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With about 80,000 people, Fairbanks is Alaska's second largest city. Although it is only about 120 miles from the Arctic circle, it can get warm in the summer. One local said it has gotten to 100 degrees in the summer and to -60 in the winter, although neither of those numbers are typical. It was about 45 when we got up. I'm not sure it ever really got dark. We had breakfast on their deck overlooking the Chena River, and then it was time to go. So we didn't get to see much of Fairbanks.
We took a bus to the train station and boarded the Midnight Sun Express, Princess' Ultra Dome rail car.
This is a private luxury rail car with seating on the upper level and a dining room on the lower level. It had huge windows as well as a glass domed roof, so the viewing area was excellent.
The train didn't go very fast, averaging about 35 mph. The scenery was beautiful, even though it started drizzling towards the end. Here's a shot of the front of the train as it went around a curve.
We rode for about four hours before reaching the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge.
We found our building,
grabbed some pizza for lunch, and then looked through some of the gift shops across the street. We got a good deal on some fleece sweatshirts that came in handy for the rest of the trip. For dinner, we went to the 'Music of Denali' dinner theater. The food was served family style at long tables, and the show was about the first expedition to successfully climb Mount McKinley.
