Making the most of six hours of sunlight

I posted this on the Michigan Daily blog. I will enhance this to make it more Hearyoni (as an adjective), but it should suffice for now.

We awoke this morning at the crack of dawn (about 9:30 AKST). With just six hours of daylight to work with, we didn't want to squander a minute of it.

Having not quite adjusted to the new time zone, we all had a craving for lunch before venturing to the University of Alaska campus and Museum of the North (and the outside chance of mushing). We walked a few blocks from our hotel to the heart of downtown Fairbanks and found lunch at a charming restaurant across the street from the eskimo statue featured in last night's post.

It gave us our first opportunity to see the Fairbanks "metropolis." We passed by two ammunition stores and five antique stores in the six-block walk to the restuarant. We ate at The Fudge Pot (soups, sandwiches, and midday Seinfeld for everybody). We all left The Fudge Pot satisfied and excited about a trip to the University of Alaska's Museum of the North and campus.

We hoppede on a shuttle up to campus, which is about 15 minutes away from downtown. The museum is situatied on the top of a hill in an interestingly shaped building. The museum traces the history of Alaska from the days of wooly mammoths through the pipeline.

Now, I don't want to bore you with too much information. So, I will highlight a few of the intersting facts we learned:

• Alaska became the 49th state in 1959 by a Senate vote of 64-20. The official 49-star flag is on display in the Alaska State Museum.
• There is a movement among some Alaskans to build a bridge from across the Bering Strait from Alaska to Russia (similar to the land bridge that once existed, but without the land)
• During World War II, the western Alaska settlement of Dutch Harbor was evacuated.
• A 1967 flood wreaked havoc on the city of Fairbanks and caused $200 million in damage.
• The 800-mile long oil pipeline from the North Slope to Valdez cost $8 billion and is the second largest privately funded project.
• On average, the Aurora Borealis is visible 243 days a year in Fairbanks (hopefully, we are here for one of those)
• The shortest day on the Fairbanks calendar is just 3 hours and 42 minutes long. The longest day is nearly 21 hours long.

After the museum, we toured the campus. It's a nice campus for a university just 60 miles from the Arctic Circle. At its core, the buildings are close together, and an effective bus system serves the outlying buildings.

We have now returned to the hotel and are preparing to leave for the Michigan-Alaska hockey game at the Carlson Center. It starts at 11:05 EST and can be seen on ESPNU.