-----Our escapades in riding to the Arctic Circle had left us worn out, and so we slept in quite a bit. After getting up, we used what remained of the morning to do a much-needed couple loads of laundry and a small job of re-packing and re-organizing in the disoriented aftermath of preparing for yesterday.

-----By afternoon, we headed out on the town to find the University of Alaska Fairbanks, home of the Museum of the North. After asking an employee of the museum to direct us to where Denali might be seen and being told that it wasn't quite visible from their campus due to some unfortunately-placed hills, we went into the museum. It was very interesting and informative, with a lot of neat artifacts, but it was painfully obvious from several placards and exhibits that the information contained therein hadn't been touched since its opening in 1980. My dad re-created a picture he took next to a stuffed bear cub in the 1980s and my mom and I imitated several other masks and taxidermies.

-----Stretching our legs further took us outside once again to a dirt parking lot, as there are a great many wilderness trails that snake through the UAF campus. Yet while the trails traced a cobweb of paths, the signs that attempted their explication proved to not align with their actual paths. We were undeterred and sort of wandered off on some trails in the general direction of a lake that we knew was nestled somewhere in the deep woods.

-----The paths we trod took on several consistencies, from gravel to dirt to thin strip through the thick forest, but nowhere was the walking surface more distinct than on a section of heavily packed dirt and gravel. Walking on such sections made us bounce, and stepping on one section made the surrounding area jiggle upwards in the manner of jumping onto a water bed. The viscosity of the dispersion indicated—in our admittedly untrained observation—that water had pooled under the packed-down trail but above the permafrost. Had it been colder, it would have frozen and created a frost heave, but in nicer weather, it stayed liquid.

-----We worked our way down to the lake by following the trails and ... let's just say, fresh moose evidence. My dad absolutely loves moose and has been obsessed with finding one himself; apparently, the massive bull moose that jogged past our Toad River cabin was not sufficient satiation for his moose watching appetite. We worked our way past huge pits of muck where the trail had degenerated to mud, and eventually found our way to the lake which the map indicated had a bridge over it. There was no bridge and there were no moose, but it was a beautiful spot ... that is, until the wind died down, the sun came out, and the mosquitoes decided that we were a tasty snack.

-----We swatted and slapped our way over hill and dale, disc golf course and forested trail, back to the insect-free safety of the car, thereafter vowing to never again take a hike—regardless of how small it may be—without sufficient bug spray and our hiking boots.

-----The truly southern barbecue at Big Daddy's was too good to pass up on our final day in Fairbanks, and we got the same thing once again, save for a few different sides. Our waitress from last night was not serving us again, but she saw us and seemed happily surprised to see us back. The only thing different from last time was the fact that my dad and I were both hungry enough for dessert, which was in the form of a peanut butter cream pie, which was basically peanut butter mousse in an Oreo crust. The great thing about this mousse was that it was not a repeat of the frozen fiasco of Whitehorse, and none of us had to skewer it wholesale just to take a bite.

-----(Side note: our hotel is a bit of a mess. It's clean and the people are very nice, but nothing really works properly: the closet door jams open and interferes with coming into the room itself, the only way to really see in the bathroom is to turn on the heat lamp, the shower head is too big for the shower and the curtain is a few sizes too small, the phone refuses to call out, one of the sockets doesn't work and one that does had its facing pop off prior to our arrival, the refrigerator is encased in a warped chest of drawers without much in the way of air movement and opening said fridge means the entire fridge will come out unless you use your other hand to brace its body backwards, the Internet is exceedingly slow, the thermostat doesn't seem to have any effect over the climate control unit, the door isn't totally sealed and what is said in rooms is audible in the hall, and of the side doors into the building, one doesn't open properly and one doesn't lock properly.)

-----Tomorrow: Denali National Park.