Midnight Sun

Last night we stayed until the eighth inning of the Midnight Sun Game. It was a bit lopsided as the Anchorage Glacier Pilots played much better than the Fairbanks Goldpanners. Given that they are a summer college league, they didn’t have much schtick between innings. The big highlight was the seventh inning stretch. The program said they do a midnight stretch rather than a seventh inning stretch, though the middle of the seventh inning was around midnight so it wound up being the same thing. And instead of Take Me Out To The Ballgame, they did two other songs. First, the Goldpanners mascot led a chorus of “Happy Boy” by the Beat Farmers. Then the Sweet Carolines - a group of little old ladies - sang the Alaska Flag song, the state song of Alaska. We got a photo with the mascot as we were leaving the stadium.

In addition to the baseball game, Fairbanks holds a festival on the Saturday closest to the solstice. Lucky for us, the solstice was on a Friday, so we had the opportunity to check out the festival events.

First, we went to the Midnight Sun Festival, a street fair in downtown Fairbanks. The street fair was one day only - Saturday. It was very busy. There was a combination of normal street fair vendors and some with a very Alaskan vibe. Beard care, women’s stun guns, hunting knives. Amy had a reindeer hot dog for lunch. Greg opted for a mixed berry shake.

Then, we both decided to do the Midnight Sun Run 10K. The race starts at 10pm and attracts about 3500 participants. Unfortunately, the air quality is marginal from forest fires but Greg decided to try it anyway. Amy had to bail because of the smoke.

Apologies to our neighbors in the RV campground for returning in our diesel motorhome around midnight for two nights in a row…