For a majority of the Fairbanks community, it's the perfect time for art and crafts, and indeed I'm beginning to see a lot more advertisements for 'craft fairs' and 'showcase galleries'. The first item on my itenary today was to go to one of these galleries called the 'Bear Gallery', over in Pioneer Park. The park is experiencing a lot of construction work at present, as workers rush to get it all done before the snow arrives. I'm not sure what exactly they are doing; I had heard they were working on fixing a roof, but most of them were digging up the ground nearby, so I'm none the wiser.
There was a time that I thought the 'Bear Gallery' would hold a vast collection of paintings including a bear of some description, but the name of the room turned out to be unrelated to what was inside it. I was quite surprised as to the lack of art that was on display; the room might perhaps have been too large for the event, although the lady on the desk, Stephanie, told me that it was 'intake day' where people bring their works of art. It just so happened that the construction work taking place has had a negative impact on the gallery. Stephanie was a lovely lady, and was really helpful with regard to telling me about the winter curling championships that are taking place. She's even given me a phone number just in case I wanted to join the curling club! I'm not sure putting me on the team would be a tactical move!
My next stop off was the Fairbanks Community Musuem; I can't believe it's two weeks into my Fairbanks stay and I haven't visited it until today! It's actually bigger than you think, with quite a few rooms full of artefacts. The first room was dedicated to the theme: 'Winter in Fairbanks'. In it were lots of photos and old newspaper articles about historic winters in the city, and 101 things that one should do in the winter time, some of which are probably not appropiate or legal!
Down in the south, by Seward and Homer and even to some extent Girdwood, the 1964 earthquake was very much the centre of many of the musuems. That earthquake didn't have a large impact on the Fairbanks community, but the 1967 floods did. The Chena River was responsible for this event, which flooded most of the city quite extensively. Since 1981 though, the Chena has put in place a check dam-like those in San Francisco, which has protected the city from three other high discharge events.
One thing I did come across were two aerial photographs showing the urbanisation taken place. The top photo shows Fairbanks in the 1940s. I don't know how clear the photo has turned out, but if you look carefully, one can spot evidence of typical 1940s suburbinisation, and the 'ribbon developments' occuring. Ribbon Developments, basically, are where houses grow out of the town along main roads. Those studying the Burgess Model might also recognise other features in these two aerial photographs.
From the musuem, I made my way to the university to go to the 'event of the day'. Meeting Jessica Cox. Jessica is an inspiration. Born without arms, she has learnt to do all the mundane day to day tasks like opening soda cans and typing, with her feet. Amongst that, she has learnt to drive a car without in built modifications, scuba diving, skydiving, martial arts, and she is in the Guiness World Records for being the first person ever the fly a plane with her feet. Nowadays, she goes around the world giving motivational talks, and her one tonight was extremely motivational.
At the end, I got the opportunity to speak to her personally, and she even signed a poster for me, in her own 'unique' way.
Returning back to the hostel, I remembered that I had forgotten to stop by for dinner, but the lovely Sarah and Bill were on the case, sharing some of their moose and mushroom stew, and if that wasn't enough, they even offered me some of their real strawberry icecream. Given my limited cooking skills, I wouldn't say "no" to another night like this!
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