Text 28193, 77 rader
Skriven 2012-08-14 10:31:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: Alaska 115
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Another Holiday Inn Express - looked about the same as
the other, with about the same view (a parking lot). Dumped
our stuff, showered, then it was off to the Midnight Sun
game, an annual solstice event. A few years ago, my baseball
hero Spaceman Lee pitched five here, earning a win and thus
becoming the oldest person ever to pitch in a game at
the professional level (if you can call this that).

The place was SRO packed; we found places with a busload of
8th and 9th graders from Michigan who were in Alaska on an
eco-awareness tour; these had adopted the Goldpanners as
their team and developed a number of cheers, of which one
shall forever remain in our hearts and ears.

Oo-sah-sah-sah. Oo-sah-sah-sah. Hit 'em in the head with
a big kielbasa. Oo-sah-sah-sah. Oo-sah-sah-sah. Hit 'em
in the head with a rock! Unh! Such bloodthirsty words
from such otherwise mild-mannered children.

The outcome became pretty certain in the first when the
visiting Everett Merchants scored a run that was
nullified after a long and mysterious pause followed by
some ineffective sqwawking by the manager. It was a slow
game, not exceptionally well played - unlikely to be any
future stars on either of this season's squads -, and
eventually it got kind of cold and dark. Half of us left
early, but well after the singing of the Alaska Flag Song
at midnight, with the game well in hand, the home team
ahead 4-2 (it eventually won 7-5).

Sleeping in is good. Blackout curtains are good. Breakfast
was okay, almost identical to that of Anchorage, but the
automatic pancake machine was out of order, and there was
rubber sausage instead of band-aid bacon.

We piled into the van at 10 for a tour of Fairbanks, the
main highlight of which was the university campus, with its
Signers' Hall (where the state constitution was enacted in
1959, now the business office and an information booth) and
the rather interesting Museum of the North, which boasts 
many works of Sydney Laurence as well as European and native
artists of the 19th century to the present. I particularly
enjoyed a shawl or wrap done with native designs and some
prints of wilderness scenes by Ansel Adams and followers.
An elaborate ceremonial necklace was nice as well, but I
wasn't so carried away by most of the art art. In the
natural history department is an eclectic, perhaps odd
agglomeration of old stuff, with an interesting display
about Blue Babe, the remains of a prehistoric ox found
somewhere in Alaska. I enjoyed the aurora show as well
(it seemed to have been made for PBS or someone similar,
quite a long time ago).

Our lunch destination was the Silver Gulch brewery outside
of town; this turned out to be closed until 4. Whistles
needing to be wet, near there is a spring with supposedly
the best water in that part of the state. Some of us
partook; I did not. A poll was taken regarding plan B for
lunch, and after tentative suggestions of Taco Time and the
Thai place it was agreed that we visit Big Daddy's, whose
BBQ was a decent deal and respectable enough.

Our part of the table ordered fatty brisket (I took the
fat and gave away the still sufficiently moist meat), 
burnt ends (a mix of real ends and leftovers, which seems
to be the standard these days), and sausage, which was
fine, though the skin was tough. Others got sundry oddities,
and there was plenty of passing around, so everyone tasted
what they wanted. Lots of beer, too, and I had a lager from
Silver Gulch that tantalized with what might have been.

We got to the airport not too early, which was fine as there
is not an enormous amount to do there.

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