Day 07 - 08/26/25 - Dawson City, YT To Fairbanks, AK

 


Our time in the Yukon finally came to an end this morning. We had to have our bags outside the room by 6:30AM. Then we had to line up at the airline ticket desk in the breezeway at the hotel at 7 AM. I was first in line and so it went really fast for me and I returned to the room where we snacked on the food that we had purchased the night before. around 8:15am we boarded our bus and Judy took us out to the airport. At the airport, we were loaded on to a charter Air North 737–700 airplane. But first we had to go through a detailed security screening without the use of scanners. Our bodies were wanded and our luggage carry-on was searched by hand. Fortunately, this year it went smoother than last year so we were able to get on the plane and our tour guide had assigned us the front half of the plane so we were in around the 3rd or 4th row. Air North flies a fleet of 737's. They are long in the tooth to say the least. The one we were flying on was 32 years old. It was a nice clear morning and we promptly took off around nine for the one hour flight into Fairbanks. 








What's interesting in flying across the northern part of Yukon territory in Alaska is it looks like a barren desert. We had a nice smooth landing in Fairbanks and we were greeted by customs and border patrol where we passed through the checkpoint to re-enter the United States. After we gathered our luggage and Dave our bus driver shuttled us to the Westmark hotel in Fairbanks where we have stayed before. The rest of the day we were on our own so we elected to walk out to Costco which is about a half hour away. We enjoyed a Costco dog for lunch and did a little shopping. I also got my hearing aids cleaned for free there and purchased a pair of traveling pants. Along the way we also were able to do some shopping at a favorite antique store called the Blue Door on Illinois Street. We didn't purchase anything, but they have lots of neat stuff. Our walk back was a little bit shorter and we returned to the hotel for a brief rest.


There's a nearby little grocery store and we purchased a turkey burrito to use as our breakfast the following morning. For dinner, we walked up to the Thai House which is a restaurant that we have eaten at before and it's very good Thai food. After dinner, we walked back to the hotel, finished re-packing our suitcases, and prepared for bed as we have an early departure the next morning.



It was nice to have a rest day in Fairbanks because we've been there so many times we didn't really have to strive to accomplish anything. However, we did give some thought to renting a car and driving out to the Arctic Circle, but decided not to because of the logistics. 


Tomorrow morning, we have an excursion before driving down in the motorcoach to Denali and enjoying the national park.


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