Riverboat Tour in Fairbanks

We took a 3 hour tour down the Tanana River on the riverboat Discovery. Along the way we saw a demonstration of a float plane taking off and landing near us in the river; toured a replica of an Athabascan native village and visited the home and kennels of Susan Butcher.

Susan Butcher won the Iditarod sled dog race four times with her favorite dog, Granite. She died of leukemia in 2006 but her husband and two daughters continue to run the kennels and enter races. I bought Samantha and Emily a book about Granite and her daughter autographed it. Their school mascot is a Husky so I figured they could donate it to the school library when they outgrow it. We heard about how they train the dogs and then they gave us a demonstration using a special ATV instead of a snow sled. They get so excited to run and when they were done they ran to the river as soon as they were unharnessed!

Native Indian employees talked about their heritage at the Athabascan village. This winter coat is made of multiple types of animal pelts - beautiful and warm!