Alaska

 We made it safely to Alaska.  Little snafu with hotel but figured it out. Very long day of travel. Have not seen darkness (night) since we arrived. Headed to Denali today where wifi is not as good so posting now.

Photos loaded backwards. So yesterday we did a riverboat tour in the afternoon. A stop at a simulated vilage was interesting to learn how the people lived here before the first interaction with the outside world in the 1800s.

Caribou.... which are reindeer.  Did not realize that.

The morning we went to pan gold!

Emily got the most in her sack of soil of the four of us. $35. She had the gold put into a bracelet. I had my $15 put into a little necklace container. Little gold bits.

There was a train ride to the mining area.

Panning for gold.

After some sleep the first day we went to the university of Alaska fairbanks to see the museum.  They had a new planitarium so we saw the aurora show. Lots of info about the wildlife and people. A nice art gallery and a neat sound room. 

This is mt. Rainier taken from the airplane near Seattle.