Chris Calhoon Real Estate

While visiting Alaska is a truly unmatched experience, hearing a perspective from one of the state's most highly regarded residents will shed a new light on various aspects of the area that you might have missed. Fortunately for tourists, that person is Mary Shields. The popular Alaskan Tails of the Trail with Mary Shields is an opportunity to share a personal home visit with this celebrated Alaskan musher and author. Her insights focus on her famous sled dogs, but Shields also is a splendid storyteller and her accounts of various events of Alaska's past are quite entertaining.

The World Ice Art Championships take place in Fairbanks every March. The competition is held over the course of eleven very dramatic and excitement-filled days. The event attracts the best ice sculptors in the world as they display their considerable talents in various competitive classes. Among the many categories, two of the most popular are abstract and realistic ice sculptures. The public is invited to watch the sculptures being created during the first two weeks in March and then to view the finished work during the last two weeks of the month. The festival is held at Ice Alaska's Ice Park which not only features the competition but also offers a kids' park with rides and other attractions.

Whoever says that history isn't dramatic has never set foot in the Pioneer Museum and The Big Stampede in Fairbanks. This is a truly unique venue that spotlights various aspects of life in what was once frontier Alaska. See where Sourdoughs carved their means of livelihood in unexpected places throughout the cold wilderness. In addition to seeing genuine tools and articles used to accomplish daily activities, there is also the Big Stampede Show that displays the dramas and victories of what life was like on the Gold Rush trails.