17 June 2008

Hi All: Had another rainy day today. Woke up to rain and it rained lightly ALL day. We were lazy till about 1315 when we left to go on our traun trip to the gold mine. Got there in good shape in Bob's VW convertable. (Kept the top up this time). They had a special train trip today due to so many wanting to go I think. The little train pulled several cars of about 50 people each so there was a bunch of us going on the trip. It was a super outing. The showed us how they panned for gold the old way, then how they do it the modern way.. They even dumped a bunch of dirt in the slouce and let a lot of water go and do it's thing, then they panned for gold and found real gold right in front of us. They had school kids that worked there do the panning and showed us all how to do it and we saw the gold appear. Then we went to the "Panning" area and they gave each one of us a little bag of dirt which we dumped in our gold panning pan, and sat at a water hole and panned the dirt out of the pan, and belive it or not we had gold there. If each person didn't get at least 8 little pieces of gold they got a new bag of dirt. Amy got about $12.00 worth of gold in her pan, and I got about $9.00 worth I think it was. We took it in the building and they weighed it and told us how much we had. Amy took all of it and had it put inside a little necklace thing. That cost $80, so we didn't get enough gold it seems. So now Amy has all our gold hanging from her neck. Looks good too...

We then went to WalMart of all places as the gals wanted to do some more shopping there. WE found some of the stuff we bought at the tourists places for half the price we paid. From now on when we get to a town up here we will go to WalMart first and get the stuff cheaper...

The rain was fairly kind to us all day. When we were outside it was just a light drizzle at most. Had a great time at the Eldorado Mine..

Came back to the campground and we had talked about going on a bus trip to the Artic Circle, so Bob and I went to the office to see if we could get tickets for the trip. Wanted them for Thursday, but that day was full, so we have to stay another day. All seem to be happy to stay another day. Know Amy and I are, as there is a lot to see here, and the trip to the Artic Circle looks like a great day.. It's a whole day up to it and back. At least a 8 hour trip. We have decided to take our own lunch, as the gal in the office told us that they will give you a sack lunch of one sandwich, a bag of potato chips and a drink for $10 each. Think the gals can do better than that. Any way we are now here till Saturday Morning. (Unless we find something else we want to do.

Tomorrow is a museum, and the "Ice Hotel" here somewhere. I've seen it on the History Channel some time ago. It's set up in the permafrost part of Alaska. Sounds like a good day.

Bob and Dorene said they want to take us out tomorrow for dinner, as it is our 53 wedding annivarsary. We wanted to take them out for our annivarsary. It's super that they want to do that for us. We'll have to find some place to go now. Maybe Wendy's, or Burger King?? hee hee.

Brenda wrote that we never smile in our photo's I attach to the blog's. "I AM SMILING" Don't know why she don't notice it. HEE HEE>

WE are having a super time, and we are glad you all enjoy the blog. Hope some of you are checking out Bob and Dorene's blog too. He does a super job on his...Check it out at: http://www.bodoofftoalaska.blogspot.com/ Know they would enjoy and comments you have about the blogs...We are having a great time together..

Semper Fi.

Don, Amy & Pharaoh