June 21 - Summer Solstice

Today started off raining, so we all had a leisurely morning. It started to clear late in the morning, so we tried Creamer’s Field again, and spent a couple of hours walking the paths. We saw Sandhill Cranes, swallows and some juncos, heard a lot more birds, and fought off the mosquitoes that appeared the moment we stopped to look at the scenery or take pictures. Good thing we were well sprayed!


The next stop, still taking advantage of the sunshine, was the experimental farm on the University campus, which was bright with flowers of all types and some of those monster cabbages, which were still in their infancy.






Then it was mid-afternoon, we were hungry, and there was the Solstice Fair in the middle of Fairbanks, so we headed that way for some food on a stick. It was pretty much the standard street fair, but the food choices were plentiful, and what we had was very good, especially that monster cream puff with chocolate and about two cups of real whipped cream. Better than fried twinkies any day! We got the official solstice t-shirt, too.

One of the local mushers had some of his puppies at the fair to promote the Yukon Quest, which is a 1,000 mile race between Fairbanks and Whitehorse, much like the Iditirod. They were very cute, and you wouldn’t expect them to be so driven to run, based on their puppy behavior with the kids. Both this little girl and the little guy she was holding were pooped pups.

The Tookers went to see the midnight baseball game, but we decided to skip it. The game starts at 10:30 and hopefully ends around midnight. Sunset is at 12:48 and sunrise is 2:48. Then the nights start getting longer. Ha!