Adventure Everyday with the Mize Family: Tourist traps in Fairbanks

While in Fairbanks we got sucked into some tourist traps. The first one was Pioneer Park. This was once called Alaska Land. You could spend all day here just walking around. Our kids loved the cool play ground. I enjoyed the train ride around the park. I guess they wanted this park to be like Disney Land up here in Alaska. Let's compare the attractions, shall we......

Antler house, I guess this could compare to Mickey's house at Disney Land.

Instead of Mickey Mouse, they have Mickey Moose. They both have heads with big appendages sticking out.

They both have a train ride around the park.

Disney Land has a boat ride, Alaska has a boat on dry land, but you can walk around inside and touch all the gears!

Alaska has this round building, Disney has the carousel of progress building which is round.

Alaska has a Native Village, Disney has Main Street USA.

Alaska has an Epcot building just like Disney World. Disney's is a little bigger.

Buildings lining the street, just like Main Street USA.

Disney doesn't have a a gold nugget!OOOOOOOO

Disney doesn't like gold, they like green all the way.

Oh, look.... it's an Eskimo with his sled dog. Disney doesn't have Eskimos!

What is that??? I have no comparisons with this one! Monkeys?? Maybe?? You might find this creature at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

This is an old Alaska train that you can walk through.

This is the potty on the train. Disney Land has potties too.

Pioneer Park once called Alaska Land- admission Free

Disney Land - admission $100.00 a day per-person

Free is always better.

Look they have a duck just like Donald Duck at Disney Land.

For Alaskans to travel to Disney Land would cost a pretty penny, so they have made their very own version that is free. Can't beat the price!! Let's all go to Alaska Land,oops I mean Pioneer Park!

(I liked Alaska Land better, but I'm just a tourist what do I know)

This is an old steam shovel. We liked this because we liked the book, Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel. Great kids book!

Bryson choose to ride the Salmon at his own risk.

Inside the steam boat in the engine room.

This park has planes and a plane museum.

Heston in a seal parka. The Native Alaskans would use every part of the animal that they harvested. They would use the intestines to make rain Parkas. Since this part of the seal was water proof it would make the best waterproof rain coat.

Here Bryson holds a rolled up intestines.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our next tourist trap was the 40 below room. We paid to go inside a room that had a temp that was 40 degrees below zero. In Fairbanks during the winter 40 below is the temp that people have to live in. After being in the room for about 5 minutes we decided that we are not cold weather people. My finger tips got numb trying to take pictures and Johnnys legs(in shorts) started to tingle.

We are so happy that they gave us these coats to wear. The weather in Fairbanks on this day was up in the 80's, so we all were in short sleeve and shorts. We learned that Fairbanks is the warmest town in summer but can be the coldest in the winter. We met a lady who has seen it at 70 below. Yikes! And people wonder why everyone up here wears fur! It's just too cold to wear fake stuff. The fur keeps animals from freezing so it's the best protection against temps like 40 below for people too!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next tourist trap, The North Pole in Alaska. This city states that they are the real North Pole. So the town is decorated as for it's name. The street lamps are candy canes. The McDonald's sign is on a candy cane. There is red, green and white everywhere. They houses stay decorated all year round.