This year marks 30 years since Julie and I became a married couple. Well before our anniversary, she said “We ought to do something big for our 30th.” I thought about it and said, “Hey, maybe we could go to Alaska and see the places in Fairbanks where you lived as a kid.” After some back and forth about how the actual houses she lived in were either demolished or burned down in a fire decades ago, I said, “Well, I’d still like to see Fairbanks.”
The trip was set after a lot of organization on the part of Julie and my sister-in-law Kathy. Kathy and my brother-in-law Richard live in Juneau and, like us, they married the same year as we did, so they joined us on the trip.
I had no idea what to expect. Sure, I had seen pictures of Fairbanks from Julie’s family photos, but these were taken in the late ’60s to mid-’70s, so these are basically faded prints that captured a lot of slice-of-life stuff, but little of the surroundings.
I’ve seen these photos on and off for decades, but as I noted earlier, the images didn’t quite capture what Alaska was like — well, really what Fairbanks was like. So, when we boarded BART to SFO to board our flight to Seattle and then to Fairbanks, I kept thinking, “Okay, I guess I can expect a fairly flat place with some mountains way in the distance.”
the habit at this point.
Chapter One: Fairbanks
When we landed in Fairbanks, it wasn’t as flat as I imagined. Rather it was quite green and lush and reminded me of Portland, Oregon in a way. The airport was quite nice, too. For such a small international airport, it looked really updated. Granted, I’m not an airport aficionado, but I figured Fairbanks International was going to be like a regional airport with a no-frills kind of vibe. Nope. It was pretty nice.
After meeting up with Richard and Kathy at the airport (they arrived about 40 minutes before we did), getting our rental car (Toyota Highlander), and driving about 10 minutes to our Airbnb, we got set up in our accommodations. The first thing that struck me was how absolutely gorgeous our surroundings were. Fairbanks has a river that runs through the city. It’s called the Chena River (which is pronounced “Chee-na”)
There are a few touristy things to do in Fairbanks, but perhaps the most touristy thing to do is take a cruise on the riverboat. These boats were workhorses back in the day hauling goods up and down the river. But with rail, trucks, and planes taking over, transporting goods via riverboat is too slow for today’s go-go society. Now, these boats are relics of the past and attractions to tourists like me and my family.
As the riverboat company’s description of the boat trip notes, it’s a three-hour tour…a three-hour tour. Ha! While it is a three-hour tour, it’s not on the S.S. Minnow. Rather, it’s more like a Disney-like tour of the river. Everything is staged for us tourists. Here’s what the riverboat company says on its site:
Tour overview: The perfect Fairbanks day tour combines river views and Alaska Native history and traditions! Climb aboard the Riverboat Discovery III for an unforgettable 3-hour cruise into Alaska’s history. Travel the Chena and Tanana Rivers on Alaska’s only authentic sternwheeler riverboat. This guided Alaska tour provides background on the area’s natural history and the Athabascan Alaska Native culture. You will see a floatplane take off, meet sled dogs, witness the “wedding of the rivers,” and gain insight into ancient Athabascan traditions. Alaska Native guides who have worked and lived in Alaska will take you on a personalized tour of a replicated Chena Village. Note: This cultural tour departs from the Riverboat Discovery dock in Fairbanks.
And, of course, what tourist attraction would be complete without a backdrop for photos that are suitable for framing?
One day, like Leonard Nimoy, we went in search of the homestead that Julie, Richard, and their mom lived in 1969. Now, the homestead burned down long ago, but we thought we’d try to find the land that the house used to sit in. So off we went to look for the place. It was off the main road (Sheep Creek Road), but Richard and Julie only remember that 1.) it was between six and 12 miles outside of Fairbanks. And 2.) that the road to the homestead was by a railroad crossing on Sheep Creek Road. We drove past one set of railroad crossings and proceeded to the second one. There was a dirt road kinda-sorta by the crossings, so we went down that for a bit. Richard thought the overgrown part of the road could possibly lead to the property, but no one wanted to find out for fear of running into a bear or encountering someone with a gun and a “Trespassers Will Be Shot” attitude if we happened to walk down the path. But I did get this picture of what Richard thought was the road:
The rest of Fairbanks took us to the University of Alaska at Fairbanks (a massive campus, by the way) to see their museum and Pioneer Park (formally known as Alaskaland) to see some old-timey Alaska things.
Chapter Two: Alaska By Rail
Taking a train trip sounds exciting, right? There’s something romantic about seeing the landscape on a train. They generally move slower and often travel through scenic territories that you can’t see by car or plane, and have dining cars! We took the Alaskan Railroad that travels from Fairbanks to Seward, but we stopped in Anchorage. It’s a 12-hour trip between Fairbanks and Anchorage, so when we booked the trip, we decided that First Class was the way to go. The First Class package came with reserved seats in a dome car, as much coffee, water, and soft drinks as you wanted, two alcoholic beverages, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. As you can imagine, First Class isn’t exactly cheap. But for $489 a person, you do get a comfortable ride with good accommodations and a belly that rarely gets hungry. The first quarter of the trip was through the “flat.”
Our stop at Denali Station was short, but we got to get out and stretch our legs a bit, snap some photos, and shoot a short video:
By the time we reached Anchorage, I think we had plenty of train time and were ready to settle for the night. We got to our Airbnb via rideshare, went to get groceries, and then bedded down for the night.
Chapter Three: Anchorage
Anchorage is the largest city in Alaska with a population in 2021 at 288,121. The state has a total population (as of 2021) of 732,673, with 32,702 living in Fairbanks, 5,719 in Homer, and 31,973 in Juneau. So, when you compare Anchorage with the other cities we visited, it’s massive. Of course, being from California, and living in a major metro area, a city of slightly over 288,000 is a bit like visiting Modesto in terms of its population. But Anchorage is quite nice. Yes, like any city with a population that high, you’re going to have “city problems.” Homelessness, crime, some rundown parts, and sprawl are all features of Anchorage. But all told, I rather liked it.
We visited a bird sanctuary (windy and rainy that day), but we only saw some birds…and it was really coming down at one point, so we got into our Chrysler Pacifica minivan (a pretty nice vehicle, by the way) and headed back to our rental home.
We went to Beluga Point to spot whales — but didn’t see any. We did get blown around, though:
Chapter Four: Homer
If you’re a music fan who loves ’90s-era pop/adult contemporary, then you’ll remember Jewel. Part of Jewel’s lore was that she grew up on a homestead in Homer, Alaska that had no running water. Well, like the homestead that Julie and Richard lived at for a time, you can venture out to the Kilcher place to see where Jewel lived, and you can sing some of her songs while walking around. The Homer leg of our tour was added by Richard — who has been to that part of Alaska for work but also went there as a boy on a camping trip. He really wanted us to see the place, so he sprang for plane tickets for all of us. We had really good weather for most of the day, so driving around and seeing the sites didn’t require an umbrella for the most part. There’s a part of Homer that has a working fishing port and a bunch of tourist traps on a section of town called “the spit.” Why it’s called a spit isn’t quite clear, but the World Atlas defines one as:
A spit is a coastal landform, a stretch of beach material that projects out to the sea. It is connected to the mainland at one end. A spit thus has two ends. The end jutting out onto the water is called the distal end, and the one attached to the land is called the proximal end.
We flew in around 10 a.m. got our rental car (a Toyota Corolla) and motored off to see the sites. The first stop was a Vista point that did not disappoint. It’s called Homer Baycrest Overlook Point and it has some wonderful views. Even found out that some of what we think are clouds on the horizon were actually volcanoes erupting in the sea. Homer is also the halibut fishing capital of the world — or so a sign says at the Baycrest Overlook Point.
Sure, fish is one thing, but the view from the Baycrest Overlook was pretty stunning. The entire landscape looked almost like a painting. I’m not a person who likes nature paintings, but I can totally see how people get inspired by where they are to capture it on a canvas. I supposed my lukewarm enthusiasm for classical painting is summed up in a song Lou Reed and John Cale wrote called “Trouble with Classicists” wherein Cale sings:
The trouble with a classicist he looks at a tree
That’s all he sees, he paints a tree
The trouble with a classicist he looks at the sky
He doesn’t ask why, he just paints a sky
Homer is quite lovely, and with a population of over 5,000 people, this is a place where if you wanted to get away from it all, you could. As I noted earlier, one of the more famous people who comes from Homer is the singer-songwriter Jewel. Unfortunately, when we decided to explore the “Greater Homer Area” we went the wrong way and completely missed Jewel’s family homestead — which is a shame because when our daughter Maya was a small child she was obsessed with Jewel and Sarah McLachlan. It would have been fun (in a social media post way) to recreate Maya’s love of Jewel in a place where Jewel lived part of her life. Alas, it was not to be. But, for the curious, here’s where the Kilcher family homestead is in relation to Homer.
While the pilgrimage to Jewel’s house was a bust, seeing an otter taking a nap was not. When venturing out to the spit, we were walking along a pedestrian/bike path near a fishing boat dock, and in the water was…something. Was it a log? Was it an otter? Well, there was a guy taking photos, but Julie and Maya ventured down to the beach to get a look. I followed shortly after to see what was what, and, well, it was a sleeping otter. I took a little video to capture the moment.
Flying out of Anchorage to Juneau was by far the most comfortable flight I’ve ever been on. Why is that? Well, because we flew first class. Except for when I was a baby, I don’t think I’ve ever flown first class before. I can see the appeal. You get on the plane first, your seats are wider, you have more legroom, and the flight attendant asks you (by name) what you would like to drink. I treated myself to a paper version of the New York Times (it was Sunday and, well, everyone knows that the Sunday paper is the one to get a physical copy of). The airport in Anchroage is named after the U.S. Senator, Ted Stevens. When I worked in radio, one of my on-air names was Ted Stevens (my mom suggested it after I was struggling with finding another name and she said “Why don’t you make your last the first name of your brother, Steve.” So, instead of Ted Steven, I made it Stevens.
And because it’s the Ted Stevens airport, there’s a bronze statue of Ted in the terminal — which, of course, I had to visit.
Waiting for planes is never exciting, but I gotta hand it to the Ted Stevens airport for putting things like the bronze statue of Ted in the terminal and for Alaska Airlines having a giant postcard-like backdrop to take photos.
Click here for part 2 of our adventure.
