ride that we had been promising Quinn, have closed. The airplane museum was open however and was quite impressive. It was also wonderful to be able to get out of the cold and rain for awhile.

For dinner we went to the Silver Gulch Brewing Company. The beer was excellent, and the food went down just fine. We also were treated to some live bagpipe music in honor of the 50th birthday party at the table next to us. Witt bought a stainless steel bottle opener as a souvenir from the brewery gift shop that he has already fastened to the storage box on the back of our van. All in all it was a fabulous evening!

This morning we went to the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum. The museum has only been here since 2009, but it was unbelievable how much they’ve collected, restored and displayed in that short span of time. They had 38 vintage cars dating from 1904 to 1936 and nearly all of them were in working and pristine condition. Some are one of a kind and are worth millions of dollars. In addition, on the walls they had large photos of the first cars of Fairbanks, including the ones that literally helped to establish the roads (from existing horse trails) on the route from Fairbanks to Valdez. To top it off, they also had authentic clothing displays from the same eras as each of the cars. Fantastic!

Since in the afternoon it was still rainy Quinn and I went to the local rec center for a swim while Witt went grocery shopping in preparation for our trip to Denali. This rec center didn’t have a slide and was just a basic rectangular pool, so it wasn’t quite up to par with our Canadian experiences. Nevertheless we had some good fun and Quinn was happy to get some water time.

Tomorrow we head south toward Denali National Park. We are hoping for some good weather — please wish us luck!