Thanks to everyone for the messages I’ve gotten already! We had a long day, and it was nice to be able to check my email and read comments. I was also glad to be able to see a few people at breakfast yesterday before we left, even if my parents and I were late (not my fault).

I wanted to write last night after our long day of flights, but all I managed was a couple phone calls. Turns out my cell phone still worked in Fairbanks, but there was no wireless internet in our hotel. After a fairly empty airport, slightly late flight out of Grand Rapids, and a healthy trot through the Minneapolis airport (just in time to discover that we were not going to miss the flight… this plane was delayed, too), we arrived in Fairbanks in time to watch the takeoff of our flight to Barrow as we stood in the back of the plane and waited for everybody to get off already!

Since we were late (not our fault), Northwest paid to put us up in Fairbanks for the night. They kind of overkilled it, too, as each of the five of us got our own room with two double beds….. and $20 in airport vouchers (which we easily blew at the gift shop this morning).

It turned out to be nice to see Fairbanks. My professor (Bob) estimates that we saw the whole thing- in less than three hours, counting dinner. Jeremy recommended that we all “get our fill of trees… and pavement” while we had the chance.The weather was great, so we walked (on the pavement) to the restaurant. Jean and I literally had to run to keep up with Bob as we were led past GOTTSCHALK, Lingerie: Linens and Lace, Curves for Women, the creepy Fairview Motel, the library, the Fairbanks Lutheran Church, (small purple house named) La Casa Sally, a new Marriott, and ten Alaskan-themed banks to Bid Daddy’s BBQ: The Northern Most Southern BBQ!

Our cab driver (his dashboard fully equipped with a Bible, a pair of binoculars, and pink garden gloves) had reccommended Big Daddy’s, so we decided… why not? It was decorated by a fan of Chicago sports teams, but beside the White Sox banner were the obligatory Paintings of Pigs Wearing Bibs.

The restaurant sported live music, and I was debating whether or not the old couple who quite cheerfully and shamelessly took over the dance floor were regulars or out-of-towners, until I noticed “the famous” Jimmy-John (Jimmy-James? Johnny-James?) (on the harmonica) give them a prolonged weird look. (Not the same as the Look Disease.) They were from south-eastern Arizona, it turned out, and they loved to dance!… regardless of tune or musical genre.

Our Fairbanks quarters were the Captain Bartlett Inn. It was cute in a log-cabiny-and-totem-poley sort of way, though I had a hard time believing that all the signs were carved from wood out of necessity, since the inn also had a working elevator and the same ugly hotel wallpaper and carpet as everywhere else.

This morning we were up at 4:30 to catch the next plane to Barrow, and here I am. Here Jean and I are sharing a room, and we are so plumb tuckered out that we don’t even care that we haven’t had a chance to track down aluminum foil to cover the window.

Breakfast at eight! Tomorrow we might even get to go grocery shopping.